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Ranjana Arya

Ranjana Arya

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Ranjana Arya
Assistant Professor
Centre/School/Special Centre
School of Biotechnology
Room No
127
Off. Phone
011-26738754
Email
ranjanaa@mail.jnu.ac.in , arya.ranjana24@gmail.com
Personal Webpage
http://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/rarya
Qualifications

Ph.D 

Areas of Interest/Specialization

Cell Biology of Rare genetic disorders

My laboratory is currently focusing on understanding pathomechanisms of rare neuromuscular genetic disorder, GNE Myopathy with an aim to identify potential drug molecules. The disease is caused due to mutation in key sialic acid biosynthetic enzyme, GNE. However, alternate roles of GNE in cytoskeletal network, ER stress, UPR pathway, autophagy and apoptosis may contribute significantly in disease progression. We have developed mammalian cell based models  to understand various cellular processes affected due to GNE mutations and identify relevant drug targets. Key research areas:

  1. Understanding role of GNE in regulating Cytoskeletal Network
  2. Understanding role of GNE in regulating ER stress and protein aggregation via chaperones
  3. Understanding the mechanism of apoptosis and autophagy in pathologically relevant mutants
Experience

2008-present Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, JNU, New Delhi
2004-2008 Senior Research Scientist, Ranbaxy Research Laboratories, Gurgaon
2002-2004 Post Doctoral Associate, Carolina Cardiovascular Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA
2001-2002 Post Doctoral Fellow, Division of Rheumatology, Immunology & Allergy, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA 

Awards & Honours

GRANTS

Currently the lab is funded by grants from DBT, ICMR and DAE. Previous grants from DST, SERB, CSIR and ICMR were completed with project completion report and relevant publications.

  1. ICMR- Analysis of protein aggregation in sialic acid deficient cells. 2020-3314". 2020-3314/CMB/ADHOC-BMS
  2. DBT- Genotype-phenotype relationship in rare genetic disorders: Physicochemical analysis of mutations in GNE myopathy and phenotypic modulation by small molecule. BT/PR22409/MED/12/746/2016
  3. DAE- Effect of manipulating sialic acid levels on cell adhesion process. 37(1)/14/31/2018-BRNS/37253

Award/Honour

  •  Assistant Director, UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, JNU, 2018-2020
  • Young Scientist Award by 88th Annual Conference of Society of Biological Sciences held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNU, New Delhi, 2017
  • Young Scientist Travel Fellowship Award to attend 18th International Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held in Birmingham, England, 2000.
  • Junior research fellowship award to pursue doctoral studies and Lecturership (1995) from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.
  • GATE qualified with a score of 97.34, India. (1996) 
Best Peer Reviewed Publications
  1. Chaudhary P, Sharma,S., Singh,R and Arya R*. Elucidation of ER stress and UPR pathway in sialic acid deficient cells: pathological relevance to GNEM. J Cell Biochem 2021 doi:10.1002/jcb.30148
  2. Devi, SS, Yadav, R, Mashangva, P, Chaudhary, P, Sharma, S and Arya R*. Generation and characterization of a skeletal muscle cell based model carrying one single Gne allele : Implications in actin dynamics. Mol. Neurobiol., 2021; doi:10.1007/s12035-021-02549-w
  3. Devi, SS, Yadav, R and Arya R*. Altered actin dynamics in GNE mutant cells. Front. Cell & Dev. Biol.. 2021; doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.603742
  4. Devi,SS, Yadav, R, Chanana, P and Arya, R*. Fighting the cause of Alzheimer’s and GNE Myopathy. Frontiers in Neuroscience, Section: Neurodegeneration, 2018  DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00669
  5. Singh, R. , Choudhary, P and Arya, R*.  IGF-1 rescues cell death of HEK 293 based model cells for GNE myopathy. Scientific Reports 2018 doi. 10.1038/s41598-018-25510-9
  6. Chanana, P, Padhy, G, Bhargava, K and Arya, R*. Mutation in GNE downregulates Peroxiredoxin IV altering  ER redox homeostasis, Neuromolecular Medicine 2017, 19 (4), 525-540 doi 10.1007/s12017-017-8467-5
  7. Singh, R and Arya, R*. GNE myopathy and cell apoptosis: a comparative mutation analysis. Mol. Neurobio., epub. May 2015,  53,5, 3088-3101
  8. Grover S, Aslam S, Sharma V & Arya R* (2014) Expression and secretion of GNE and its mutants in Dictyostelium discoideum. CNS and neurological disorders-DT (2014), 13:7, 1263-1272
  9. Grover, S and Arya R*. Role of UDP- N -Acetylglucosamine2-Epimerase/ N -Acetylmannosamine Kinase (GNE) in β1-Integrin-Mediated Cell Adhesion. Molecular Neurobiology, 2014, 50(2); 257-273
Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books
  1. Arya R., Jamal SM, Bora RS., and  Saini KS. Optimization of Culture Parameters and Novel Strategies to Improve Protein Solubility. Book_307540_García-Fruitós_Insoluble Proteins_Chapter_3. Springer Science+Business Media New York, Copyright year 2015
  2. Sharma, S, Bora, R, Saini, KS and Arya R*. Optimizing chaperone removal strategy from over-expressed recombinant proteins: GNE, a case study, Methods Molecular Biology, Vol. 2406, Elena Garcia Fruitós and Anna Arís Giralt (Eds): Insoluble Proteins, 978-1-0716-1858-5, 486618_2_En, (Chapter 20)

 

Patents (if any)

Patent: A skeletal Muscle cell-based model for GNE Myopathy. Indian application no.: 202011019014. Filing date: 4-5-2020

Patent: Arya, R., Bhattacharya, A., Aslam, S., Bora, R.S., Gupta, S. and Saini, K.S.
Production of purified recombinant human phosphodiesterase in Dictyostelium discoideum
Arya R, Bhattacharya A, Aslam S, Bora RS, Gupta S, Saini KS
Ref. No: IN200701779-I1, Year: 08/2007

Patent: Malik, R., Bora, R.S., Arya, R., Gupta, D., Singh, V. and Saini, K.S.
A reporter gene assay for identifying a compound as selective inhibitor of PDE 4 subtype.
Malik R, Bora RS, Arya R, Gupta D, Singh V, Saini KS
Ref. No: IN200602547-I1, Year: 01/2006  

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.