报告题目：Fine Tuning Gene Expression in Physiology and Pathophysiology: Implications in Therapeutics
报告人：Tapas K. Kundu，印度科天美院士
主持人：翁杰敏 教授
报告时间🫶🏿🫳🏼：2017年3月15日 13:30-15:00
报告地点🤽🏿♂️：闵行生科院534报告厅
主办单位：天美娱乐🧑🏽🌾，科技处
报告人简介🛍️：Tapas K. Kundu was awarded his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in the year 1995. Following his PhD, he had a short stint as a visiting foreign research associate in the National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Rockefeller University, USA (1996-99). He joined JNCASR as in 1999. Prof. Kundu has made significant contributions in the area of regulation of gene expression and its link to disease and therapeutics. He is not only elucidating the mechanisms of transcription regulation through the epigenetic modifications, but also targeting them to design new generation diagnostics, as well as therapeutics. Over the years, he has published several research papers in many international journals. Several patent applications from the laboratory have been granted and some are under process, which includes several academically important research reagents with potential commercial values, some of which have already been commercialized by renowned companies. He is the recipient of several awards, noteworthy among which are: the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize from CSIR (2005), the National Academy of Science, India- Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award (2008), the Sir JC Bose National Fellowship from DST (2010), the GD Birla award for scientific research (2011) and more recently “The Ranbaxy Research Award 2011 in the field of Medical Sciences – Basic Research” and “India Innovation Award 2012” given by Merck Millipore 2012 (First place). He is the fellow of three major national academies of India and served as an editorial board member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) (2011-2016). Besides fundamental research, Prof. Kundu is also involved in teaching and organizing science outreach programs. His popular lectures on ‘Genes, Disease and Therapeutics’ have benefitted high school and college students greatly.
报告摘要：The highly ordered nucleoprotein structure in the eukaryotic nuclei is referred as chromatin. Though DNA sequence is the template for gene expression, the fine tuning of this process is mediated by the epigenetic machinery. Broadly, epigenetics refers to the modification of DNA, and the proteins that help organize the eukaryotic DNA. The protein component of chromatin undergoes several reversible post-translational modifications such as acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation etc., which occur on specific amino acid residues. We have found that lysine acetylation and arginine methylation of histones are essential for regulating the synthesis of mRNA as well as microRNA with functional consequences. The acetylation of proteins assisting transcription activation has also been found to be essential for the activation of gene expression. In pathophysiological conditions such as cancer, AIDS and in neurodegenerative disorders, homeostasis is affected, and the state of these modifications also undergoes alteration. Hence, enzymes responsible for these modifications could be target for new generation epigenetic therapeutics. We have discovered a few small molecules which specifically target these enzymes and eventually suppress tumor growth, viral multiplication in AIDS and enhance cognate brain function in a model of neurodegeneration. Besides therapeutic implications, these efforts significantly contribute to our understanding of fundamental disease biology.
