Prior Degrees

• BVSc (Veterinary Medicine), Madras
• Veterinary Colllege, Chennai, India, May 2004; MSc (Bio-Informatics)
• Bharatiyar University, Coimbatore, India, June 2006

Mentor(s)

Adjunct Faculty and USDA, ARS Supervisory Research Geneticist, Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory (ADOL), Dr. Hans Cheng

Research Interests

My current research that I am working towards my PhD involves identification of positional candidate genes for candidate gene for resistance in Marek’s disease, a highly pathogenic viral infection in chickens. Specifically, it involves identification of genomic regions bound by an oncogenic protein, Meq by ChIP-Seq and DNA microarray analyses. This provides profile transcripts and I intend to examine genes regulated by Meq to elucidate positional candidate genes that confer genetic resistance to Marek’s disease. Today, advances in high-performance computing, data management are transforming many aspects of biomedical research and have produced a new generation of tools for studying gene and protein sequences, macromolecular structures, and metabolic systems. These tools have greatly accelerated the progress of molecular biology and promise to change the way diseases are predicted and treated in the future. My project involves both biological experimentation and computational skills that provide wealth of information on the binding sequences and genes regulated by Meq.