Microbial and Metabolic Engineering Expert: Anti-Cancer Compound Production, DNA Cloning, and SAS Programs

Expertise

• Metabolic engineering of microbial systems.
• Construction of plasmid vectors and strain development.
• High throughput screening of anticancer compounds.
• Analysis of natural products using GC-MS and HPLC.
• Mammalian cell culture.

Experience

Undisclosed University, 2011 - Present

• Metabolic engineering and directed evolution of perillyl-alcohol biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli to produce novel anti-cancer compounds.
• Engineered the perillyl alcohol biosynthetic pathway including CYP450 enzyme in E. coli using SOE-PCR and DNA cloning techniques.
• Developed a strain of E. coli capable of producing limonene and other monoterpenes that can be quantified using SPME GC-MS.
• Created a library of over 5000 mutants capable and screened the library using HTS approach against breast cancer cell lines.
• Published research paper in peer reviewed scientific journal Plos-One and received several accolades from industry associations.
• Supervised three undergraduate students.

Project Analyst

• Testing of natural anti-cancer compounds on mouse fibroblast cell lines.
• Analyzed data for comparing the efficacy of natural anti-cancer compounds using anti-proliferative cell assays against breast cancer cell lines.
• Performed data collection using 96-well plate molecular devices spectrophotometer and multiwell plate biotek fluorimeter.
• Developed Statistical Analysis Systems, (SAS) programs for exploratory data analysis, data cleansing and validation.
• Worked in all phases of analysis including requirements gathering, overview of data and assessment of data quality, selection of appropriate models and statistical tests.

Research Associate

• Cloning, expression, and purification of viral p28 gene in escherichia coli and saccharomyces cerevisiae.
• Cloned a viral gene p28 as a fusion protein with GFP into E. coli and S. cerevisiae.
• Demonstrated the expression of fusion protein and optimized purification for maximum yield using SDS-PAGE and Western blotting.
• Led a team of 12 graduate students for successful completion of the project.

Honors & Publications

Languages

• English
• Hindi
• Punjabi

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• American Society of Microbiology
• American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Mid-Atlantic Pharmacology Society

Awards

• Outstanding Graduate Student Award
• Outstanding leadership Award

Publications

• Author of peer reviewed medical articles, posters and academic testing.
• Various posters and platform presentations at national and international conferences.

Education

• Ph.D. Cell and Molecular Biology, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA
• B.S. Engineering in Biotechnology, Panjab University, India