Vivek Dogra, PhD

Experience

• 

  Panacea Biotec

  Jul 2006 - Oct 2007

  Resaerch Biologist

  In brief, I was involved in the development of screening assays for preclinical in-vitro screening of new chemical entities (NCEs) synthesized for the treatment of Diabetes, Depression and Infectious diseases. In particular, my specific role was to design and develop various assays for investigating the enzyme kinetics of NCEs as inhibitors, to develop radioligand binding and uptake studies for monoamine inhibitors, revival, culturing and maintenance of various cell lines, cloning and expression studies of genes, prepare literature and technical reports, analyze experimental data using bio-statistics tools, and to prepare project presentations. Show less

• 

  CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology

  Oct 2007 - Oct 2014

  Molecular dissection of in-vitro flowering in Dendrocalamus hamiltonii: Dendrocalamushamiltonii is woody bamboo that grows in the wild and flowers both sporadically as well asgregariously. Since the natural stands of D. hamiltonii are clones of unknown age, it is notknown when these stands will flower gregariously and die thereafter. Therefore, it was aimed toinduce the flowering in this bamboo, in vitro and to understand the morphological, molecularand physiological changes mediated by the important specifiers underlying the floral transition.Proteomic analysis during floral transition revealed that the flowering initiation requires changein different proteins involved in metabolism, protein synthesis, stress, signaling along with thefloral development related proteins which do participate in interaction networks to bring aboutthe transition from vegetative to reproductive phase (Proteomics, 2015). Show less Identification and characterization of germination related problems in Podophyllumhexandrum. The mechanism underlying the weakening of the multi-cell-layered thick walledmicropylar endosperm tissue, which protects the tiny embryo and offer as a physical barrierfor radical emergence in Podophyllum hexandrum, was unveiled in the study. Proteomicstudies during seed germination, followed by subsequent in-silico proteome wide networkanalysis and characterization of identified proteins, revealed that the differential expressionof proteins involved in metabolism, hormone signaling and regulation and their interactionsleads to the increased activity of different cell wall hydrolases, and collectively promotes theseed germination in Podophyllum hexandrum and probably in other high altitude plants.[(J. Proteomics, 2013; Gene, 2015; Front. Plant Sci, 2015; Planta, 2016) Show less Evaluation of transgenic Arabidopsis over-expressing antioxidant genes from high altitudeplants under various abiotic stresses: Antioxidant enzymes play a significant role ineliminating toxic levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), generated during stress from livingcells. Genes of two important antioxidant enzymes namely copper-zinc superoxide dismutase(PaSOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (RaAPX), which catalyse the first two steps of enzymaticantioxidant pathway, derived from high altitude cold niche area plants of Himalaya, Potentillaastrisanguinea and Rheum australe, were over-expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana to evaluatetheir stress tolerance potential. It was found that the transgenic plants over-expressing either orboth the genes were more tolerant to copper and cold stress during growth and development.Protein dynamics studies during seed germination in PaSOD transgenic Arabidopsis unveiledthe proteins involved in inducing metal stress tolerance (J. Plant Res, 2012). Analysis usingConfocal, SEM and expression of lignin biosynthetic genes revealed the lignification of vascularsystem probably triggered by increased peroxide levels, probably which leads to better stresstolerance (PLOSOne, 2014). Show less

  • Senior Research Fellow

    Apr 2012 - Oct 2014

  • PhD student

    Jan 2009 - May 2014

  • Junior Research Fellow & Project Fellow

    Oct 2007 - Mar 2012
• 

  Shanghai Center for Plant stress Biology, SIBS

  Oct 2014 - Mar 2020

  Post Doctoral Research Fellow

  Our group is working in the area of stress signaling, wherein my research was focused on chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signaling (PNAS USA, 2016; Front. in Plant Sci 2017, Plant Cell Environ 2018, Nat. commun 2019; JxB 2019; Plant Physiol 2019; Plant Cell 2019).

• 

  CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology

  Apr 2020 - now

  Senior Scientist

  We are interested to understand the role of Chloroplast for sensing and managing various environmental/developmental cues and cognate responses. We are trying to delineate various retrograde signaling cascades initiated from the Chloroplast using model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and High Altitude Extremophiles of western Himalayas.