Journal of Clinical Epigenetics Open Access

Phanidhar Kukutla

Biography

Phanidhar Kukutla is a currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School. He earned both his master?s and doctoral degrees at New Mexico State University (NMSU). He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University, New York. His graduate work in Dr. Xu laboratory at NMSU focused on studying mosquito-malaria genomics, and mosquito associated microbiome. His postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Harrington at Cornell University involved investigating the function of male mosquito seminal fluid proteins responsible for post-mating responses in female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes using various genomic and molecular tools (CRISPR/CAS system). His past and present research focused to develop novel intervention strategies for vector mosquito control. His key research interests include studying host-microbe-pathogen interactions, molecular genetics of host-associated bacteria, and engineering microbes for pharmaceutical/biotech applications. Dr. Kukutla serves as reviewer for many scientific peer reviewed journals.

Research Interest

Genomics- Comparative genomics and transcriptome analysis of vector mosquito and associated gut microbiome. Transcriptome of algae for biofuel production (Air Force Research Laboratory, USA). - Insectary- Maintained Insectary, rearing mosquitoes, and Plasmodium infections in An. gambiae. Experienced in maintaining Drosophila fly stocks used as model system to test our bacterial isolates, bedbug rearing and maintenance of life cycle. - Microbiology- Bacterial enumeration, Gram is staining, media preparations, transformation pour plate and spread plate, MIC, motility assays, disk diffusion, and bacterial genetic modification, fluorescent tagging and mutagenesis-based approaches to study gut associated microbes. - Molecular biology- Basic PCR techniques and variations such qPCR (real-time PCR), CRISPR/Cas tools, eukaryotic and prokaryotic nucleic acid extraction and purification, , RNA and DNA Pico chips, reverse genetic techniques such as RNAi, metagenomic DNA isolation, metatranscriptomic RNA isolation, next generation sequencing. Additional techniques involve molecular cloning, immunostaining, ELISAs, GST pull down assays, agarose gel electrophoresis. Cell culture: basic experience. - Bioinformatics and computer skills- Primer design, NCBI database, vector base, next generation sequencing analysis using (CLC genomics workbench), MG-RAST, RAST. Experience in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS). - Animal - Maintained Swiss and BALB/c mice populations for feeding a blood meal to Anopheles mosquitoes following standard operating procedures (SOP-s). Determination of malaria parasitemia in mice and experience with protocols for euthanasia methods for reducing pain in lab mice. - Microscopy- Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Transmission electron (TEM), scanning electron (SEM), bright field, confocal, and fluorescence microscopy. Fluorescence microscopy experiments on GFP conjugated mice malaria parasites to observe the infection in the mosquito midgut.