Smriti Arora

Assistant Professor

Papers published in journals: 3 published 

Papers presented in conferences: 4

Citations: 36

Academic Background

 

Degree College/University Year of passing
Ph.D (Microbiology and Cell Biology) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 2013
M. Biotechnology All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 2006
BSc. (Hons) Microbiology University of Delhi 2004


Career Graph

 

Year Role
2014-15 Holistic International testing Services FZ LLC, Dubai
2015-15 Research Scientist Epygen Labs FZ LLC, Dubai
2017-18 Research Associate
2018-19 DST-Women Scientist A
2019-20 Post-doctoral trainee Ben Gurion University of Negev, Israel

 

Honours and Achievements:

  • 2019 Post-doctoral fellowship of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  • 2017 DST Women Scientist Award 2017, Govt. of India.
  • 2014 Recipient of incentive awards for publications 2014, DBT, Ministry of    Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
  • 2012 Won 1st prize in oral presentation VI RNA group meeting.
  • 2006 Recipient of CSIR-UGC NET fellowship for research (Ranked in top 20%).
  • 2006 Recipient of ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) fellowship for research.
  • 2006 Recipient of fellowship for research from DBT, Govt. of India.
  • 2004 Recipient of merit scholarship from the DBT, Govt. of India during M. Biotechnology


Research

1. Contribution: Antibody dependent enhancement is a phenomenon observed in flaviviruses esp. Dengue and WNV where subsequent infections are more severe. At the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, she was involved in developing an Antigen microarray as a diagnostic kit for ADE. Another aim was to prove ADE of ZIKA in mouse model. She successfully used swiss cohort to show vaccination of Tick borne encephalitis was successful and due to which cross-reactive antibodies were formed in the subjects we were given to study. ADE in mouse model was also observed in a small group of mice (20 mice). Wild type mice (n = 60) were also used to prove in vivo ADE of ZIKA.

2. Proteins are work horses of the cell. Protein folding is central to key processes of the cell. At CSIR-IGIB, she along with her team aimed to understand the process of adaptive thermotolerance in lab adapted coli. They created knock-outs of molecular chaperones and learnt that chaperones are not the only determinants of protein folding at high temperature but also certain metabolites of 1-carbon metabolism as assessed by mass spectrometry.

3. Translation is a basic process of the cell wherein the genetic code/message in form of codons of mRNA is decoded into proteins - the functional entity of the cell. The process of Translation is divided into four steps – Initiation, Elongation, Termination and Recycling in prokaryotes. A deep understanding of this process in the light of structural and biochemical data with integration of genetics is was our objective. They uncovered the finer details of the process of initiation using insights from structural and biochemical data on selection and passage of tRNA at the P site of the ribosome (initiator and peptidyl tRNA). They showed that post-transcriptional modifications of rRNA i.e. the methylations of G966 and C967 near the vicinity of initiator tRNA binding site and the conserved residues of tail of S9 protein (SKR) of the ribosome are involved in fidelity of translation at the step of initiation as well as elongation.

Interests: Virology, Bacteriology, Immunology, Diagnostics, Host-pathogen interaction

Recent Publications

 

  1. Arora S., Friedman L. and Hertz, T. Antigen microarray based diagnostic kit to identity individuals predisposed to antibody dependent enhancement in flaviviruses (Manuscript in preparation).
  2. Demina A. V.*, Arora S.*, Edri A.*, Bolel P., Haldi* M., Levy S., Sauce D., Karrer U., Rouvinski A., Lobel L., Friedman L., Porgador A., Hertz, T. TBE vaccine and post-disease antibodies cause antibody dependent enhancement of zika infection (Manuscript in preparation).
  3. - Rai M.+, Arora S.+, Verma K., and Chakraborty, K. Escherichia coli adapts to thermal stress by altered central carbon metabolism (Manuscript in preparation).
  4. - Shetty, S., Nadimpalli, H., Shah, R.A., Arora, S., Das, G. and Varshney, U., 2014. An extended Shine–Dalgarno sequence in mRNA functionally bypasses a vital defect in initiator tRNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(40), pp.E4224-E4233.
  5. - Arora, S., Bhamidimarri, S.P., Weber, M.H. and Varshney, U., 2013. Role of the ribosomal P-site elements of m2G966, m5C967, and the S9 C-terminal tail in maintenance of the reading frame during translational elongation in Escherichia coli. Journal of bacteriology, 195(16), pp.3524-3530.
  6. - Arora, S., Bhamidimarri, S.P., Bhattacharyya, M., Govindan, A., Weber, M.H., Vishveshwara, S. and Varshney, U., 2013. Distinctive contributions of the ribosomal P-site elements m 2 G966, m5 C967 and the C-terminal tail of the S9 protein in the fidelity of initiation of translation in Escherichia coli. Nucleic acids research, 41(9), pp.4963-4975.

Projects or Ph.D.s guided:

  • Name of student: Sathya Prathyusha B, Ph.D student, Germany
  • Program: Research Assistant at IISc.
  • Name of student: Poorani Nanda Kumar
  • Program: Research Assistant at IISc.
  • Name of student: Umika Vohra, Dentistry course Gulf Medical College, Ajman, UAE
  • Program: Internship at Epygen labs.
  • Name of student: Shivani Nasta, Pharmacology course, UK
  • Program: Internship at Epygen labs.

Personal interests: Yoga, Meditation, Traveling, Discovering bacteriophages