O’Brien Institute (OBI)

Dr. Caroline Taylor

Caroline is a Senior Research Officer and the Molecular Biology Coordinator at the O’Brien Institute. She gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge where her research focussed on intracellular pH regulation. Following this Caroline spent two years at the Medical College of Georgia where her research focus changed to signalling mechanisms involved in Angiogenesis. Caroline is mainly involved in a project that focuses on optimizing molecular tools to understanding the expression of ncRNA from tissue samples and biological fluids as biomarkers for early detection of diabetes.

E-mail: cj.taylor@unimelb.edu.au

Dr. Sundy Yang

Sundy is a Research Officer working on understanding the development of extra-pancreatic endocrine progenitor cells. She is specifically involved in characterizing a novel population of islet progenitor cells from the human and mouse gallbladder using mice wherein Pdx1-producing pancreatic progenitor cells can be tagged and sorted to characterize this population of islet progenitor cells. Sundy has been trained in protein chemistry during her PhD and has one year postdoctoral experience in diabetes. Her research skill/expertise includes: molecular biology, cell culture, protein chemistry and protein crystallography.

E-mail: snyang@unimelb.edu.au

Nicola Hetherington

Nicola is a Research Assistant working on understanding the role of non-coding RNAs in development and differentiation of human pancreatic islet-derived progenitor cells. After graduation from the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, at the University of Newcastle, Nicola has been involved in Clinical Research, Research Governance Unit at the St’ Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. Her expertise includes routine molecular biology skills (quantitative real-time PCR, RNA/ DNA Extraction, Somatic Embryo Transfer and Microscopy.

E-mail: nicolaah@unimelb.edu.au

You-Jin Sohn

You-Jin is a medical student from University of Melbourne who is working on an AMS project at Diabetes section of the O’Brien Institute. She is involved in molecular characterization of immature insulin-producing cells using Pdx1-GFP and Ins-GFP mice. You-Jin aims to understand the expression of immature cells in developing mouse pancreas and assess the role of islet-specific microRNAs along with incretin hormones to achieve efficient differentiation and maturation of these cells.

E-mail: y.sohn@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au

Michael Williams

Michael is a PhD student working on adipose-tissue derived stem / progenitor cells with Dr. Geraldine Mitchell (Vascular Biology Group) and Dr. Anand Hardikar (Diabetes Group). Michael is involved in isolation, characterization and differentiation of adipose tissue derived progenitor / stem-like cells and side populations to multiple lineages including the skeletal muscle and endocrine pancreas. He aims to assess the chromatin conformation of adipose derived progenitor / stem cells and understand the potential of epigenetic regulators in differentiation.

E-mail: m.williams9@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

The research carried in the Hardikar laboratory is supported by other core facilities through Effie Keramidaris (Cell culture and Cryostorage facilities), Jason Palmer (Immuno and Histochemistry facilities) and Anna Philosof (Intellectual property manager) at the O’Brien Institute.

National Center for Cell Science (NCCS)

Amaresh Ranjan

Amaresh is a Senior Research Fellow funded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. Amaresh has been trained in Biotechnology during his Master’s program and is presently working for his PhD. His present focus is to assess the potential of host-derived human endothelial cells for generation of vascular grafts. Amaresh is also involved in understanding the endothelial damage in Diabetes. His research skill / expertise include: cell culture, 2D-gel electrophoresis, proteomics, confocal microscopy and other routine biochemical / molecular biology techniques.

E-mail: amaresh@isletbiology.com

Sarang Satoor

Sarang is a technician with core facility of DNA Sequencing in NCCS under Dr. Yogesh Shouche. He has carried out his Masters in Biochemistry (Partly by papers and partly by research) from Pune University under guidance of Dr. Sudha Bhide. He is presently working for his Ph.D on understanding on the role of vitamin B12, folate and B6 deficiencies in cardiovascular and diabetes related disorders in a human and rat population. His research skills/ expertise includes Cell culture, DNA Sequencing, Hybridoma techniques, Cryobiology and routine biochemical / molecular biology techniques.

E-mail: sarang@isletbiology.com

Subhshri Sahu

Subhshri is a Junior Research Fellow funded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. Subhshri has been trained in Animal Biotechnology during her Master’s program at the University of Hyderabad and is presently working for her PhD. She is working on progenitor cells isolated from human biliary duct epithelium. Her research skills / expertise include: HPLC, TLC, cell culture and other routine biochemical / molecular biology techniques.

E-mail: subhshri@isletbiology.com

Vishal Parekh

Vishal is a Research Fellow trained in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology during his Master’s program at the University of Pune. He is presently working for his PhD on understanding the potential of human umbilical cord blood derived cells for replacement therapy in diabetes. His research skill / expertise include: Isolation of MSCs from umbilical cord blood, cell culture, confocal microscopy, molecular biology (qRT-PCR, TLDAs, single cell PCR) and surgical procedures in mice and rats (transplantation of cells under kidney capsule, Partial pancreatectomy and c-section delivery / foster pairing in rats) as well as other routine biochemical techniques.

E-mail: vishal.nanoscience@gmail.com

Tejaswini Sharangdhar

Tejaswini is a project assistant funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Tejaswini has been trained in cell and developmental biology and carries experience in handling mouse as well as human embryonic stem (ES) cells. She is presently involved in investigating the role of microRNAs and other pancreatic growth and differentiation factors to achieve directed differentiation of ES cells into endocrine pancreatic lineage. Tejaswini is also trained in routine molecular and cell biology, imaging, stem cell maintenance /differentiation and other routine biochemical and molecular biology techniques.

E-mail: tejaswini@isletbiology.com

Malati Umrani

Malati is a full time research technician employed by the National Center for Cell Science, Pune. She has carried out her Masters in Zoology from Pune University under the guidance of Dr. R.R.Bhonde. During her Masters’ degree program, she worked on understanding the replication of islet beta cells. Malati brings with her expertise in cell and tissue culture, routine biochemical / molecular biology assays, cytotoxicity testing of drugs, HPLC, animal studies / surgeries and protein chemistry. Malati is presently working on isolation, characterization and functional analysis of protein fractions related to pancreatic islet regeneration and endocrine cell proliferation.

E-mail: malati@isletbiology.com

Students:

1) Maithali Dalvi : 2008 – 2009 (MSc project student)

Maithili was awarded MSc in 2009

Title of research dissertation: Differentiation of Human Fetal Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Islet-like Clusters in vitro

2) Dhawal Jain: 2008 – 2009 (MTech project student)

Dhawal was awarded MSc in 2008 and MTech in 2009

Title of research dissertation: Assessment of Endocrine Pancreas Specific Genes and miRNAs in Mammalian Brain during Embryonic Development

3) Mugdha V. Joglekar: 2006 – 2009:

Mugdha was awarded a PhD degree in 2009

Title of PhD thesis: Differentiation of Human Fetal Pancreas-derived Islet Progenitor Cells for Potential Use in Cell Replacement Therapy for Diabetes

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Other students trained in the lab:

1) Sharad Bhaiya (Aug 2007 – Dec 2007)

2) Dr. Sanal MG (Jan 2007 – Mar 2007)

3) Smruti Phadnis (Nov 2005 – Jul 2007)

4) Amrutesh Puranik (June 2006 – Dec 2008)

5) Girija Kulkarni (Sept 2008 – Dec 2009)

6) Tejashri S. Pawaskar (Sept 2008 – Feb 2009)

This page has been accessed from:

Access archive: (2008 – 2009)