Education:

Santosh Kumar Dasari pursued his M.Sc. in Biotechnology (2005) from University of Hyderabad followed by Ph.D (2012) in Molecular Reproduction from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Then he moved to Israel for his postdoctoral work (2013-2017) at Weizmann Institute of Science. Later he moved to MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, initially as a postdoc (2018-2021) and later promoted to an instructor (2021-2022) in the department of gynaecologic oncology and reproductive medicine. He Joined NIAB on 11th October 2022.

Awards and Honours:
1. Awarded Graduate Research scholarship (CSIR-JRF/NET-December 2004) and was invited for Shyam Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) fellowship interview.
2. Qualified GATE-2005 in Life Sciences with AIR=77
3. Awarded G P Talwar’s gold medal for best poster presentation in ISSRF conference, INDIA, 2007.
4. Awarded best poster prize at Cell Death in Development and Disease conference, ISRAEL, 2017

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=oIi0nSUAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35739898300

Research:

A receptive endometrium is essential for successful embryo implantation and establishment of pregnancy in mammals. Endometrial receptivity is a complex process that provides the embryo the chance to attach and establish close interaction with the maternal endometrium. Changes in the endometrial epithelial cell morphology during the window of implantation is in part mediated by the rising progesterone levels as well as epithelial cell interactions with the trophoectodermal cells of the implanting embryo.

Although a lot of work is done in the context of pre-implantation embryo development in ruminants, very little is known about the changes in the endometrium during the window of implantation. My research group will focus on understanding the changes in the endometrial epithelial cells during the window of implantation and also ascertain the differences between non-receptive and receptive endometrium. Our lab will have 3 major areas of focus which are listed below:

1. Endometrial Receptivity
2. Endometritis
3. Novel Therapeutics

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=oIi0nSUAAAAJ&hl=en

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Dasari SK, Bialik S, Levin-Zaidmann S, Levin-Salomon V, Merrill AJ, Futerman AH and Kimchi A. Signalome-wide RNAi screen identifies GBA1 as a positive mediator of autophagic cell death. Cell Death Differentiation, 24(7):1288-1302, 2017.

2. Dasari SK#, McGuire MH#, Yao H, Wen Y, Mangala LS, Bayraktar E, Ma W, Ivan C, Shoshan E, Wu SY, Jonasch E, Bar-Eli M, Wang J, Baggerly KA and Sood AK. Gene body methylation of the lymphocyte-specific gene CARD11 results in its overexpression and regulates cancer mTOR signaling. Molecular Cancer Research (2021), 19: 1917-1928.

3. McGuire MH, Herbrich SM, Dasari SK, Wu SY, Wang Y, Rupaimoole R, Lopez-Berestein G, Baggerly KA and Sood AK. Pan-cancer genomic analysis links 3’UTR DNA methylation with increased gene expression in T cells. EBioMedicine J (2019) 43:127-137.

4. Chen X, Mangala LS, Mooberry L, Bayraktar E, Dasari SK, Ma S, Ivan C, Court KA, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Raut S, Sabnis N, Kong X, Yang X, Lopez-Berestein G, Lacko AG and Sood AK. Identifying and targeting angiogenesis-related microRNAs in ovarian cancer. Oncogene (2019) 38(33):6095-6108.

5. Dasari SK*, Schejter E, Bialik S, Shkedy A, Levin-Salomon V, Levin-Zaidmann S and Kimchi A*. Death by over-eating: The Gaucher disease associated gene GBA1, identified in a screen for mediators of autophagic cell death, is necessary for developmental cell death in Drosophila midgut. Cell Cycle., 16 (21): 2003-2010, 2017.

6. Mariappa D, Aladakatti RH, Dasari SK, Sreekumar A, Wolkowicz M, Van der Hoorn F and Seshagiri PB. Inhibition of Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Sperm Flagellar Proteins, Outer Dense Fiber Protein-2 and Tektin-2, is Associated with Impaired Motility during Capacitation of Hamster Spermatozoa. Mol. Reprod. Dev., 77:182-193, 2010.

7. Li Y, Yang S, Sadaoui NC, Hu W, Dasari SK, Mangala LS, Sun Y, Zhao S, Wang L, Liu Y, Ramondetta LM, Li K, Lu C, Kang Y, Cole SW, Lutgendorf SK and Sood AK. Sustained adrenergic activation of YAP1 induces anoikis resistance in cervical cancer cells. iScience (2020), 23(7):101289.