Category Archives: Team

Researchers, Team, Uncategorized

Sushil Dubey, PhD

sushil-dubey
I hail from Lucknow, a city famed as the cultural center of northern India. After completing my bachelor’s degree in chemistry and botany from Lucknow University, I migrated to south India with a fellowship from the Department of Biotechnology (Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India) to pursue my masters in Biotechnology at Madurai Kamaraj University, India. I qualified the national level GATE exam and started my doctoral program under the mentorship of Dr. P. Sundaresan at the Department of Genetics, Aravind Medical Research Foundation. The focus of my doctoral study was identification and characterization of genes associated with congenital globe anomalies.
With a specific interest to work in the field of genetics and epigenetics of ocular diseases, I applied to Dr. Kleinman’s lab for a postdoctoral position and joined the group in July 2015. During my tenure as a postdoc at UK, I will be exploring the epigenetic regulation and transcriptional repression mediated through histone deacetylase complexes in aging retina and AMD. Data from our lab showed altered expression of HDAC1 and 2 in advanced dry AMD. HDACs (HDAC1 and 2) function in different multiprotein corepressor complexes (mainly Sin3, NuRD and CoREST) that are associated with sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins, which are thought to target the complexes to specific genes, leading to local chromatin modification. The main focus of my research will be to identify the role of these corepressor complexes and subsequent transcriptomic effects in aging retina and AMD.
Outside my research, I like to spend time with my wife and daughter. I also like to travel and look forward to explore and experience all the good things that the Bluegrass State has to offer.
Researchers, Team

Subhash C. Prajapati, PhD

Subhash Prajapati, PhD
Subhash Prajapati, PhD
Dr. Prajapati grew up in New Delhi, and received his bachelor’s degree from University of Delhi, India. In master’s, he studied Biochemistry in Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2014 under the supervision of Professor (Dr.) Shyam S. Chauhan from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. During his Ph.D. course, Dr. Prajapati studied the expression and function of dipeptidyl peptidase III, a Zn2+ dependent aminopeptidase, in multiple human tumor derived cell lines and cancer tissues using high throughput molecular biology and proteomics approaches. He joined Dr. Kleinman’s lab in February 2014 and studying oxidative stress and epigenetic regulation in aging and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Outside the lab, he spends time with his wife Lalti and talks to his family.

Staff, Team

Jennifer Brown

Research Analyst

Jennifer Brown
Jennifer Brown
Hometown: Lexington, KY

Education: B.A., Biology, Berea College

Interests:  Science, football, cooking, and making sure that everything is organized and functional!

Staff, Team

Jacob Roney

Laboratory Technician

Jacob Roney
Jacob Roney
Hometown: Louisville, KY
Education: B.S. in Biology from the University of Kentucky
Interests: Cooking, listening and making music, power lifting, and fishing

Staff, Team

Dingyuan Lou, MS

Laboratory Technician

Dingyuan Lou
Dingyuan Lou, MS
Hometown: Nanchang, China
Education: Institute of Metallurgy, Academia Sinica (Shanghai, China) Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry; University of Jiangxi (Nanchang, China), Bachelor of Science in Analytical Chemistry

Alumni, Team

Andre Berner, PhD

Andre Berner, PhD
Andre Berner, PhD

We are investigating Histone deacetylases (HDAC) which are part of an epigenetic regulatory system serving as a unique control of the chromatin remodeling process, determining the transcriptional availability of any given gene. HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) are reported to suppress neovascularization in various mouse models and have become a novel target for the epigenetic regulation of critical pathways in neurodegenerative diseases including AMD. Heterogeneous effects of HDAC function occur depending on the target locus and the tissue type as HDACi can trigger both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects in a range of inflammation-relevant cell types. These effects include changes in pro- inflammatory eotaxin expression. We aim to establish the effects of broad band chemical HDACi on eotaxin expression and the correlation to cell death.

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Researchers, Team

Kyung Jung, MS

Kyung Jung, MS
Kyung Jung, MS
Kyung Jung, MS: Laboratory Technician

Hometown: Ulsan, South Korea

Education: B.S. of Genetic Engineering at Chosun University, South Korea, M.S. of Toxicology at University of Kentucky

Interests: Soccer, travel

Researchers, Team

Kabhilan Mohan, PhD

Kabhilan Mohan, PhD, Post-doctoral researcher
Kabhilan Mohan, PhD, Post-doctoral researcher
Kabhilan received his PhD from Iowa State University under the mentorship of Sinisa Grozdanic and trained with Randy Kardon during this period.

His main interest is in the development of novel diagnostics that enable early detection of aging diseases, specifically of the retina. He dreams of a day when a routine eye check, conducted from the comfort of one’s home using a smartphone, would provide detailed molecular health of the retina.
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Mark Kleinman, Researchers, Team

Mark Kleinman, MD

Mark Kleinman, MD, MS, Principal Investigator in the Ocular Biology and Imaging Lab at the University of Kentucky
Mark Kleinman, MD, Principal Investigator in the Ocular Biology and Imaging Lab at the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine

I am a physician-scientist at East Tennessee State University specializing in diseases of the retina and vitreous. My research efforts are committed to conducting basic science investigations on neovascular and degenerative eye diseases with specific emphases on aging, inflammation and molecular imaging of early pathological changes to the retina and choroid.

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