सदस्य:88gayathri.s/Swati Patankar

Dr. Swati Patankar

Dr. Swati Patankar is a professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Her main area of research is Molecular Parasitology with an emphasis on malaria.

88gayathri.s/Swati Patankar

Education

Dr. Patankar received her IB diploma from Armand Hammer United World College, Montezuma, New Mexico. She went on to receive her Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences/ Biochemistry from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India. She followed her academic pursuit with a Doctoral degree in Molecular Microbiology from Tufts University, Boston, USA. In her Ph.D. project, she characterized the regulation of tyrosine hydrolase gene in rats . She laid the foundation stone for her research career with a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Immunology & Infectious Diseases Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA. This was her first stint with Plasmodium.

Career

Dr. Patankar worked as a group leader for Nicholas Piramal India Limited. Later, she joined IIT-Bombay as an Assistant Professor and rose to the rank of a Professor. She is the course instructor of Molecular Biology, Topics in Biotechnology, and Biological enquiry: History and Philosophy. She was awarded Excellence in Teaching in the years 2012 and 2016. She has been appointed as the Dean of International Relations of IIT-Bombay in 2018. She was also a visiting scientist at Harvard School of Public Health as well as Advanced Centre for Training, Research and Education in Cancer. Dr. Patankar is a lifetime member of Indian Society for Cell Biology. She has been an invited member of research and training in WHO Tropical Diseases (TDR).

Research

The genome of Plasmodium falciparum genome is known to be AT-rich. This makes it difficult to identify the translation initiation sites in its genome. Dr. Patankar's team defined the optimal sequences for the same. The AT-rich genome also results in high number of open reading frames (ORFs). Her research sheds light on how the expression of these regions are repressed. Additionally, they found that conserved GC-rich sequences were associated with antigenic proteins of the parasite.

Dr. Patankar's lab has attempted to understand of RNA-mediated processes in Plasmodium falciparum. They identified putative small nuclear RNA (snRNA) and small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) in the parasite. They have worked on the trafficking of snRNAs, as well. Their work suggests that the parasite lacks the cellular machinery for trafficking of snRNAs between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Hence, it might hypermethylated the snRNAs in the nucleus or nucleolus.

Dr. Patanakar worked in collaboration with Prof. Pradeepkumar P. I. on gene silencing. They found that protein phosphatase (PP2Ac) gene can be repressed by the presence of a putative G‐quadruplex (G4) ‐forming sequence. This can target fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). Together, they also worked on creating modified small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that showed gene silencing in HeLa cells. They further deciphered the structural and dynamic features of this modification in siRNA duplexes.

Plasmodium falciparum transports its proteins to the host cell membrane and to the apicoplast. Dr. Patankar's research elucidates the different protein trafficking pathways in the parasite. The principal pathways are: (i) the vesicular trafficking pathway that transport secretory proteins and an apicoplast membrane protein, PfTPx_Gl; and (ii) the pathway independent of G protein-coupled vesicles that transport apicoplast luminal proteins. P. falciparum glutathione peroxidase‐like thioredoxin peroxidase (PfTPx_Gl) might be trafficked by the ER–Golgi pathway. They delved deeper to find that PfTPx_Gl possess signal anchors for this apicoplast targeting pathway. Among the P. falciparum proteins that contain a classical nuclear localization signal (NLS) are RNA hypermethylase and trimethylguanosine synthase (PfTGS1). PfTGS1 has an insertion with unknown function. Dr. Patankar's team was the first to identify the insertion as the NLS that binds to P. falciparum importin-α. Moreover, her lab investigated the unconventional mechanisms for regulation of cargo binding and release. Plasmodium falciparum was shown to have a single importin α isoform lacking auto-inhibition. This lack of auto-inhibition may aid in the faster growth the parasite. Besides this, her team studied protein trafficking in another parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Thioredoxin peroxidase 1/2 (TgTPx1/2), in this organism, is transported to the apicoplast and the mitochondrion. How does the cell know where to transport this protein? The answer lies an ambiguous signal sequence along with a hierarchy of recognition by the protein trafficking machinery.

Plasmodium falciparum lacks certain antioxidant proteins from key subcellular compartments. Dr. Patankar's research found that this absence is compensated by the cross-talk between the glutathione and thioredoxin systems.

Dr. Patankar's lab also sought antimalarial compounds that targeted tubulin. They developed assays to assess the binding of lead compounds to tubulin dimer. In partnership with Prof. Brian Cooke and Prof. Ross Coppel, the team found that curcumin perturbs the microtubules P. falciparum, at least, in part. In collaboration with Prof. B. Madhusudan, they entrapped curcuminoids in lipid nanoparticles that proved to be twice as effective as free curcuminoids against malaria. Together, they also identified the antimalarial activity of antituberculosis drugs: rifampicin, isoniazide, and ethambutol. In a joint project with Rinti Banerjee and Prof. B. Madhusudan, the team formulated curcuminoids-loaded liposomes that may show antimalarial activity. Plasmepsins in Plasmodium falciparum are involved in hemoglobin (Hb) catabolism. Dr. Patankar joined hands with Dr. Prasenjit Bhaumik to make structure-guided drug discovery of inhibitors that block plasmepsins. They resolved the crystal structures of plasmepsin-inhibitor complexes revealing features that modulate their differential potency.

Dr. Patankar worked with Prof. Sanjeeva Srivastava on various proteomics studies of malaria. The group tried to understand the antibody responses to P. falciparum and P. vivax in Southwest India. Additionally, they conducted a multi-disciplinary study to find potential predictive markers for malaria severity.