Research Statement:

Among the vertebrates, urodele amphibians and fish have the remarkable ability to regenerate their lost body parts as adults and regain functional activity. A variety of body parts can be replaced like fin/limb, heart, lens, jaw and retina, of which CNS regeneration is most intriguing. Our aim is to study spinal cord regeneration in two different regeneration competent species, like axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) and zebrafish (Danio rerio). Present strategy is to use these excellent models to discover the signals that are responsible for initiation and maintenance of regeneration response in spinal cord after injury. The nature of these signals, their similarities and dissimilarities, will dictate the path to be chosen for inducing regeneration in higher vertebrates. We have characterized the cellular events underlying the regeneration process in zebrafish after inflicting spinal cord injury comparable to mammalian mode of injury. We are also taking a genomics approach to identify putative target genes responsible for controlling different events during regeneration by using cDNA array in zebrafish.

Positions:

Grants and Awards:

• Ongoing: Characterization of regeneration permissive environment created after spinal cord injury in zebrafish funded by DST (Govt. Of India, EMR/2014/000536).
• Completed: Understanding the molecular basis of cellular dedifferentiation during regeneration of Zebrafish spinal cord: insight from microarray analysis. Funded by DBT, Govt. of India (DBT/BT/PR13953/AAQ/03/523/2010).
• Completed: High density microarrays based genome-wide screening, identification and functional analysis of putative target genes involved in Zebrafish spinal cord regeneration (INT/CP-STIO/2006-2007/39/2006)
• Completed: Awarded a project entitled Spinal cord regeneration in urodele: a model to study neurogenesis, axonal survival and regrowth funded by DST (Govt. of India SR/SO /AS-26/2004).
• Completed: Awarded a project entitled Cellular and molecular mechanisms of regeneration in zebrafish spinal cord funded by DBT (Govt. of India, BT/PR5489/AAQ/03/245/2004).
• DBT CREST fellowship awarded in collaboration with University College of London. U.K
• National Merit Scholarship of the Ministry of Education, Government of India (1977-78).
• J.M. Dasgupta Memorial Award (1984) for the best paper presented in the Biochemistry session during the convention of Chemists (Indian Chemical Society).

Select list of Publications:

1. Subhra Prakash Hui, Tapas Chandra Nag and Sukla Ghosh 2019 Ultrastructural validation of different neural cells and progenitors involved in regenerating zebrafish cord. International J. Developmental Biology ( special issue on Developmental Biology In India) ISSN: 0214-6282, Impact factor 2.11, In press
2. Sukla Ghosh and Subhra Prakash Hui 2018 Axonal regeneration of zebrafish spinal cord. Regeneration Online ISSN: 2052-4412 DOI:10.1002/reg2.99, Invited review.
3. Subhra Prakash Hui and Sukla Ghosh 2016 Various Modes of Spinal Cord Injury to Study Regeneration in Adult Zebrafish. Bioprotocols Vol 6 Issue 23 DOI:10.21769/BioProtoc.2043 ISSN: 2331-8325. Invited article
4. Sukla Ghosh and Subhra Prakash Hui 2016 Regeneration of Zebrafish CNS: Adult Neurogenesis. Neural Plasticity ArticleID5815439 doi:10.1155/2016/5815439 . Impact factor 3.582 ISSN: 2090- 5904
5. Sukla Ghosh 2016 Human regeneration: an achievable goal or a dream? J. Biosciences DOI 10.1007/s12038-016-9589-x Impact factor 2.067 online ISSN:0973-7138