Amartya Pradhan
Doctoral Student at Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Science has always fascinated me and developed curiosity since my childhood. I am stunned by the organized functioning of the nature, how complex systems interact with such ease and keep this planet living. Hence, I aspire to become a scientist in future as I want to seek answers to questions that arise while exploring our simple-yet-tricky nature. My interests lie in the complicated challenges offered by the field of neuroscience. I m especially interested in understanding how neurons in the brain interact to produce specific behaviors.
Highlights
Evoking Gi signaling in postnatal window doesn't alter mood-related behaviors in adulthood
Given that Gq signaling in the postnatal window (P2-P14) can increase anxiety- and despair-like behaviors in adulthood, we asked if evoking Gi signaling in early life causes resilience or ameliorate such mood disorders in adulthood. Strikingly, we don't see such resilience in adulthood by evoking hM4Di-DREADD-mediated Gi signaling in the postnatal life. To read in-depth, follow our eNeuro article here: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0381-21.2021.
Exploring the role of framework mutations in enabling breadth of a cross-reactive antibody against the SARS-CoV-2 RBD and its variants of concern
The interaction of SARS-CoV-2 S-protein receptor binding domain (RBD) with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is of prime importance for effective prophylactic approaches. Our study shows that single substitutions in the light chain framework region of CR3022 with conserved epitopes across SARS-CoV strains allow targeting of diverse antibody epitope footprints that align with the epitopes of recently-categorized neutralizing antibody classes while enabling binding to more than one strain of SARS-CoV-2. Read more about this work at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2022.2030800.
Organizing The NeuroNovember Convention 2020
Co-convened the NeuroNovember Convention 2020, a 4-day convention jointly hosted by Project Encephalon and Stimulus. It was the first international youth-led neuroscience convention from India. With over 800 registrations, and 39 speakers and panelists from across the globe – a fair representation of women, trans persons, and people of color – this convention not just covered science but consciously took the effort to address the social issues faced in STEM.
Computationally affinity matured antibody candidates against the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2
Our study aimed at generating antibody candidates from the human antibody CR3022 (derived from convalescent SARS patient) against the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 via in silico affinity maturation. We optimized the paratope of the CR3022 antibody towards the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 for better binding affinity and stability, employing molecular modeling, docking, and dynamics simulations.
This work was presented at Elsevier - 14th Vaccine Congress 2020.
WINStep Forward blog - Cracking the COVID-19 conundrum
Read our blog on how to fight COVID-19, its mental health related aspects and associated rumors on WINStep Forward website: https://www.winstepforward.org/blog/2020/06/cracking-covid-19-conundrum/
Computational studies reveal novel findings concerning cancer immune checkpoint blockade therapy
Antibodies against PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are central to immune checkpoint blockade therapy in cancer. Our computational studies highlight some crucial observations: we observed that anti-gly-PD-L1 generally exhibit greater binding affinity with non-glycosylated PD-L1 compared to anti-PD-L1. However, vice versa is not true as per the literature, i.e. anti-PD-L1 antibodies showed poor binding with gly-PD-L1 compared to anti-gly-PD-L1. Also, we observed that monomeric and dimeric PD-L1 directs an antibody to different binding pockets.
Read about my work on Elsevier SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3531162
Drug-mediated stress induces lipid droplet accumulation in triple-negative breast cancer
In recent years, LDs have been associated with various stress response pathways in cancer cells, aiding tumor survival. Owing to the involvement of LD in chemoresistance, we hypothesized that drug-treated TNBC cell lines should have higher density of LDs compared to untreated controls. My experiments showed that there was a significant increase in the lipid droplet density per cell in TNBC, indicating its role in chemoresistance. This furthers the need to consider LD accumulation as an important hallmark of cancer. This work was presented at the Young Scientist’s Conference 2019, flagship international conference hosted by the Government of India. My expenses in the United States was covered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum through Khorana Program for Scholars.
Read more about this work on ResearchGate, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34484.60809
Read about my experience as a Khorana Scholar in the Aneja Lab (under Dr. Ritu Aneja) at Georgia State University here: https://www.winstepforward.org/blog/2019/09/amartya-pradhan-summer-2019-blog/
Affiliations, Acknowledgements and Memberships
