Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, India
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
I am currently a postdoc in Cleveland Clinic, USA on leave from my job as an Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. By the time I completed MBBS, I had decided to pursue a career in basic biomedical research. I joined IMS-BHU as an MD student, and have been pursuing research on platelets ever since. During my MD, I studied platelet responses during energy stress. I was able to establish that glycolytic inhibition can be a sound antiplatelet strategy and that AMPK has a significant role in maintaining platelet responsiveness during energy deprivation. During my postdoc in University of Iowa we established that platelet TLR4 mediates prothrombotic effects of EDA+-fibronectin by using genetically-modified mice, adoptive platelet transfer, co-immunoprecipitation and in vitro platelet function analysis in the presence of cellular fibronectin. I also conceived and initiated work on targeting PKM2 in platelets as an antithrombotic strategy. I was back in my alma mater IMS-BHU as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and enrolled myself into a part-time PhD program. During my PhD, I could establish aerobic glycolysis and the consequent flux through pentose phosphate pathway as the metabolic signature of stimulated platelets, which is indispensable to thrombosis and haemostasis. I also found that mitochondrial ATP generation is essential for granule secretion and thrombus formation on immobilized collagen but dispensable for platelet aggregation and procoagulant activity. I have always found platelets to be fascinating due to their multiple functional facets and more importantly their unique cellular characteristics. Despite being anucleate they synthesize/degrade proteins, possess machinery for regulating mRNA and can even generate progeny. The desire to understand the biology of platelets is what motivates me to continue pursuing research. At ISTH 2023, I shall be presenting research on the role of fatty acid oxidation in platelet function.