SAHASRANSU MAHAPATRA, PH.D

412-***-**** acuvuo@r.postjobfree.com San Diego, CA

Waiting for Green Card

EAD approved

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY SCIENTIST BIOCHEMISTRY PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENTIST

Professional Research Scientist with over 10 years of direct research and lab experience in cellular and

molecular biology. Specializing in protein biochemistry and chromatin biology. History of next generation

sequencing, handling mammalian cell lines, T-cells, retroviral and lentiviral transduction, flow cytometry,

transcriptomics, chromosome conformation capture, ChIA PET technology, next generation sequencing,

complex protein purifications, protein chromatography, and chemical modulators screening. Able to

prioritize many projects at once and work well with in guided teams. Earned Ph.D in Biochemistry and

Epigenetic, Masters of Science (MS) in Botany; featured in four scientific peer reviewed publications and

awarded multiple Research Fellowships; basic understanding of Intellectual Property and Patent Law.

Next generation sequencing Protein chromatography

Genomics Chemical modulators screening

ChIP and RNA sequencing Mammalian cell lines

Transcriptomics Primary T cells

Chromosome conformation promoter interaction Retroviral and lentiviral transduction

(3C) Multi-color Flow cytometry analysis

ChIA PET method Immunocytochemistry

Protein biochemistry NGS data analysis

Multi-subunit protein complex purifications Software: Python, Excel, Prism

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Vijayanand Pandurangan

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA, USA December 2015-Present

Involved in a project to profile various histone modification marks genome wide as part of Human

Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) such as H3K27Ac, H3K4me1

Characterizing conditions for ChIPseq for low cell numbers input for more than 100 healthy individuals

Postdoctoral Fellow, Prof. Anjana Rao

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA, USA March 2010 December 2015

Worked with naturally occurring as well as induced regulatory T cells in mouse to understand genome-

wide distribution of Foxp3 and its role in determining lineage specificity.

Performed ChIPseq and RNAseq to analyze genome wide role of transcription factors expressed in

regulatory T cells.

Successfully carried out low resolution Chromosome Conformation Capture (3C) on one of the

transcription factor gene locus to determine the relative crosslinking of promoter with the distal regions.

Successfully developed a method called ChIAPET (Chromatin Interactions Analyses by Paired End Tag

Sequencing) followed by next generation sequencing to understand the role of enhancers and other

genomic regions mediated by Foxp3 in regulatory T cells.

Successfully purified human as well as mouse TET1, TET2 and TET3 proteins from baculovirus

expressing insect cell system with high specific activities

Successfully purified NgTET1 using Ionexchange, gelfiltration and affinity purification chromatography.

Familiarity with AKTA and Biorad purification system

Successfully developed platform for small molecule libraries screening for TET1 using ELISA based

method resulting into part of 2 publications in Nature.

Characterized specific activity of recombinant purified TET proteins with various combinations of methyl

cytosines (CpG) containing DNA templates

Preliminary validation of the ELISA based method using LOPAC screen.

Integrate ALPHA screen method for TET1 screening for small molecule libraries

Isolate metabolites for identification by LC/MS using organic solvent purification method in macrophage

cancer cell line THP1.

Extensive experience in molecular biology techniques such as cloning, lentiviral and retroviral

packaging, stable cell line generation, primary T cells isolation and culture from mouse, transfection,

transduction, overexpression of protein in mouse primary CD4 cells, immune staining, FACS, Neon

transfection

Basic programming knowledge in Python and R, and pyMOL software.

Document all work in laboratory notebook, study reports, summary reports, and presentations.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Jyotsna Dhawan

Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India April 2009 March 2010

Trained and oversaw 2 research technicians in hands-on molecular biology techniques.

Taught radioactive labeling for EMSA, ChIP, PolIII and histone octamer reconstitution.

Lead organization responsible for conducting the ADNAT symposium in 2009; an annual event featuring

workshops and guest speakers from various fields in Biology.

Graduate Research Assistant, Dr. Purnima Bhargava

Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India Aug 2002 April 2009

Discovered the involvement of the chromatin elongation factor FACT in the transcriptional regulation of a

Pol III transcribed gene.

Performed multi-protein complex purification of endogenous as well as over-expressed proteins in

bacteria (E.coli), yeast (P.pastoris), insect cells (Sf9), mammalian cell lines (HeLa and HEK cell lines).

Purified chromatin-remodeling complexes such as Histone Acetyl Transferases (HATs), Histone

Deacetylases (HDACs) and RNA polymerase III.

Successfully purified recombinant histones as well as native histone from Drosophila and reconstituted

chromatin using purified chromatin associated factors including FACT complex, ISWI, NAP1 and Acf1.

Characterized chromatin by DNase I and MNase digestion.

Performed DNA-protein interaction by foot printing and modified southern blotting methods

Established an in vitro system to understand the role of chromatin and other transcription factors in the

expression Pol III transcribed genes

Co-immunoprecipitation of FACT complex with over-expressed as well as endogenous H2A.Z-H2B

histone complex

Overexpression, purification and reconstitution of histone octamer from yeast

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

Yeast H2A.Z, FACT complex and RSC regulate transcription of tRNA gene through differential dynamics of

flanking nucleosomes. Mahapatra S, Dewari PS, Bhardwaj A, Bhargava P.; Nucleic Acids Research. 2011 May;

39(10): 4023-34. Link

Genome-wide mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in embryonic stem cells. Pastor WA, Pape UJ, Huang Y,

Henderson HR, Lister R, Ko M, McLoughlin EM, Brudno Y, Mahapatra S, Kapranov P, Tahiliani M, Daley GQ, Liu XS,

Ecker JR, Milos PM, Agarwal S, Rao A. Nature. 2011 May 19; 473(7347): 394-7. Link

Vitamin C induces Tet dependent DNA demethylation and blastocyst like state in ES cells. Blaschke K, Ebata

KT, Karimi MM, Zepeda-Martinez JA, Goyal P, Mahapatra S, Tam A, Laird DJ, Hirst M, Rao A, Lorincz MC, Ramalho-

Santos M.; Nature. 2013 Aug 8: 500 (7461): 222-6. Link

STIM1 triggers a gating rearrangement at the extracellular mouth of the ORAI1 channel. Gudlur A, Quintana A,

Zhou Y, Hirve N, Mahapatra S, Hogan P.; Nature Commun.2014 Oct 9; 5:5164. Link

Genomic landscape of NFAT1 and Foxp3 associated chromatin in CD4 T-cells. Mahapatra S, Gonsalves E,

Gudlur A, Hogan P, Rao A (manuscript submitted)

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Biochemistry and Epigenetic

Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India

Masters of Science (MS), Botany (with honors)

Berhampur University, Orissa, India

AWARDS

Senior Research Fellowship, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India, Aug 2004-July 2007

Junior Research Fellowship, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India, Aug 2002-July 2004

Junior Research Fellowship, Indian Council of Medical Research

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

Completed Intellectual Property Law courses at UCSD; gained deeper understanding of Patent and IP Laws

and how to implement it in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

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