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Souvik Naskar

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate (Low Lab, Department of Infectious Disease) at Imperial College London (ICL), UK. I am working on a Wellcome Trust funded project aiming to understand the structural and functional relationships of bacterial secretion systems using Cryo-Electron-Microscopy (Cryo-EM), light microscopy, biochemical and biophysical approaches. The ultimate goal of this current project is to deduce the structure and mechanics of the molecular machines (the bacterial secretion systems) that underlying bacterial pathogenicity in human, animal and plants, could potentially be a novel target compound for antibiotics.

I completed my PhD in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research (IBR) from the University of Warwick. This 4-years Integrated MSc and PhD programme was funded by the Medical Research Council and Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC-DTP). During PhD, I was working on a project based on bacterial cell division and involved high-resolution single-molecule in-vitro and in-vivo imaging of a bacterial cell divisome protein complex FtsEX, using cryo-electron microscopy and light microscopy, respectively. The organisation of the divisome protein complexes involved in bacterial cell division has a massive scientific impact in terms of exploring principles and architecture to eukaryotic cell division through evolutionary relationships, furthermore in exploiting the essential protein-protein interactions in the quest for next-generation antimicrobial development. The goal was to investigate complex interactions of a bacterial protein complex with other divisome proteins during cell division and to purify the complex with its native lipid environment for further structural analysis, which may lead finding a potential inhibitor of the same complex and stops bacteria to divide and increase in numbers. I submitted my thesis under the supervision of Prof. D Roper (Roper group) and Dr C Smith (Smith Lab), at the University of Warwick, UK. The project involved aspects of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), cellular dynamics and infection, which are among MRC's strategic skill priorities. Moreover, AMR is under a global action plan (.pdf) adopted by the world health organisation (WHO) in 2015.

During my early career at the University of Sussex, I had been involved in various research projects where I developed my technical skills working in different labs and interests in the research field. In 2009, I started working with Prof. George Kemenes on an MRC-funded project in the field of learning and memory, developed my behavioural pharmacology skills, biochemical assays, several quantification methods and successfully published two articles (Wan et al., 2010; Korneev et al. 2015). I received a Wellcome Trust Value in Person (VIP) award to continue independent research and published my first authorship article (Naskar et al., 2014) in Nature Communication. Simultaneously, I continued working with my MSc project supervisor Prof. Guy P. Richardson on a part-time basis on a Wellcome Trust funded 'Cellular and molecular basis of hearing' where I developed my molecular biology and protein chemistry skills, investigating tectorial membrane proteins and their interactions during several developmental stages (Cheatham et al., 2014). Since 2010 until joining the University of Warwick in 2015, I had been on successive BBSRC grants on multi-disciplinary neuroscience projects, where working with Dr. Ildiko Kemenes, I successfully contributed to two articles (Pirzer et al. 2014a and 2014b ). While working on these projects, I built up a strong technical background in cellular and molecular neuroscience, a good experience of conducting research and confidence in working independently with minimum supervision.

EDUCATION:
  • 2016 - 2019: MRC-DTP funded PhD in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research (IBR); University of Warwick, UK.
  • 2015 - 2016: MRC-DTP funded MSc in IBR (Distinction); University of Warwick, UK.
  • 2006 - 2007: MSc in Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology (GMMCB), University of Sussex, UK.
  • 2001- 2005: B. Tech in Biotechnology, West Bengal University of Technology, India.
ACADEMIC HONORS AND AWARDS:
  • MRC-DTP Early Career Research Fellow, University of Warwick, UK, Oct 2019 - Nov 2019
  • Flexible Training Award (MRC), University of Warwick, UK, Jan 2017 – 2019
  • MRC-DTP PhD Studentship (Full), University of Warwick, UK, 2015 – 2019
  • Wellcome Trust VIP Award for ‘Research Assistantship’; University of Sussex, UK, Aug - Sept 2009
  • Overseas Student Scholarship (Partial) for MSc Study; University of Sussex, UK, 2006
  • Shilpa Visharad (An honour in excellence of Fine Arts & Painting); Sarbabharatiya Sangeet-O-Sanskriti Parishad (SSOSP), West Bengal State Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, India, 2001
PUBLICATIONS:

1. Korneev, SA., Vavoulis, DV., Naskar, S., Dyakonova, VE., Kemenes, I. and Kemenes, G. (2018) A CREB2-targeting microRNA is required for long-term memory after single-trial learning. Scientific Reports, 8 (1), 3950

2. Korneev, SA., Maconochie, M., Naskar, S., Korneeva, EI., Richardson, GP., O’Shea, M. (2015) A novel long non-coding natural antisense RNA is a negative regulator of Nos1 gene expression. Scientific Reports, 5:11815. DOI: 10.1038/srep11815.

3. Naskar, S., Wan, H. and Kemenes, G. (2014) pT305-CaMKII stabilizes a learning-induced increase in AMPA receptors for ongoing memory consolidation after classical conditioning. Nature Communications, 5: 3967. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4967; recommended by F1000Prime.

4. Pirger, Z., Crossley, M., László, Z., Naskar, S., Kemenes, G., O’Shea, M., Benjamin, PR., Kemenes, I (2014b) Interneuronal Mechanism for Tinbergen’s Hierarchical Model of Behavioral Choice. Current Biology, Volume 24, Issue 17, p2018–2024, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.044

5. Cheatham, MA., Goodyear, RJ., Homma, K., Legan, PK., Korchagina, J., Naskar, S., Siegel, JH., Dallos, P., Zheng, J and Richardson, GP (2014) Loss of the Tectorial Membrane Protein, CEACAM16, Enhances Spontaneous, Stimulus-frequency and Transiently-evoked Otoacoustic Emissions. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(31): 10325-10338; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1256-14.2014

6. Pirger, Z., Naskar, S., László, Z., Kemenes, G., Reglodi, D., and Kemenes, I (2014a) Reversal of Age-Related Learning Deficiency by the Vertebrate PACAP and IGF-1 in a Novel Invertebrate Model of Aging: The Pond Snail (Lymnaea stagnalis). Journal of Gerontology: Series A Biological Science Medical Science, DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glu068

7. Wan, H., Mackay, B., Iqbal, H., Naskar, S. and Kemenes, G (2010) Delayed intrinsic activation of an NMDA-independent CaM-kinase II in a critical time window is necessary for late consolidation of an associative memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(1):56-63. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2577-09.2010.

 

 

Souvik Naskar, PhD

Former MRC-DTP funded PhD Student
Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
Warwick Medical School

Supervisors & Lab:

Prof David Roper (Roper group)
Dr Corinne Smith (Smith Lab)
C010, Structural Biology
School of Life Science
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

E-mail: S.Naskar.1@warwick.ac.uk