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Ekta Rai

Ekta Rai

Ekta Rai
Ekta Rai
Associate Professor
Centre/School/Special Centre
School of Life Sciences
Email
ektarai@mail.jnu.ac.in, ekta.rai@hotmail.com
Personal Webpage
https://jnu.ac.in
Qualifications

Ph.D. (Human Genetics) Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar and National Centre of Applied Human Genetics (NCAHG) JNU New Delhi (2008)

Areas of Interest/Specialization

Human Genetics, Medical Genetics

Research work: To study the genetic predisposition of complex and rare genetic disorders. Applied Whole Exome Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology to identify the causal genetic variations in many rare genetic disorders such as PKAN, PPAC, NF1, Leigh’s Syndrome, SCA in Indian Population. Performed first time population screening and Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to identify the prevalence and genetic associations of Scoliosis in North Indian Population. Part of NIH project to establish NGS technology-based genomics core at UT Southwestern Medical Centre, USA, where applied targeted NGS technology and identified the actual causing variations and their functional role in manifestation of Lupus (SLE).

Experience
  • Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (25 Aug 2023 onward)
  • Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, J&K (2012-2023)
  • Post Doc Researcher II, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre USA (2008-2012)
     
Awards & Honours
  • Postdoctoral certificate in research by UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA (2010).
  • CSIR-UGC NET Junior Research Fellowship (2004)
International Collaboration/Consultancy
  • Received international grant from National Geographic Society USA under Human Genographic Project “Analyses of Modern Human DNA to understand genomic formation of population groups from J&K-India.” as Co- Principal investigator (2018-2022)
  • Received international grant from National Geographic Society USA under Human Genographic Project “Genetic Diversity and Evolutionary Perspectives in Population Groups of Jammu and Kashmir” as Co- Principal investigator (2014-2017)
Best Peer Reviewed Publications
  • Spolia, A., Angural, A., Sharma, V., Shipra, Razdan, S., Dhar, M. K., . . . Rai, E. (2023). Cost-effective Whole Exome Sequencing discovers pathogenic variant causing Neurofibromatosis type 1 in a family from Jammu and Kashmir, India. Nature Scientific Reports, 13(1), 7852.
  • Singh, H., Shipra, Sharma, V., Sharma, I., Sharma, A., Modeel, S., Rai E*., Ikegawa S., Sharma, S*. (2022). The first study of epidemiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis shows lower prevalence in females of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Am J Transl Res, 14(2), 1100-1106.
  • Sethi, I., Sharma, V., Sharma, I., Singh, G., Bhat, G. R., Bhanwer, A. J. S., . . . Rai, E. (2020). Telomere Maintenance Genes are associated with Type 2 Diabetes Susceptibility in Northwest Indian Population Group. Nature Scientific Reports, 10(1), 6444.
  • Sharma, S., Singh, I., Haider, S., Malik, M.Z., Ponnusamy, K., Rai, E. RE: ACE2 Homodimerization Affects Binding of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein (reply to Yan et. al. 2020. Structural basis for the recognition of SARS-CoV-2 by full-length human ACE2. Science, Vol. 367, Issue 6485, pp. 1444-1448).
  • Sethi, I., Bhat, G. R., Kumar, R., Rai, E., & Sharma, S. (2021). Dual labeled fluorescence probe based qPCR assay to measure the telomere length. Gene, 767, 145178.
  • Raj, P*., Rai, E*., Song, R., Khan, S., Wakeland, B. E., Viswanathan, K., . . . Wakeland, E. K. (2016). Regulatory polymorphisms modulate the expression of HLA class II molecules and promote autoimmunity. Elife, 5.
  • Sharma, V., Sharma, I., Sethi, I., Mahajan, A., Singh, G., Angural, A., . . .Rai E* & Sharma, S*. (2017). Replication of newly identified type 2 diabetes susceptible loci in Northwest Indian population. Diabetes Res Clin Pract, 126, 160-163.
  • Rai, E., Mahajan, A., Kumar, P., Angural, A., Dhar, M. K., Razdan, S., . . . Sharma, S. (2016). Whole Exome Screening Identifies Novel and Recurrent WISP3 Mutations Causing Progressive Pseudorheumatoid Dysplasia in Jammu and Kashmir-India. Nature Scientific Reports, 6, 27684.
  • Rai, E., Sharma, S., Kaul, S., Jain, K., Matharoo, K., Bhanwer, A. S., & Bamezai, R. N. (2012). The interactive effect of SIRT1 promoter region polymorphism on type 2 diabetes susceptibility in the North Indian population. PLoS One, 7(11), e48621.
  • Angural A., Sharma I., Pandoh .P, Sharma V., Spolia A., Rai E, . . . Sharma S. (2019). A case report on a novel MT-ATP6 gene variation in atypical mitochondrial Leigh syndrome associated with bilateral basal ganglia calcifications. Mitochondrion, 46, 209-213.
  • Sharma S., Lalrohlui F., Sharma V., Sharma I., Sharma S., Javed Parihar T., . . . Rai E. (2020). Candidate gene association study of UCP3 variant rs1800849 with T2D in Mizo population of Northeast India. Int J Diabetes Dev Ctries.
  • Angural, A., Spolia, A., Mahajan, A., Verma, V., Sharma, A., Kumar, P., Dhar, M. K., Pandita, K. K., Rai, E.*, & Sharma, S*. (2020). Review: Understanding Rare Genetic Diseases in Low Resource Regions Like Jammu and Kashmir - India. Frontiers in genetics, 11, 415.
  • Rai E., Wakeland EK. (2011) Genetic predisposition to autoimmunity--what have we learned? Seminars in Immunology.23(2):67-83.
Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books

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Patents (if any)

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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.