Academic Background

• B.Pharm., The Bombay College of Pharmacy, Bombay University (1991)
• Ph.D., School of Pharmacy, West Virginia University (1996)
• Postdoctoral training: School of Pharmacy, Purdue University
• M.B.A., School of Business, University at Albany (2014)

Research Interests

My research interests are in the application of high throughput technologies in functional genomics; chemical biology and drug discovery. Specifically, I am interested in transcriptomics and epigenetics in the development of human diseases.

My graduate training in Medicinal Chemistry involved the cloning and purification of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase, which is the first enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of chitin. I have synthesized and tested various small molecule amino acid analogs against this enzyme from Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae as potential antifungal agents. I also developed HPLC based methods to assay cytochrome P450 2E4 metabolism.

My postdoctoral research in enzymology and molecular pharmacology entailed the study of the triad glutamine amidotransferases; GMP synthetase and Imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase. These studies employing classical enzyme kinetics as well as stopped flow kinetics helped understand the mechanism of ammonia transfer in this class of enzymes. This work also involved collaborative studies in x-ray crystallography to identify the structure of these enzymes. IGP synthase, an amidotransferase involved in histidine biosynthesis is a target of potential antifungal/antibacterial agents while GMP synthetase, a member of the purine biosynthesis pathway is a potential target for chemotherapy since levels of this enzyme are elevated in tumor cells. I also studied SAICAR synthetase; an enzyme involved in biosynthesis of purines (ATP and GTP), as another potential target for the ansamysin class of anticancer agents.

My research at UAlbany has involved development and application of high throughput genomic tools to study a wide variety of diseases for biomarker identification. My lab in collaboration with the Tenenbaum lab developed the application of RNA immunoprecipitation to Affymetrix microarrays (RIP-Chip). We have worked with many collaborators to apply microarray technology to profile gene expression and alternative splicing in a wide variety of biological systems. Our collaborations with the Tenniswood, Conklin and Welsh labs have involved the use of genomic tools to study gene and miRNA expression in breast and prostate cancer. More recently we are working with Dr. Herschkowitz’s group to study the epitranscriptome of breast cancer cells. My interests include understanding DNA and RNA methylation that occurs in cancer as well as the role of noncoding RNA in these pathologies.

Recent Publications

• Lopez-Dee ZP, Chittur SV, Patel H, Chinikaylo A, Lippert B, Patel B, Lawler J, Gutierrez LS. (2015) Thrombospondin-1 in a murine model of colorectal carcinogenesis PLoS One, 10(10)e0139918.
• Kokabee, L, Wang, X, Sevinsky, C, Wang, WW, Chittur, SV, Karimipoor, M, Tenniswood, M, Conklin.DS (2015) Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK-C) is a potential therapeutic target in prostate cancer Cancer Biology & Therapy, 16(11) 1604-15.
• Helle, J, Bader, MI, Keiler, AM, Zierau, O, Vollmer, G, Chittur, SV, Tenniswood, M, Kretzschmar, G, (2016) Cross-talk in the female rat mammary gland: Influence of Aryl hydrocarbon 1 receptor on Estrogen receptor signaling Environmental Health Perspectives 124(5):601-10.
• Gorski, J.P, Huffman, NT, Vallejo, J, Brotto L, Chittur, S.V., Breggia, A, Stern, A, Huang, J, Mo, C, Seidah, NG, Bonewald, L, and Brotto, M.(2016) Deletion of Mbtps1 in Osteocytes Stimulates Soleus Muscle Regeneration and Increased Size and Contractile Force with Age J. Biol Chem. 26;291(9):4308-22.
• Upadhyay M, Martino Cortez Y, Wong-Deyrup S, Tavares L, Schowalter S, Flora P, Hill C, Nasrallah MA, Chittur S, Rangan P. (2016) Transposon Dysregulation Modulates dWnt4 Signaling to Control Germline Stem Cell Differentiation in Drosophila. PLoS Genetics Mar 28;12(3):e1005918.
• DeVaux RS, Kuentzel M, Herschkowitz J, Chittur SV (2016) Determination of alternate splicing events using transcriptome arrays, Methods in Molecular Biology; 1507:245-259.

Full list available at The National Library of Medicine