Profile
I received my PhD in Neuroscience (2007-2013) from the Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Canada. My research was focussed on understanding the effect of altered brain cholesterol metabolism on development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease related neuropathology. After completing my Doctoral training, I moved back to India and joined CSIR-IGIB, India as Project Scientist (2013-2015), where my work focussed on understanding the molecular basis of inter-individual differences in normal healthy individuals contributing to their differential disease predisposition. Thereafter, I joined Department of Biological Sciences at IISER-Kolkata as SERB-Young Scientist (2015-2018). My work focused on understanding the effect of increased amyloid-β levels, a key molecular player in Alzheimer’s disease, on the predominant astroglial gap-junction protein, Connexin43. Thereafter, I continued at IISER-Kolkata (2019-2022) as a DBT-Wellcome Trust Early Career fellow pursuing my interest in connexin biology in a neuroinflammatory disease model of Multiple sclerosis and subsequently moved to BRIC-NIBMG (2022- present).
Current Focus Areas
Investigating the role of glial gap junction proteins, connexins, in the development and progression of chronic neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple sclerosis. The major focus is to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms that deregulate connexin functions in pathological conditions with a goal to identify effective interventions.
Selected Publications
Bose A, Kasle G, Jana R, Maulik M, Thomas D, Mulchandani V, Mukherjee P, Koval M and Das Sarma J. (2023). Regulatory role of endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone protein ERp29 in anti-murine β-coronavirus host cell response. J Biol Chem, Feb;299(2):102836. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102836.
Maulik M@, Vasan L, Bose A, Dutta Chowdhury S, Sengupta N, Das Sarma J. (2020). Amyloid-β regulates gap junction protein Connexin 43 trafficking in cultured primary astrocytes. J Biol Chem, Oct 30;295(44):15097-15111. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.013705. @Corresponding author
Kodam A*, Ourdev D*, Maulik M, Hariharakrishnan J, Banerjee M, Wang Y, Kar S. (2019). A role for astrocyte-derived amyloid β peptides in the degeneration of neurons in an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Brain Pathol, Jan;29(1):28-44. doi: 10.1111/bpa.12617. *Equal contribution.
Bose A, Basu R, Maulik M, Das Sarma J. (2018). Loss of Cx43-Mediated Functional Gap Junction Communication in Meningeal Fibroblasts Following Mouse Hepatitis Virus Infection. Mol Neurobiol, Aug;55(8):6558-6571. doi: 10.1007/s12035-017-0861-3.
Maulik M, Peake K, Chung J, Wang Y, Vance JE, Kar S. (2015). APP overexpression in the absence of NPC1 exacerbates metabolism of amyloidogenic proteins of Alzheimer's disease. Hum Mol Genet, Dec 15;24(24):7132-50. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddv413. (Cover Illustration)