Research Overview

During development, projection neurons of the cerebral cortex are generated first from the pallial ventricular zone followed by astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Since the same population of progenitors give rise to both neurons and glia sequentially, there are switches that are flipped OFF after neurogensis and new switches turned ON to initiate proper gliogenesis. We are interested in understanding how this is achieved in a precise manner.

The generation of induced pluripotent cells has demonstarted that terminal differentiation of a cell type may not be an irreversible process. By knowing the key molecular controls it is possible to revert differentiated cells to an immature state and then redirect it along an alternate differntiation pathway. By undertanding the genetic mechanisms that regulate orderely neurogenesis and gliogenesis we hope to coax cells to switch from one stable state to another.

Prior to joining the Macklis Lab in October, 2008, I did my PhD at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India. During my thesis research, I studied the role of LIM-domain containing transcription factors and their cofactors in neuronal development in fruit flies and mice.

Previous Publications

• Padmanabhan H., Mugdha Deshpande, Neha Sharma, Neha Rajadhyaksha, Nitya Ramkumar, Kenichi Kimura, Veronica Rodrigues, Shubha Tole. Chip is required for post eclosion behavior in Drosophila. J. Neurosci. (2008) 28(37) 9145-50.
• Ryan Remedios, Dhananjay Huilgol, Bhaskar Saha, Padmanabhan Hari, Lahar Bhatnagar, Toshio Ohshima, Anastassia Stoykova and Shubha Tole. A novel stream of amygdaloid cells from the caudal telencephalon reveals a developmental link between the amygdala and the neocortex. Nat. Neurosci. (2007) 10(9)1141-50.
• Bhaskar Saha, Padmanabhan Hari, Dhananjay Huilgol and Shubha Tole. Dual Role for LIM-HD Gene Lhx2 in the Formation of the Lateral Olfactory Tract. J. Neurosci. (2007) 27(9) 2290-2297
• Lakshmi Subramanian, Vanisha Lakhina, Hari Padmanabhan and Shubha Tole. Role of LIM-HD Genes in the Specification of Cell Identity. Proc. Indian Natn Sci Acad. (2003) B69 No. 5 pp 803-824.
• Amrita Gupta, P. Hari Kumar, T.K. Dineshkumar, Umesh Varshney and Hosahalli S. Subramanya. Crystal structure of Rv2118c: An AdoMet-dependent Methyltransferase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. J. Mol. Biol. (2001) 312, 381-391