harshvardhan modh

As a part of my Ph.D. work, it is very important to understand the interactions of small molecules. X-ray crystallography provides a detailed information how small molecules interact and their binding pockets/sites. Dr. Akram Alian is an expert, at Technion, on checking the interactions of small molecules using X-ray crystallography and his works have resulted in many peer-reviewed articles. Short research stay, in his lab, has provided a good practical experience of X-ray crystallography and a very important information of small molecule interactions.

Title of the project: Extracellular production of hGM-CSF in E.coli Human granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) is a hematopoietic growth factor that mediates the differentiation and proliferation of granulocyte and macrophage colonies in the bone marrow. hGM-CSF is used in the treatment of myeloid leukemia, neutropenia, and aplastic anemia and greatly reduces the risk of infection associated with bone marrow transplantation by accelerating neutrophil formation. The toxicity of hGM-CSF towards its host is the major bottleneck hampering overexpression. In E. coli, cytoplasmic expression of recombinant hGM-CSF leads to stoppage of growth upon induction, and cell lysis is typically observed, the yields, therefore, are extremely poor. In this DBT-funded project, different extracellular-signal sequences were added to the hGM-CSF to get the extracellular production of hGM-CSF. Extracellular production can inhibit the toxicity of hGM-CSF to the host cells and can lead to overexpression of hGM-CSF.

Activities and Societies: Aptamer Group

M.S. (Pharm.) in Biotechnology