Dr. Amaresh Chandra Panda

Scientist E, BRIC-ILS

Profile

High-throughput sequencing technologies and innovative bioinformatics tools discovered that most of the genome is transcribed into RNA. Among them, only a small percentage of the RNAs in cells translate into proteins, while the majority of them are categorized as noncoding RNAs. Several studies in the last decade have identified a large family of covalently-closed single-stranded RNAs without 5' end or 3' poly(A) tails, which are termed circular RNAs (circRNAs). Increasing evidence suggests that circRNAs act as sponges for microRNAs and RNA-binding protein (RBPs), and as templates for protein translation via cap-independent mechanisms. However, only a few circRNAs have been characterized to possess biological functions out of a million circRNAs identified in humans. Our group is interested in exploring the novel functions of these intriguing RNA circles in pancreatic β-cells and skeletal muscle regeneration.

Current Focus Areas

  • We are exploring the global mRNA-circRNA interactions and their effect on pancreatic beta cells.

  • We are trying to find the functional polypeptides translated from circRNAs in skeletal muscle.

Selected Publications

  • 1. Singh, S., Shyamal, S., Das, A., & Panda, A. C. (2024). Global identification of mRNA-interacting circular RNAs by CLiPPR-Seq. Nucleic Acids Research. doi:10.1093/nar/gkae058

  • 2. Das, A., Sinha, T., Mishra, S. S., Das, D., & Panda, A. C. (2023). Identification of potential proteins translated from circular RNA splice variants. European Journal of Cell Biology, 102(1), 151286. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcb.2023.151286

  • 3. Sinha, T., Mishra, S. S., Singh, S., & Panda, A. C. (2022). PanCircBase: An online resource for the exploration of circular RNAs in pancreatic islets. Front Cell Dev Biol, 10, 942762. doi:10.3389/fcell.2022.942762

  • Das, A., Shyamal, S., Sinha, T., Mishra, S. S., & Panda, A. C. (2021). Identification of Potential circRNA-microRNA-mRNA Regulatory Network in Skeletal Muscle. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 8(1126). doi:10.3389/fmolb.2021.762185

  • 5. Das, D., Das, A., Sahu, M., Mishra, S. S., Khan, S., Bejugam, P. R., . . . Panda, A. C. (2020). Identification and Characterization of Circular Intronic RNAs Derived from Insulin Gene. Int J Mol Sci, 21(12). doi:10.3390/ijms21124302

Skills & Proficiency

Non-coding RNA microRNA mRNA translation circular RNA RNA-binding proteins skeletal muscle myogenesis beta-cells insulin diabetes micro-peptide RNA-RNA interaction mRNA stability transcriptomics RNA sequencing
View More