Dr Moonmoon Deb

In March 2019, I have joined Prof. Bill Earnshaw’s group as a Royal Society- Newton International postdoctoral Fellow, funded by The Royal Society, UK. After completion of my master’s in Microbiology, I started doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Samir Kumar Patra, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India, with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) fellowship. During doctoral research work, my focus was on the epigenetic regulation of breast and colon cancer development. Through my doctoral research, I have established a novel regulatory mechanism of Clusterin and Caveolin1 genes via  DNA methylation and histone modification marks (H3K4me3, H3K9AcS10p, and H3K27me3) which can be modulated by lipid raft and RAS/MEK signaling pathways in cancer cells. After completing my doctoral study, I have awarded with “NAMASTE Erasmus Mundus Action 2, Strand 1” (EMA2) fellowship and Development Fund, Cancer Research UK, Oxford, to pursue my postdoctoral research in Prof. Eric O’Neill’s lab at Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, UK where I have studied the mechanistic details of the crosstalk between RASSF1A and BLM pathways in cancer development. After my research work at the University of Oxford, I started working as a research associate in Prof. Hironmoy Das’s lab, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas, USA. There my research was focused on the SETD2 and EZH2 arbitrated regulation of KLF2 and its impact on osteoclastic differentiation. 

In 2018, I was awarded Newton International Fellowships to work with Prof. Bill Earnshaw’s group. My current project is designed to explore the detailed mechanisms involved in LAD compaction during mitosis. One of the recent insights is that regions of transcriptionally repressed chromatin tend to pack at the nuclear periphery, forming lamina-associated domains (LADs). The detailed fates of LADs in mitosis are not known. Upon mitotic entry, molecular mechanisms that lead to correct LADs compaction is not clearly understood. This research will resolve, the pathway for the compaction of LAD regions during the transition from interphase to mitosis and involvement of condensin I and II in LAD compaction. These findings will be a substantial contribution to the understanding of mitotic chromosome formation. 

I am also connected with the Edincell group at the University of Edinburgh and fascinated in Science Education and Public Engagement with school and teachers.