Dr. Manjusha Dixit
Associate Professor
School of Biological Sciences
National Institute of Science Education & Research
Post-doctoral Fellow
2007-2009: John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, Broad area- Genetics of eye diseases
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Post-doctoral Fellow
2006-2007: Center for Genetic Medicine Research, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington DC, USA, Broad area- Role of Pitx1 in FSHD
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Doctoral Fellow
2002-2006: Department of Medical Genetics, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India, Broad area- Medical Genetics
Masters
2001: School of Studies in Biochemistry, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India.
Recognition:
Editorial Board Member, BMC Cancer, 2020- present
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Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports, 2019- present
Dr. Dixit regularly offers two theory and two practical courses in odd or even semester
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Genetics (B205)
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Genetic Engineering (B401)
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Laboratory- Genetics (B244)
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Laboratory- Genetic Engineering (B441)
Brief Description of Research
Dr. Dixit's research interest is to understand the genetics and molecular biology of various human genetic diseases, especially cancer. My research group is interested towards the validation and elucidation of the molecular mechanism of putative angiogenic regulators. We are also interested in finding out the role and molecular mechanism of these newly identified angiogenesis regulators, in tumorigenesis and tumor angiogenesis. We started with FRG1 (a putative angiogenic regulator) and further research led to identification of EEF1A2 and IQGAP2, as its interacting partners. Currently, we have established FRG1 to have reduced expression in cancer and its effect on various properties of cells (proliferation, migration and invasion). We found that IQGAP2 expression is also reduced but the expression of EEF1A2 is increased in tumor tissues. We discovered the mechanism of, how FRG1 and IQGAP2 behave as tumor suppressor genes but EEF1A2 behaves as an oncogene. Our data suggests that all three genes may impart tumorigenic potential by affecting angiogenesis. Another major area of our research includes understanding molecular mechanism of gallbladder cancer and establishment of genetic risk factors in Indian population. So far, we have found that SNPs present in MMP14 affect it’s expression and might be responsible for altered risk in the population of Odisha.