Patankar, S.

Dr. Swati Patankar
Professor

Phone: +(91-22) 2576 7773
E-mail: patankar [at] iitb.ac.in
Location: Room No. 502, BSBE Building
Lab web page

Research Interest

  • Regulation of gene expression in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum: transcription initiation, translation initiation, splicing
  • Bioinformatics analysis of P. falciparum genome sequence to study regulation of gene expression and acquisition of genetic diversity
  • P. falciparum tubulin as a target for anti-malarial compounds
  • Anti-oxidant networks in P. falciparum

Academic Background

  • 1984-1986 International Baccalaureate
    Armand Hammer United World College, New Mexico, USA
  • 1986-1989 B. Sc. (Honours Programme), Life Sciences/ Biochemistry
    St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India
  • 1990-1996 Ph. D., Molecular Microbiology
    Tufts University, Boston, USA
  • 1996 – 2000 Postdoctoral fellow, Immunology & Infectious Diseases
    Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA

Teaching (current)

  • Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology, Molecular Biology, Topics in Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering Laboratory

Professional Experience

  • Sept 2000 – June 2002 Group Leader, Genetics, Quest Institute of Life Sciences, Senior Scientist and Lab Head, GeneQuest Laboratory Nicholas Piramal India Ltd., Mumbai, India
  • July – Oct 2002 Visiting scientist, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA
  • Oct 2002 – Feb 2003 Visiting scientist, Advanced Centre for Training, Research and Education in Cancer, Mumbai, India
  • April 2003 – March 2007 Assistant Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
  • April 2007 – Associate Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

Memberships

  • 2001- Present: Life member, Indian Society for Cell Biology
  • 2001-2004: Invited member, The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) Working Group on Genomes to Drugs. TDR is described below.
  • 2005-2008: Invited member, TDR Steering Committee on Pathogenesis and Applied Genomics

Publications

  • Walunj, S., Wang, C., Wagstaff, K., Patankar, S. and Jans, D. A. (2022). Conservation of the classical nuclear import machinery in apicomplexans: ivermectin and GW5074 as potential therapeutics for malaria and toxoplasmosis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23(22), 13899.
  • Bhambid, M., Dey, V., Walunj, S. and Patankar, S. (2022). Toxoplasma gondii importin alpha shows weak auto-inhibition. bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.06.510747
  • Chakrabarti, R., Chery-Karschney, L., White, J., Mascarenhas, A., Skillman, K. M., Kanjee, U., Babar, P. H., Patrapuvich, R., Mohapatra, P. K., Patankar, S., Smith, J. D., Anvikar, A., Valecha, N., Rahi, M., Duraisingh, M. T. and Rathod, P. K. (2022). Diverse malaria presentation across NIH South Asia ICEMR sites in India. American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. 107(4_Suppl), 107-117.
  • Walunj, S.B., Dias, M. M., Kaur, C., Wagstaff, K. M., Dey, V., Hick, C., Patankar, S.* and Jans, D. A.* (2022). High-throughput screening to identify inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum importin a. Cells. 11(7), 1201.
  • Mishra, V., Rathore, I., Deshmukh, A., Patankar, S., Gustchina, A., Wlodawer, A., Yada, R. Y. and Bhaumik, P. (2021). Molecular insights into the inhibition of plasmepsins by HIV-1 protease inhibitors: Implications for antimalarial drug discovery. bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.461917.
  • Prasad, A. and Patankar, S. (2021). Recognition of two distinct pathways for trafficking of proteins to the apicoplast. Letter to the editor. mBio. 12 (6).
  • Venkatesh, A., Jain, A., Davies, H., Rathod, P. K., Patankar S. and Srivastava S. (2021). Protein Arrays for the Identification of Seroreactive Protein Markers for Infectious Diseases. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2344,139-150.
  • Kaur, C. and Patankar, S. (2021). The role of upstream open reading frames in translation regulation in the Apicomplexan parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii. Preprints doi: 10.20944/preprints202104.0680.v1. Parasitology. 148(11), 1277-1287.
  • Prasad, A., Mastud, P. and Patankar, S. (2021). Dually localized proteins found in both the apicoplast and mitochondrion utilize the Golgi-dependent pathway for apicoplast targeting in Toxoplasma gondii. bioRxiv doi:10.1101/2020.03.25.007476. Biology of the Cell. 113 (1), 58-78.

Collaborations

  • Nanoparticles for anti-malarial therapy
    In collaboration with Prof. B. Madhusudan (Kuvempu University, Karnataka) and Prof. Rinti Banerjee (IIT Bombay), we have developed nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems for anti-malarial drugs that have poor bioavailability. Several papers have been published by Aditya N.P., the PhD student working on the project.
  • Chemically modified antisense oligonucleotides
    In a project with Principal Investigator Pradeepkumar P. I. of the Chemistry Department, IIT Bombay (funded by the Dept. of Biotechnology), chemically modified antisense oligonucleotides are being evaluated as a means to down-regulate the action of siRNAs and miRNAs in human cell lines.
  • Proteomics for malaria biomarker discovery
    In a project with Principal Investigator Sanjeeva Srivastava of the Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering, IIT Bombay (funded by the Dept. of Biotechnology), proteomics analyses of samples from malaria patients are being used for discovery of novel biomarkers of the disease

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