Imrat

I trained as a RNA researcher during my Ph.D. Considering my long-term interest in deeper understanding of RNA biology, I joined in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Cifuentes. Here, I am developing a method to validate miRNA biogenesis in a high-throughput manner.

I obtained my Ph.D. from DBT-Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development in affiliation with Gauhati University, India under the guidance of Dr. K. Jeyaram. During my Ph.D., I investigated the diversity and functionality of small dsRNA produced by food fermenting lactic acid bacteria using a combination of physical characterization, sRNA sequencing, bioinformatics, and in vitro cell line model. My study revealed that lactic acid bacteria produced highly diverse small dsRNA and their in silico predicted targets were significantly linked with cancer and inflammatory-related pathways. Further, I validated the antiviral activity of the dsRNA from Bacillus subtilis on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) infected with HIV-1 virus. Moreover, I also demonstrated the sequence similarity in small dsRNA that could be effectively used for distinct delineation of bacterial species and described a new methodology for calculating a parameter “dsRNA similarity %”.