CV of Beena Pillai, June 2015

Curriculum Vitae of Beena Pillai Scientist CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi https://sites.google.com/a/rnabiology.org/beena-pillai/ http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=ofN6G20AAAAJ&hl=en

Research Interests: 

Molecular basis of polyglutamine toxicity and neurodegeneration

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Small RNA mediated gene regulation

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Neuronal Gene regulation by histone variants

Positions Held: Scientist Fellow, CSIR-IGIB (Aug 2002- Jan 2004) Scientist, CSIR-IGIB (Jan 2004 -Jan 2007) Principal Scientist, CSIR-IGIB (Jan 2007- 2011) Senior Scientist, CSIR-IGIB (Jan 2011 onwards) Education: B. Sc (1995) Microbiology; Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai M S (1998) Life sciences; IISc, Bangalore Ph.D (2002) Life sciences; IISc, Bangalore Honors/Awards  

CSIR Young Scientist Award (Biological Sciences), 2008. Indian National Science Academy‐ Young Scientist Award, 2009

Research Interests:  MicroRNA- target networks in neurogenesis and brain development in mice and zebrafish.  Histone variant expression and role during neurogenesis.  Neuronal dysfunction resulting from polyglutamine expansion in neurodegenerative diseases.  Search for a nerve regeneration factor from earthworms.

1 e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

CV of Beena Pillai, June 2015

Publications: Research Papers: 37; Reviews: 4; Book Chapters: 2; h-index =17 1. A simple alternative to stereotactic injection for brain specific knockdown of miRNA. JoVE, in press. (2015) Suryawanshi,H.*,Sarangdhar,M. A.*, Vij, M., Roshan, R., Singh, V. P., Ganguli, M., Pillai, B. 2. Cell based gene therapy against HIV. Gene Therapy, (2015), in press Dey R. and Pillai B. 3. Non-coding RNA interact to regulate neuronal development and function. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (2014) in press. Iyengar B.R., Choudhary, A., Sarangdhar, M.A., Venkatesh, K.V., Gadgil, C. J. and Pillai, B.* 4. A study on the influence of different promoter and 5'UTR (URM) cassettes from Arabidopsis thaliana on the expression level of the reporter gene β glucuronidase in tobacco and cotton. Transgenic Res. (2014) 23(2):351-63. Agarwal P, Garg V, Gautam T, Pillai B, Kanoria S, Burma P.K*. 5. Engineering whole-cell biosensors to evaluate the effect of osmotic conditions on bacteria. Annals of Microbiology (2013), 63(4),1283-1290. Walawalkar, Y.D.*, Phadke, R.P., Noronha, S., Patankar, S., Pillai, B. 6. Hsp90-targeted miRNA-liposomal formulation for systemic antitumor effect. Biomaterials.(2013) 34(28):6804-17. Pore SK, Choudhary A, Rathore B, Ganguly A, Sujitha P, Kumar CG, Agawane SB, Kumar JM, Scaria V, Pillai B, Banerjee R.* 7. Comprehensive expression analyses of neural cell type-specific miRNA identify new determinants of the specification and maintenance of neuronal Phenotypes. The Journal of Neuroscience, (2013) 33 (12), 5127-5137. In press. Jovičić A, Roshan R, Moisoi N, Pradervand S, Moser R, Pillai B*,and LuthiCarter R. * 8. Detection and knockdown of microRNA-34a using Thioacetamido Nucleic Acid. Nucleic acids therapeutics (2013) 2013: 195-202. Soni K, Gupta S,. Gokhale Sachin S, Dey R, Gunjal A , Kumar A V, Pillai B*. 9. miR-34 is maternally inherited in Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 41 (8), 4470-4480. Soni K, Choudhary A, Patowary A, Singh AR, Bhatia S, Sivasubbu S, Chandrasekaran S, Pillai B. * 10. Identification of novel targets for miR-29a using miRNA proteomics. PLoS One. (2012);7(8). Bargaje R, Gupta S, Sarkeshik A, Park R, Xu T, Sarkar M, Halimani M, Roy SS, Yates J*, Pillai B. * 11. Proximity of H2A.Z containing nucleosome to the transcription start site influences gene expression levels in the mammalian liver and brain. Nucleic Acids Res. (2012) Oct;40(18):8965-78. Bargaje R, Alam MP, Patowary A, Sarkar M, Ali T, Gupta S, Garg M, Singh M, Purkanti R, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S, Brahmachari V*, Pillai B. * 12. Regulation of BACE1 by miR-29a/b in a cellular model of Spinocerebellar Ataxia 17. RNA Biol. Jun;9(6):891-9 (2012) Roshan R, Ghosh T, Gadgil M, Pillai B. * 13. Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanocrystals affect the expression of genes involved in the TGF beta signalling pathway. Mol Biosyst. (2011) May;7(5):1481-6. Mandal,T.K., Das,T.K., Singh,Y., Pillai,B. and Maiti,S. 14. A kinetic model of TBP auto‐regulation exhibits bistability. Biol. Direct. (2010). 5:50.,50. Gokhale,S.A., Roshan,R., Khetan,V., Pillai,B. *, and Gadgil,C.J. * 15. Consensus miRNA expression profiles derived from interplatform normalization of microarray data. RNA. (2010). 16, 16-25. Bargaje,R., Hariharan,M., Scaria,V., and Pillai,B. * 16. MicroRNAs: novel therapeutic targets in neurodegenerative diseases. Drug Discov. Today. (2009). 14, 1123-1129. Roshan,R., Ghosh,T., Scaria,V., and Pillai,B. 17. Incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity: is there a microRNA connection? Bioessays.(2009). 31, 981-992.Ahluwalia,J.K.,Hariharan,M.,Bargaje,R.,Pillai,B.,and Brahmachari,V. * 18. Human cellular microRNA hsa‐miR‐29a interferes with viral nef protein expression and HIV‐1 replication. Retrovirology.(2008). 5:117., 117. Ahluwalia,J.K., Khan,S.Z.,Soni,K., Rawat,P., Gupta,A., Hariharan,M., Scaria,V., Lalwani,M., Pillai,B., Mitra,D. *, and Brahmachari,S.K. * 19. MicroRNA‐mediated up‐regulation of an alternatively polyadenylated variant of the mouse cytoplasmic {beta}‐actin gene. Nucleic Acids Res.(2008). 36, 6318‐6332. Ghosh,T., Soni,K., Scaria,V., Halimani,M., Bhattacharjee,C., and Pillai,B. *

2 e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

CV of Beena Pillai, June 2015 20. GASCO: genetic algorithm simulation for codon optimization. In Silico. Biol. (2008). 8, 187‐ 192.Sandhu,K.S., Pandey,S., Maiti,S., and Pillai,B. * 21. Host‐virus genome interactions: macro roles for microRNAs. Cell Microbiol. (2007). 9, 2784‐2794. Scaria,V., Hariharan,M., Pillai,B., Maiti,S., and Brahmachari,S.K. * 22. A role for voltage‐dependent anion channel Vdac1 in polyglutamine‐mediated Neuronal cell death. PLoS.One.(2007). 2,e1170.Ghosh,T., Pandey,N. Maitra,A.,Brahmachari,S.K., and Pillai,B. * 23. Molecular effects of uptake of gold nanoparticles in HeLa cells. Chembiochem. (2007). 8, 1237‐ 1240.Khan,J.A., Pillai,B., Das,T.K., Singh,Y., and Maiti,S. * 24. microRNA: an emerging therapeutic. ChemMedChem. (2007). 2, 789‐792. Scaria,V.,Hariharan,M., Brahmachari,S.K., Maiti,S., and Pillai,B. * 25. Relative levels of RNA polII subunits differentially affect starvation response in budding yeast. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2007). 356, 266‐272. Singh,S.R.,Pillai,B., Balakrishnan,B., Naorem,A., and Sadhale,P.P. * 26. Host‐virus interaction: a new role for microRNAs. Retrovirology. (2006). 3:68., 68. Scaria,V., Hariharan,M., Maiti,S., Pillai,B., and Brahmachari,S.K. * 27. DyNAVacS: an integrative tool for optimized DNA vaccine design. Nucleic Acids Res. (2006). 34, W264‐ W266. Harish,N., Gupta,R., Agarwal,P., Scaria,V., and Pillai,B. * 28. Homocysteine and cysteine‐mediated growth defect is not associated with induction of oxidative stress response genes in yeast. Biochem. (2006). J. 396, 61‐69.Kumar,A., John,L., Alam,M.M., Gupta,A., Sharma,G., Pillai,B. *, and Sengupta,S. * 29. Cigarette smoke extract induces changes in growth and gene expression of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2005). 338, 1578‐1586. John,L., Sharma,G., Chaudhuri,S.P., and Pillai,B. * 30. Targets for human encoded microRNAs in HIV genes. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2005). 337, 1214‐1218. Hariharan,M., Scaria,V., Pillai,B., and Brahmachari,S.K. * 31. Genome‐wide expression profile of steroid response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2004). 317, 406‐413. Banerjee,D., Pillai,B., Karnani,N., Mukhopadhyay,G., and Prasad,R*. 32. Domainal organization of the lower eukaryotic homologs of the yeast RNA polymerase II core subunit Rpb7 reflects functional conservation. Nucleic Acids Res.(2004). 32, 201‐210. Singh,S.R., Rekha,N., Pillai,B., Singh,V., Naorem,A., Sampath,V.,Srinivasan,N., and Sadhale,P.P*. 33. RNA Isolation from High ‐ Phenolic Freeze‐ Dried Tea (Camellia sinensis) leaves. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. (2003).21: 465a–465g. Jaiprakash,M., Pillai,B.,Venkatesh,P., Subramanian,N., Sinkar,V.P.and Sadhale,P.P.* 34. Whole genome expression profiles of yeast RNA polymerase II core subunit, Rpb4, in stress and nonstress conditions. J. Biol. Chem. (2003). 278, 3339‐3346. Pillai,B.,Verma,J., Abraham,A., Francis,P., Kumar,Y., Tatu,U., Brahmachari,S.K., andSadhale,P.P.* 35. Genome‐wide expression profile of RNA polymerase II subunit mutant of yeast using microarray technology. Current Science. (2001). 81(5), 574‐578. Pillai B.,Brahmachari, S. K.and Sadhale, P.P*. 36. Rpb4, a non‐essential subunit of core RNA polymerase II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is important for activated transcription of a subset of genes. J. Biol. Chem. (2001). 276, 30641‐30647. Pillai,B., Sampath,V., Sharma,N., and Sadhale,P.P.* 37. Modulation of polymerase II composition: a possible mode of transcriptional regulation of stress response in eukaryotes. J. Biosci. (1998). 23, 331‐335. Sadhale P. *, Sharma N., Pillai B., Katoch A., Acharya N. and Singh S. K. *Communicating author BOOK CHAPTERS: 38. Beena Pillai, "Non-coding RNA" in Gene and its Engineering, (2015) ed. H. K. Das, Wiley Publications 39. Mitali Mukerji, Beena Pillai, Somdatta Sinha& S. K. Brahmachari. Textbook of Biotechnology, (2005) ed. H. K. Das, Wiley Publications, Specific contribution: Contributed the section titled "Functional genomics using Microarray Technology".

3 e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]