Dr. Kaushik Sengupta

Research

My lab is interested in understanding how the metazoan nuclei stiffen or soften in a cell as a result of differential signaling. The nucleus is the major work horse of the cell and dictates major processes of the cell like replication, transcription etc. The nucleus is tethered in the cytoplasm by filamentous proteins. The nuclear shape and structure is maintained by a group of proteins called lamins. Lamins play major roles in chromosome positioning, epigenetic regulations, transcription control, DNA  damage repair and replication. Numerous diseases are known to occur when lamins are mutated where the nucleus becomes misshapen and the chromosome architecture also changes therein. Even it has been reported that in various cancers the nuclear architecture and the lamin proteins are grossly misregulated. As a result the transcriptome and hence the proteome of the cell changes. Keeping in mind these facts we are interested in the systems biology of lamin proteins and nuclear functioning. Right now, my lab is interested in: To determine how the signaling pathways are modulated in a disease associated with lamin mutations. To determine chromosome repositioning & epigenetic modulation by altered lamin gene. To delineate the pathways which are perturbed in muscle differentiation/degeneration/regeneration as a sequel to lamin mutations To elucidate how the cytoskeleton connects to the nucleus. To understand the mechanism of force transduction from extracellular matrix to the nucleus via lamins. To address these questions we apply a plethora of Biochemical, Cell Biological and Biophysical techniques. Some commonly used techniques in the laboratory are: Cell culture Confocal microscopy and electron microscopy imaging Transcriptome analysis by RNA seq/microarray/PCR array Proteomic analysis by MALDI Clinical investigations from patients in and around Kolkata Zebrafish model development (in collaboration) Development of diagnostic method in ovarian cancer by monitoring lamin protein