Research/ Lab Assistant / Associate / Technician

Objective:

To learn, comprehend and implement the nuances of biological techniques as a researcher in a symbiotic environment. Develop as a person and professional in a dynamic and competitive institution and thereby enhance my career opportunities.

Summary:

Wet lab skills:

● Molecular Biology: PCR, Ligation and Transformation into PCRscript cam Vector, Restriction enzyme digestion, Preparation of growth media for C. elegans, Growth and maintenance of wild type and mutant C. elegans, cleaning contaminated C. elegans stocks

● Cell Biology- Maintenance of PC3 cell lines, cell counting, growth curve plotting, transfection MTS assay, maintenance of skeletal muscle cells

● Biochemistry: Bradford assay, BCA protein Assay, SDS PAGE, Western blot

● Immunology: ELISA

● Microbiology- Preparation of culture media, plating, streaking

Dry lab skills:

● Bioinformatics Sequence Analysis tools: BLAST, Clustal Packages, BioEdit

● Visualization tool: Swiss PDB viewer, Rasmol, PyMol, Discovery Studio Visualizer

● Protein structure prediction tool: Modeller

● Docking tool: Autodock

● Simulation: GROMACS

● Programming languages: Basics of C and JAVA

Instrumentation: Light Microscopy, pH meter, Ultra centrifuge, Autoclave, pH meter, Spectrophotometer, familiar with Randox RX Daytona Chemistry Analyzer, Familiar with HPLC

Technical Writing Skills: End user documentation for bioinformatics tools and software, Manuscript preparation, writing Proposals for grants

Graduate Research Experience:

Project Worker at Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH) March 2012- June 2012

• Performed BCA Protein assay, SDS PAGE and Western blotting experiments in a BSL 2 lab, in compliance with GLP, FDA and OSHA Regulations.

Research Volunteer at University of Chicago Medical Center May 2011- August 2011

• Growth and maintenance of wild type and roller mutants of C. Elegans, Preparation of growth media, decontamination of C elegans stock, autoclaving. Dosage dependent drug toxicity assays in wild type and the reversible effects of the drugs in varied doses in mutants. Performed the experiments at the institute in compliance with HIPAA.

Laboratory Research at Illinois Institute of Technology January 2011- May 2011

• Amplified a segment of dystrophin gene using PCR, Cloned the sequence of interest in dystrophin gene into a plasmid, transformed and validated the presence of the segment of interest.

• Maintained Prostrate Cancer cell lines, transfected the cells with GFP tagged actin, validated the efficiency of transfection using immunofluorescence staining and performed cytotoxicity assay on PC3 cell lines.

Undergraduate research Experience:

Project trainee at Sankara Nethralaya December 2008- March 2009

• Predicted the theoretical structure of LOX with 55% accuracy using the insilico structure prediction methods (Homology modeling, Threading).

Professional Experience:

Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai August 2009- July 2010

Junior Scientist in Center for Bioinformatics

• Supported and analyzed invivo and invitro experimental data and results using bioinformatics tools.

• Worked with cross functional teams for multiple projects.

• Ordered supplies for the laboratory and inventory maintenance.

• Developed and standardized bioinformatics SOPs

• Prepared End user assistance for bioinformatics tools and software

• Data analysis and scientific communications

• Performed extensive literature reviews.

• Assisted in writing proposals for grants.

• Assisted in writing manuscripts.

• Guided and monitored students in handling bioinformatics tools.

• Identification of novel inhibitor for Neutrophil elastase leading to the cure of Emphysema- Used structure and sequence comparison methods and identified the most potent target binding site in Human Neutrophil Elastase. Carried out virtual screening of drugs and identified a small molecule with highest binding efficiency.

• Narrow and broad spectrum drug target identification for Chlamydia trachomatis and other Chlamydial species- Used codon usage and subtractive proteomics strategies and identified proteins that can be targeted by narrow and broad spectrum of drugs in Chlamydia trachomatis.

• Structural and functional analysis of Serum paraoxonase 2 (PON2) and its relevance in diabetic retinopathy-Used homology modeling method (MODELLER 9v7), to predict the structure of Serum paraoxanase 2. Performed functional studies by comparing the structures of PON1 and PON2 and extrapolated the relevance of PON2 in diabetic retinopathy.

• Identified anti-angiogenic peptides in small Leucine rich repeat proteins - employed “string based” comparison methods.

Education & Publications

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL May 2012

Master of Science- Cell and Molecular Biology

GPA: 3.20/ 4.00

Course highlights: Cell biology, Molecular Biology, Animal Physiology, Biochemistry, Virology, Current topics in functional genomics, Macromolecular structure determination

SASTRA University, India May 2009

Bachelor of Technology- Bioinformatics

GPA: 8.24/10.00

Course highlights: Sequence Analysis, Literature Analysis, Prediction of Protein Structure and Molecular Interaction

• Raghavan Rajashekaran, Charanya Muralidharan, Sathyabaarthi Ravichandran, Umashankar Vetrivel: Insilico identification of novel inhibitors for Emphysema through Structure Based Drug Design Approaches. J Bio Life Sci 2010 2(1):5-10

• Subramaniam B, Narayanasamy A, Pasupathi A, Konerirajapuram Natarajan S, Pukhraj R, Dhupper M, Thirumurthy V, Muralidharan C, Sivashanmugham M: Homocysteinethiolactone and Paraoxonase- novel markers of Diabetic Retinopathy. Diabetes care 2010. 33:2031-2037

• Barathi. S, Charanya. M, Muthukumaran. S, Angayarkanni. N, Umashankar. V: Comparative modeling of PON2 and analysis of substrate binding interactions using computational methods.Journal of Ocular Biology, Diseases and Informatics 2011 3(2): 64-72

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