Profile
I earned my Ph.D. in Microbiology and did a post-doc on Cancer Biology. For the last several years, my lab has worked on leukemia. A complete understanding of the role of specific regulators (known or novel) in the progression of a disease that can profoundly impact the diagnosis, therapy, and, ultimately, patient survival. We are investigating the molecular mechanisms that delineate CML/AML stem cells from normal hematopoietic stem cells. The research findings may lead to the development of targeted molecular therapies to eliminate the disease before it progresses. Post-translational protein modification is essential in multiple cellular processes, including DNA repair, protein stability, nuclear translocation, protein-protein interactions, cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Multiple post-translational modifications on a protein constitute a complex regulatory program that transduces molecular information to and from signaling pathways. We are investigating whether post-translational modification(s) of EVI1 promote leukemogenesis/oncogenesis.
Current Focus Areas
Homing of leukemia stem cells compared to the normal hematopoietic stem cells
Mechanism(s) of drug resistance in CML and AML stem cells
Consequences of PTBP2 mediated alternative splicing, DNA damage response, and RNA helicases in the progression of CML
Transplanted CML and AML model in immune-proficient mice
Identification of targets of acetylated and deacetylated EVI1 and decoding their role(s) in leukemogenesis/oncogenesis
Dynamics of post-translational modification(s) of EVI1 in metastasis and drug-resistance in colorectal cancer
Selected Publications
Agatheeswaran S, Singh S, Biswas S, Biswas G, Chandra Pattnayak N, Chakraborty S. BCR-ABL mediated repression of miR-223 results in the activation of MEF2C and PTBP2 in chronic myeloid leukemia. Leukemia 2013 Jul;27(7):1578-80.
Agatheeswaran S and Chakraborty S. MEF2C and CEBPA: possible coregulators in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia disease progression. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2016 Aug;77(Pt A):16570.
Nayak KB, Sajitha I. S., T.R. Santhosh Kumar and Chakraborty S. Ecotropic viral integration site 1 promotes metastasis independent of epithelial mesenchymal transition in colon cancer cells. Cell Death Dis. 2018 Jan 16;9(2):18.
Nandagopalan SR, Agatheeswaran S, Vadlamudi Y, Biswas S, Biswas G, Pattnayak NC, Chakraborty S. PTBP2 exon 10 inclusion is associated with the progression of CML and it is BCR-ABL1 dependent. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2019 Feb 3;109:69-75.
Pradeepa, Suresh V, Singh VK, Nayak KB, Senapati SB, Chakraborty S. EVI1 Promotes Metastasis by Downregulating TIMP2 in Metastatic Colon and Breast Cancer Cells. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2022 Jan;142:106118.