Grishma Acharya, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

San Diego, California, United States

San Diego, California, United States

San Diego, California

San Diego, California

University Of South Carolina, Columbia , Sc

The Effect of Thymidylate Synthase Inhibitors on Bone Marrow Derived Cells in the Intestinal Tumor MicroenvironmentPh.D., University of South Carolina Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Colon Cancer ResearchAugust 2008 - October 2013Advisor: Dr. Maria Marjorette O. Peña • Developed a chimeric mouse model of intestinal tumorigenesis by transplanting (through tail vein injection) genetically modified eGFP-expressing bone marrow cells into lethally irradiated ApcMin/+ mice.• Used the chimeric mouse model developed above to test the hypothesis that tumor response to therapy is determined by the sensitivity of bone marrow derived cells (BMDCs) in the tumor microenvironment to the therapy.• Utilized the chimeric mice to determine the effect of 5-Flurouracil (5-FU) , an inhibitor of the S-phase enzyme thymidylate synthase, on BMDCs in the intestinal tumor microenvironment that have been shown to promote tumor development such as the myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), mast cells, and T-regulatory cells (T-reg).• Localize MDSCs, mast, and T-reg cells in the intestinal tumor microenvironment by immunofluorescence and determine the effect of 5-FU with respect to their apoptotic or proliferative status by double-immuno-staining and confocal microscopy based simultaneous imaging.• Isolated MDSCs, mast cells, and T-regs from spleen, bone marrow, and tumors of ApcMin/+ mice by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS)• Used a subcutaneous implantation model of CT26 mouse colon adenocarcinoma cells in Balb/c mice to replicate the studies in the ApcMin/+ in a carcinoma based animal model.

Multi-Drug Resistance and Nerve Growth Factor in a simulated model of glioblastoma cellAssociate Bio-modeling Scientist Cellworks Research India Ltd• Created Teranode software simulated, generic models for understanding the kinetics of multi-drug resistance mediated by various ATP-binding cassette transporters and for Nerve Growth Factor functional pathway

Indian Council Of Medical Research,Institute Of Cytology And Preventive Oncology

Methione Synthase (MTR) 2756A/G polymorphism in Cervical Cancer Research Intern Indian Council of Medical Research, ICPO• Collected uterine cervical cancer biopsy, pap smear and blood samples from human patients• Conducted PCR on DNA isolated from the collected samples. Also did analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms and studied the nutrigenomics and methyl cycle pathways associated with identified SNPS

Mahavir Hospital, Hyderabad, India

Role of certain kinases in cancer using BLAST and CLUSTAL bioinformatics toolsSummer InternMahavir Hospital, HyderabadDuration: May 2005 – July 2005Advisor: Dr. Kaiser Jamil • Studied of a set of 5 cancer related genes cks1b,cdkn3, kiaa0101, dlg7 and cks2 using BLAST & CLUSTAL bioinformatics softwares and identify whether they are tumor suppressors or oncogenes

Doctorate, Colorectal Cancer Research

Activities and Societies: Indian Student Organization Vice President (2008-2009)Studied the effect of thymidylate synthase inhibitors.

Btech, Biotechnology