Human Research

Summary

Highly accomplished and dedicated researcher with seven years of intensive hands-on translational research experience.

Currently working at NICHD, National Institutes of Health Bethesda MD USA, as a research fellow,studying regulation of endocrine and neuroendocrine systems in stress and cancer. Developing prognostic biomarker and deciphering mechanism of metastasis.

Close to 7 years of enriching research experience in academic environment and 2 years productive experience in industry. Found a new prognostic biomarker for metastasis with highest order of regulation.

Very fluent with the molecular, cell biology and behavioral techniques with excellent command on biostatistics analysis.

Enthusiastic, flexible and a good team player and a proven leader. Have the attitude to constantly strive to mould to the dynamic requirements of the competitive workplace with innovative thinking.

Employment History

Employer/From – To Roles & Responsibilities

NICHD, National Institutes of Health Bethesda MD

Post Doctoral Fellow

January 2008 - till date

• Discovered a new protein called CPE-ΔN, which is alternatively spliced N-terminal truncated protein of the carboxypeptidase E gene (CPE) in human tumors that drives metastasis.

• Designed, optimized and performed in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate the role of CPE-ΔN in various cancer cell lines and immune deficient mice.

• Performed gene expression and silencing assays to identify genes regulated by CPE-ΔN.

• Production of CPE-ΔN and CPE expressing stable cell lines.

• Designed, optimized and performed in vivo experiments of stress paradigms in mouse models.

• Designed, optimized and performed in vitro experiments to investigate the role of microRNA hsa-mir-34a in various cancer cell lines.

• Identified, designed, optimized and performed in vitro experiments to investigate the role of CPE genetic mutants.

• Developed new assays to establish CPE-ΔN as a prognostic biomarker for metastasis following strict guidelines called REMARKS (Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using 180 patient samples and pheochromocytomas/paragangliomas (PHEOs/PGLs) 40 patient samples.

• Assisted with purchasing and management lab equipment and instruments.

• Designing and optimizing methods for commercial development of CPE-ΔN biomarker for metastasis.

• Mentored several postdocs, pre-medical and graduate students.

• Reviewed several manuscripts for peer reviewed journals

• Wrote manuscripts

• Wrote protocol for animal experiments and grants for postdoctoral fellowships and SOPs

• Collaborated with several research labs.

• Filed patent applications for biomarker assay.

• Collaborated with the international labs.

Max Planck Institute for experimental Medicine. Goettingen, Germany.

PhD researcher

Sep 2004 to Dec 2007

• Discovered, designed, optimized and performed in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate the role of Small conductance calcium activated potassium channel 2 (SK2) alternatively spliced isoform in mouse and humans.

• Designed, optimized and performed in vivo experiments of stress paradigms in mouse models.

• Cloned several splice variants of SK2 channel) and characterized them.

• Analyzed SK2 splice variants in Alzheimer’s disease patients brain tissues.

• Analyzed neuroexcitotoxicity experiments for splice variants.

• Mentored graduate students.

• Reviewed several manuscripts for peer reviewed journals

• Wrote manuscripts

• Collaborated with the international labs.

Institute of Bioinformatics Bangalore India.

Research Scientist

Aug 2002 to Aug 2004

• Comprehensive analysis of the human X chromosome:Finding Novel Genes, Novel Pseudogenes and splice variants.

• Annotated more than 150 proteins for Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD)

• Planned Domain Architecture annotated post-translational modifications, interaction networks and disease association.

Techniques • PCR techniques, cloning, viral infections, Stable cell line prep, ELISA, mammalian cell culture, primary cell culture, 2D culture, microRNA analysis, in situ hybridization, northern blotting, FISH, in vitro diagnosis, gene expression microarrays, gene silencing, Co-IP, protein expression, protein localization, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, IHC, Luciferase assay, promoter analysis. Stress paradigms, Fear conditioning paradigms, learning and memory paradigms,cannulation surgery, in vivo studies in immune deficient mice. Fluorescent and confocal microscopy.

Publications

• Cawley, NX, Wetsel, WC. Murthy, SR, Park, JJ. Pacak, K and Loh, YP. (2012) New Roles of Carboxypeptidase E in Endocrine and Neural Function and Cancer. Endocrine Reviews. 2012 Mar 7.

• Murthy SR§, Lee TK§, Cawley NX, Dhanvantari S, Hewitt SM, Lou H, Lau T, Ma S, Huynh T, Wesley R, Ng IO, Pacak K, Poon RT and Loh YP. An N-terminal truncated carboxypeptidase E splice isoform induces tumor growth and is a biomarker for predicting future metastasis in human cancers.. J Clin Invest. 2011 Feb 1. pii: 40433.

• Murthy SR, Pacak K and Loh YP. Carboxypeptidase E: Elevated expression correlated with tumor growth and metastasis in pheochromocytomas and other cancers. Cellular and molecular neurobiology. 2010 Nov 9.

• Murthy SR, Teodorescu G, Nijholt IM, Dolga AM, Grissmer S, Spiess J, Blank T. Identification and characterization of a novel, shorter isoform of the small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel SK2. J Neurochem. 2008 Sep;106(6):2312-21.

• Murthy, SR, Thouennon, E., Li, W-S, Cheng Y., Bhupatkar, J and Loh,YP.(2011) Glucocorticoid-induced neuroprotection of hippocampal neurons in stressed mice is mediated by carboxypeptidase E. J Neuroscience (under revision)

• Murthy SR§, Nijholt I§, Schnitzbauer U, Dolga AM, Todorovic C, Sherrin T, Kye MJ, Sabatier JM, Knaus HG, Spiess J, and Blank T. Small-Conductance Ca2+-activated Potassium Type 2 Channels Regulate the Formation of Contextual Fear Memory. J Neuroscience (In preparation)

• Murthy SR : Characterization of Small Conductance Ca2+-activated K+ Channel 2 Isoforms in Mouse Brain. Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktortitels, angenommen von: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Molecular Biology & Neurosciences Program, 2007-11-01 (PhD thesis publication)

• Sherrin T, Blank T, Saravana R*, Rayner M, Spiess J, Todorovic C. Region specific gene expression profile in mouse brain after chronic corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 activation: the novel role for diazepam binding inhibitor in contextual fear conditioning. Neuroscience. 2009 Aug 4; 162(1):14-22.

• Gandhi, T.K.B., Chandran, S., Peri, S., Saravana, R*., Amanchy, R., Prasad, T.S.K and Pandey, A. A bioinformatics analysis of protein tyrosine phosphatases in humans. DNA Research. 12, 79-89 (2005).

• Harsha H. C., Saravana R* (19th author out of 33).,. Manually Curated Functional Annotation of the Human X Chromosome. Nature Genetics. 37, 331-332 (2005).

• Peri, S., Saravana R* (27th author out of 38).,. A. Human Protein Reference Database as a Discovery Resource for Proteomics. Nucleic Acids Research. 32, 497-501(2004).

• Peri, S., Saravana R* (27th author out of 53).,. Development of Human Protein Reference Database as an initial platform for approaching systems biology in humans. Genome Research. 13, 2363-2371(2003).

• § Contributed equally to the work; * Saravana. R= Murthy SR

Technology

Software, Tools & Languages

• Statistical Packages - MS-EXCEL, SPSS, GraphPad and JMP.

• Bioinformatics tools – Genomic and proteomic tools

• Database - Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD)

• Language – PERL, Javascript

• Operating Systems - Mac, Windows Family (Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint).

• Multimedia – Adobe Photoshop CS5, Flash CS5, Illustrator CS5

Education

• Ph.D. in Natural sciences (2004-2007) Georg August University and Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine,Goettingen, Germany

• Master of Science in Microbiology (2000- 2002), Bangalore University, India.

• Bachelor of Science in Microbiology (1997 – 2000), Bangalore University, India.

Achievements and Trainings • 2004-2007 Max Planck Institute PhD fellowship.

• 2008 Gordon conference young investigator award and invited talk on hot topics.

• 2009 15th International Symposium on Chromaffin Cell Biology travel fellowship award

• 2009 NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE 2010).

• 2011 NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE 2012).

• INNOVATE program for entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins Carey school of Business

Date of Birth

Residential status

Languages

October 02, 1977

US Green card holder.

English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam.

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