Sunil Kumar Rai

Qualifications:

PhD

Job title:

Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology

School/Division:

Molecular Biology

Biography:

Dr Sunil received a PhD (January 2017) in Neurodevelopmental Genetics from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. In August 2017, he joined Zhou lab as a postdoctoral fellow in Shriners Children Hospital at the University of California, Davis and was involved in a collaborative research project, “The Role of Wnt Signaling in Mouse Neural Tube Development”. During Dr Sunil’s PhD, he was involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, which motivated him to become an educator and lifelong learner in related fields. In 2019, he joined Medical University of the Americas as Assistant Professor.

Qualifications:

PhD. (Biotechnology), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of California, Davis, USA

Areas of expertise Awards and Honors Publications Research Interests Conferences and Talks

Cell and Molecular Biology
Genetics and Molecular Techniques

Awarded for oral presentation in National Scientific Symposium and Workshop on Recent Trends by Department of Anatomy, 2014 Cytogenetics RTCG-2014 organized Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India, 2014.
Awarded for poster presentation in 4th Annual Conference of Research Section IAPS, organized by Department of Pediatric Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India, 2013.
Received a fellowship to do research work at University of Exeter (UK) Medical School on the Project Applying Genomic Technologies to Clinical Problems in India (ACGT-INDIA) (June to August 2015) under the supervision of Professor Andrew Crosby.
Best paper award in World Conference on Clinical Nutrition 2015 (WCCN-2015) organized by the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India, 2015.

Research Articles

Kumar S, Reynolds K, Ji Y, Gu R, Rai SK, Zhou CJ. Impaired neurodevelopmental pathways in autism spectrum disorder: a review of signaling mechanisms and crosstalk.J Neurodev Disord. 2019;11(1):10.
Pandey RS, Singh S, Tiwari R, Ghosh S, Rai SK, Shree P. Homology Modelling and Molecular Docking Study of Organophosphates and Pyrithroids in terms of Potential Toxicity. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2017. 9:09-11.
Pandey S, Singh K, Pandey D, Chand G, Sharma V, Jha RP, Singh R, Rai SK, GuptaR. Cleaved Tau Protein" - A Novel Biomarker Candidate in Mild Neurotrauma In Emergency Settings. Indian Journal of Neurotrauma. 2017. 14: 26-34. 4. Singh K, Rai SK, Kumari P, Prasad R, Shamal RS, Singh R. Folate deficiency is not the only Cause of Neural Tube Defects: A Preliminary Study. Indian Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine. 2017. 47:192-197.
Singh K, Rai SK, Sharma V, Tyagi V, Bhaikhel KK, Khalsa AS. Pattern and Prevalence of Traumatic Brain injury: A Status Update. Indian Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine. 2017. 48:15-20.
Pandey S, Singh K, Sharma V, Pandey D, Jha RP, Rai SK, Chauhan RS. A prospective pilot study on serum cleaved tau protein as a neurological marker in severe traumatic brain injury. British Journal of Neurosurgery. 2017. 31:1-8. PMID: 28293977.
Zollo, M., Ahmed, M., Ferrucci, V., Salpietro, V., Asadzadeh, F., Carotenuto, M., Maroofian, R., Al-Amri, A., Singh, R., Scognamiglio, I. and Mojarrad, M., ……. Rai SK, 2017. PRUNE is crucial for normal brain development and mutated in microcephaly with neurodevelopmental impairment. Brain, 140(4), 940-952.
Gupta R, Kumari P, Pandey S, Joshi D, Sharma SP, Rai SK, Singh R. Homocysteine and Vitamin B 12: other causes of Neural tube defect in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Western Bihar population. Neurology India. 2018. 66:1016-1019.
Rai SK, Singh R, Pandey S, Prasad R, Rai S, Singh K, Shamal SN. High incidence of neural tube defects in northern part of India. Asian Journal of Neurosurgery. 2016.11:352-355.
Bhardwaj R, Rai SK, Yadav AK, Lakhotia S, Agarwal D, Kumar A, Mohapatra B. Epidemiology of congenital heart disease in India. Congenital Heart Disease. 2015:10(5) 437-446.

Book Chapters

Ghosh S*, Rai SK*, Haldar C, and Ravi S. Pandey. Synthesis, Characterization, and Evaluation of Toxicity of Melatonin-Loaded Poly (D, L-Lactic Acid) Nanoparticles (Mel-PLA-Nanoparticles) and Its Putative Use in Osteoporosis. Innovations in Food Technology-Current Perspective and Future Goals. (Springer publishing group. In press) (* Joint first authorship).
Singh K, Rai SK, Kumar A. Parkinson Disease: Symptoms, Molecular and Cellular Study, Current Research and Cure. Biomedical Technology: From health to wealth & future challenges. ISBN 978-93-86608-42-0. 2017. 62-74.
Rai SK, Ghosh S, Singh K, Pandey RS, Singh R. Alzheimer’s Disease: Mechanism and Nutritional Management. World Clinical Congress for Nutrition (In press). 4. Rai SK, and Khanna S. A rapid non-enzymatic method for the preparation of isolation of genomic DNA from blood. Laboratory Manual and Handbook on Recent Trends in Cytogenetics. KBD Printers. 81-902711-1-3. 2014. 22-23

Neurodevelopmental Biology and Neurodegenerative Disorders
Cell Signaling Pathways

Presented poster entitled “Study of Hematological Parameters in Children with Neural Tube Defects” at 4th Annual Conference of Research Section Indian Association of Pediatric Surgery organized by Department of Pediatric Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. 28 September 2013.
Presented poster entitled “Folate and Neural Tube Defects” at World Clinical Congress for Nutrition-2015, organized by the Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, India. 13 - 15 March 2015.
Presented poster entitled “Roles of VANGL2 in Development of Planar Cell Polarity Pathway: An Essential Phenomenon for Organogenesis and its Disruption may Leads to Neural Tube Defects” at NATCON 2015, organized by King Georges Medical University, Lucknow, India. 20 – 23 November 2015.
Poster presentation on “Cell Lineage-specific Roles of PCP Signaling in Neural Tube Closure and Postnatal Growth”, organized by Santa Cruz Developmental Biology (SCDB-2018) at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Administration

Faculty