• Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine (Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Genetics)

• Cardiovascular System (Carbohydrate, Fatty acid and Cholesterol Metabolism in heart; atherosclerosis and genetics of cardiovascular diseases)

· Kandpal R.P. (2006) Rho GTPase activating proteins in cancer cells. Curr Prot Pept Sci. 7,355-65

· Alsaber, R., Tabone, C.J., and Kandpal, R.P. (2006) Predicting candidate genes for human deafness disorders: a bioinformatics approach. BMC Genomics, 7, 180.

· Fox, B.P., Tabone, C.J., and Kandpal, R.P. (2006) Potential Clinical Relevance of Eph Receptors and Ephrin Ligands Expressed in Prostate Carcinoma Cell Lines. Biochem Biophys Res Comm. 342, 1263-72.

· Nagaraja, G.M., Othman, M., Fox, B.P., Alsaber, R., Pelegrino, C.M., Zeng, Y., Khanna, R., Tamburini, P., Swaroop, A. and Kandpal, R.P. (2005) Gene expression signatures and molecular biomarkers of noninvasive breast cancer cells: comprehensive profiles by representational difference analysis, microarrays and proteomics. Oncogene 25, 2328-2338.

· Fox, BP and Kandpal, R.P. (2006). Transcriptional silencing of EphB6 receptor tyrosine kinase in invasive breast carcinoma cells and detection of methylated promoter by methylation specific PCR. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 340, 268-276

· Nagaraja, G.M. and Kandpal, R.P. (2004) Chromosome 13q12 encoded Rho GTPase activating protein suppresses growth of breast carcinoma cells, and yeast two-hybrid screen shows its interaction with several proteins. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 313, 654-665.

· Fox, B.P. and Kandpal, R.P. (2004) Invasiveness of breast carcinoma cells and transcript profiles: Eph receptors and ephrin ligands as molecular markers of potential diagnostic and prognostic application. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 318, 882-892.

· Kalapurakal, J., Jacob, A.N.K., Y., Najjar, D., Hsich, Y.C., Harkaway, R., Ginsberg, P., Daskal, I., Asbell, S.O. and Kandpal, R.P. (1999) Racial differences in prostate cancer as related to loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosome 8p12-23. International J Rad Onc Biol Phys. 45,835-840.

· Jacob, A.N.K., Kalapurakal, J., Davidson, W., Kandpal, G., Dunson, N., Prashar, Y. and Kandpal, R.P. (1999) A receptor tyrosine kinase, UFO/Axl, and other genes isolated by a modified differential display PCR are overexpressed in metastatic prostatic carcinoma cell line DU145. Cancer Detection and Prevention, 23. 325-332.

Research Summary

We have been using cell biological, molecular biological and genetic approaches to understand mechanisms underlying disease processes and indentifying targets for therapeutic interventions. We have been applying these approaches toward investigating breast, prostate and ovarian cancer, human deafness, and diabetic retinopathy. The following is a brief description of some projects currently underway or proposed projects in my laboratory.

1. Epigenetic mechanisms of breast cancer invasiveness: We have profiled the expression of Eph receptors, the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases, and their ephrin ligands in breast carcinoma cells. We are currently exploring epigenetic mechanisms for the loss of EphB6 receptor in invasive breast carcinoma cells. In addition, we are developing methylation sensitive PCR (MSP) assay of EphB6 promoter as a diagnostic tool to determine estrogen- positive and estrogen-negative cells in breast tumors.
2. Candidate genes involved in human deafness: Human deafness, genetic or acquired, is a major public health concern. A large number of nonsyndromic hearing loss phenotypes have been mapped to various loci on human chromosomes. We have used in silico approaches to catalog a list of candidate genes from chromosome regions linked to deafness phenotypes. We propose to characterize selected candidate cDNAs for their potential involvement in inner ear function.
3. Molecular basis of diabetic retinopathy: In collaboration with investigators in the Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory (NNRL) at the National Eye Institute, we have recently embarked on investigating the mRNAs (gene microarrays), proteomics and mitochondrial bioenergetics profiles of normal and diabetic retina. The objective of these studies is to unravel the molecular consequences of diabetes in photoreceptor cells in the retina.