Vishal completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology in 2008 from University of Mumbai and then went on to get his Master’s degree in Molecular Biology & Human Genetics from Manipal University in June 2010. He published his Master’s thesis work in Photochemistry and Photobiology (2011), vol 87 pg. 1433–1441 titled ‘Effect of Laser Dose and Treatment Schedule on Excision Wound Healing in Diabetic Mice.’

He is a member of the IGSDHD program since September 2011. During the lab rotation period, he worked in the laboratory of

  • Dr. Björn Schumacher on  ‘Transcriptional analysis of UV induced DNA damage response’
  • Dr. Mirka Uhlirova on ‘Role of Homopeptide repeats of Drosophila Atf3 in cell cycle arrest of S2 cells’
  • Prof. Jürgen Dohmen on ‘Effect of polyamines on translational regulation and protein stability of human Antizyme in Saccharomyces cerevisiae ‘

Since March 2012, he has started his PhD project in the group of Prof. Jürgen Dohmen.

Project description

Polyamines play an important role in multiple cellular functions and hence their levels in the cell have to be maintained through synthesis, degradation, import and export. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the rate limiting enzyme, is essential to convert ornithine to putrescine for polyamines biosynthesis in all eukaryotes, except plants. Polyamines regulate their own synthesis through a feedback mechanism involving another protein termed antizyme (Oaz1). Our lab has recently reported a novel mechanism in which nascent Oaz1 regulates its own biosynthesis in a polyamine concentration-dependent manner in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The aim of my project is to delineate the regulation of Oaz1 at the level of translation and protein degradation and study the effect of polyamines on both levels.