Niraj Lodhi Email & Phone Number

New York, Ny, Us

Department Of Pathology And Genomic Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

My Lab's research is focused on Lead (Pb) toxicity and its effect on epigenetic pathways to regulate neuronal functions of the brain through microbiome. My long-term goal is to reveal the microbiomes and their metabolites' role in reversing Pb toxicities by Fecal Microbiota Transfer (FMT) in Rat model.

Greater New York City Area

Research Experience:1. Mammalian cell culture: Maintenance of multiple human cell lines (HEK293, HeLa), generation of stable cell lines for knock down or knock out of gene expression, mouse N2 cell line transfection and Luciferase gene expression assay.Culture and maintenance of various adherent and suspension mammalian cell lines,Cell proliferation 2. Mouse work:Design and plan experiments with different strains of collaborative cross mice.Breeding, timed mating set up, Weaning, colony maintenance, Intra venous, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal drug administration; Anesthesia, dissection and organ collection.Survival surgery, retina dissection and hippocampus collection from different generation of mice.3. Epigenetics and Next Generation Sequencing:Singleplex and multiplex library preparation for ChIP seq, 4C-seq and DNA bisulfite sequencing (RRBS), worked on Illumina platform HiSeq 2500, data analysis and Trouble shooting at different stages of sequencing .4. Molecular biology: Designing of recombinant constructs, cloning and expression of reporter genes in plant cells, budding yeast and Drosophila. Experienced in mini and large-scale of plasmid preparation. Use of various strains of bacteria to generate recombinant tagged protein. PCR, restriction digestion, sequencing, ligation, isolation and sub-cloning of DNA from specific genomic locus. 5. Proteomics:Luciferase assays, Cloning in expression vector, protein expression and purification in various cell lines, EMSA, Western, Immunoprecipitation (Ip) and Co-Ip.6. Bioinformatics:UNIX, DNA sequence Analysis, Analyze data of Next generation sequencing ChIP-seq data, Gene Signature Enrichment Analysis, Gene ontology, Gene Annotation, prediction of nucleosome binding affinity.Genome browsers (UCSC, Ensembl, TAIR, FlyBase, Mouse Genome Database), Genomic sequence analysis tools (Transfac, ClustalW, ExPasy, MEME suit, PANTHER, Primer3 and DAVID).

1. Participated in clinical research study of NAD+ independent poly(ADP‐Ribose) Polymerase‐1 (PARP1) Inhibitors (all PARP1 inhibitors approved or in clinical trials function as competitive inhibitors to NAD+). Compared the efficiency and cancer cell survival of new inhibitors with FDA approved Olaparib (breast and ovarian cancer), new inhibitors are more efficient to kill cancer cells with no detrimental effect to normal cells. 2. Worked on PARP1 functions in Drosophila aging (heterozygous of PARP1 Drosophila shows 20% increased life span). Performed microarray on young, aged PARG-/- and PARP1+/- flies and identified common seven uncharacterized genes, which are either down regulate or overexpressed in these flies. Drosophila RNAi lines of two genes show increased life span and one of them gene Charon mediates NF-κB-dependent innate immune response. Charon translocates NF-κB subunit from cytoplasm to nucleus and regulating the NF-κB dependent innate immune response.

Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia

Investigated the ‘Role of PARP1 in regulating post‐mitotic transcription reactivation. It reveals PARP1 acts as an epigenetic memory factor and plays role in epigenetic inheritance. PARP1 bookmarks specific genes in chromatin during mitosis, and maintains the precise inheritance of gene expression in daughter cells. Upon completion of mitosis, PARP1 poly(ribosyl)ates itself and other proteins to loosen the chromatin and re-initiate the transcription of PARP1 dependent genes responsible for cell-cell communication, cell adhesion, and cell maintenance. Therefore, this study suggests a novel PARP1 function of epigenetic memory transmission through the mitosis, which can be use to control expression of proto-oncogenes or to design specific PARP1 inhibitors.

Lucknow Area, India

Initiated work on transcriptional regulation of tobacco Pathogenesis related-1a (PR-1a) gene. Established the interaction of core promoter and activator region of gene determine nucleosome positioning and gene expression. In addition, the nucleosome over core promoter of gene disassembles during induction to provide access for transcription initiation.

Teaching Training, Molecular Biology, Epigenetics

Activities and Societies: Participated in eight week training and workshop to teach graduates and undergraduatesTo improve teaching.

Junior And Senior Research Fellowships, Plant Molecular Biology, Phd

Research Fellowship, Biotechnology, 90.93 Percentile

Master'S Degree, Biotechnology

Project: Antibody level against Clostridium tetani (Tetanus toxoid) in leprosy pateints. Investigated immune response in leprosy pateints.

Bachelor'S Degree, Biology, Chemistry & Zoology, Ist

High School, Biology