Vinay Kartha

Ph.D. Candidate and NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellow
Graduate Bioinformatics Program, BUSM
Monti Lab

Education

B.S. Biotechnology, PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India, 2011
M.S. Bioinformatics, Boston University, 2013

Contact Information

Email: vkartha@bu.edu

Research Interests

Multi-omic investigation of markers of initiation and progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

Currently developing computational methods to help identify (epi)genetic drivers of carcinogenic pathway activity, specifically studying head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs), with the hope of using such information to identify mechanisms of action in HNSCC development, and to find new and lasting HNSCC therapeutics. Involves the integration of large, high-throughput datasets including RNA-Seq, Copy Number Alterations (CNAs) and somatic mutation data. [press release]

Radiation-induced fibrosis and treatment intervention characterization

Working with collaborators in the Arthritis center and the Department of Biochemistry at BUSM to assess the influence of radiation and chemotherapy on HNSCCs, specifically investigating the in vivo pro-fibrotic and inflammatory effects of such intervention at the transcriptional level.

Publications

Kartha VK*, Stawski L*, Han R, Haines P, Gallagher G, Noonan V, Kukuruzinska M, Monti S, Trojanowska M. (2016). PDGFRβ is a novel marker of stromal activation in oral squamous cell carcinomas. PloS One.

Hiemer SE, Zhang L*, Kartha VK*, Almershed M, Kukuruzinska M, Monti S, Varelas X. (2015). A YAP/TAZ-regulated transcriptional signature associated with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Mol Cancer Res. (Featured on cover of June 2015 edition)

Hoss AG, Labadorf A, Latourelle JC, Kartha VK, Hadzi TC, Gusella JF, MacDonald ME, Chen JF, Akbarian S, Weng Z, Vonsattel J, Myers RH. (2015). miR-10b-5p expression in Huntington’s disease brain relates to age of onset and the extent of striatal involvement. BMC Med Genomics.

Hoss AG*, Kartha VK*, Dong X, Latourelle JC, Dumitriu A, Hadzi TC, Macdonald ME, Gusella JF, Akbarian S, Chen JF, Weng Z, Myers RH. (2014). MicroRNAs located in the Hox gene clusters are implicated in huntington’s disease pathogenesis. PLoS Genet.;10(2):e1004188. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004188. PMCID: PMC3937267