SEEMA PATEL (M.

S)
seema164@gmail.com 732-372-3916

OBJECTIVE I would like to work in a lab where I can use my knowledge, experience and skills for delivering good results that will prove to be beneficial for the organisation and eventually help me to develop as a better scientist. EDUCATION M.S. Cell and Molecular Biology University of New Haven, CT, USA. Sept 2008 August 2010 B.S. Biotechnology Natubhai.V Patel college of Pure and Applied Sciences Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, INDIA June 2003 May 2006 B.S. Bio-Chemistry M.B Patel Science College, Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, INDIA June 2006 May 2007 EXPERIENCE: Research Technician (July 2010 Present) Massachusetts General Hospital, CBRC Charlestown, MA Currently the lab is moved to University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Life Science Las Vegas, NV Supervisor: Dr Laurel Raftery Research Projects: (1) Interaction between MAPK and Dpp signalling through potential MAPK phosphorylation sites in Mad linker region during Drosophila wing development. Objective/ Method: To study Mad protein expression levels are being studied by using Western blotting and RNA expression levels are being studied by using quantitative RTPCR. Techniques used are: RNA and Protein extraction SDS PAGE and Western blotting. 3.83 GPA

3.98 GPA

3.98 GPA

qRT-PCR and PCR. Agarose gel electrophoresis. Performing Immunostaining on Drosophila tissues to study the expression of various proteins. Making heat shock clones in the Drosophila egg chamber to study the effect of various gene mutations. Fluorescent and Confocal Microscopy (Resonant and galvo using Nikon Elements software). Analysis of the images using ImageJ (Fiji software). Western blots analysis using Odyssey (Image studio software by Li-Cor). Statistical analysis of data obtained from western blots using NCSS or Prism. Maintain the lab data and all other regulatory paper work. Presenting in lab meetings (data and journals) (2) Microscopic time-lapse imaging of cultured Drosophila ovarian tissue Objective/ Method: To answer the question, how a whole organism generates from just a single fertilized egg we are using Drosophila developing egg, one of the most well studied tissue model. In this project of mine, I am trying to reproduce an already published method of culturing the drosophila eggs in vitro, so as to observe the effect of proteins involved in cell signalling of egg development. Here we generate a fly genotype with GFP (green fluorescent protein) tagged gene of the desired signalling protein molecule so whenever the cell will express that particular protein it will glow green under fluorescent microscope (excited at a particular wavelength) and thus we can trace the production of that protein and its effects in the cells where it is produce. By using the time-lapse imaging you can capture almost every minute movement and changes that you generally cannot see by using other tissue staining method. Techniques used: Setting various crosses to obtain the required strain of Drosophila. Dissection and tissue culture using aseptic techniques Time laps imaging using fluorescent microscope. Confocal Microscopy. Media, buffers and solution preparation. Other Responsibilities: Taking care of the entire lab flies stocks. Supervising the new undergraduate students in lab. Ordering, maintaining and preparing Fly food. Ordering basic lab requirements. Maintain precise records of work Performing routine lab management task.

Research Assistant (Sept 2008 June 2010) University of New Haven, CT, USA. Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. Supervisor: Dr. Michael Rossi, PhD. Advisor: Dr Eva Sapi, PhD Research Projects: (1) Detection of human pathogenic Mycoplasma species in Ixodes scapularis ticks collected in Southern Connecticut. Objective/ Method: To detect Mycoplasma infection in Ixodes scapularis ticks and to identify the species along with the rate of infection by using Mycoplasma specific tissue culture, polymerase change reaction (PCR) and in situ hybridization methods using Mycoplasma species specific fluorescently labelled DNA probes This research gave me opportunity to get extensive practical research experience, and great knowledge not only in the field of Molecular biology but also in the field of Microbiology. By doing the PCR, cell culturing and in situ hybridization method and designing the required primers and probes for the same helped me to learn those techniques Techniques used: Collecting live ticks from various sites in southern Connecticut. Dissecting live ticks. DNA extraction. Designing and performing PCR. Cell culturing and Fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). Preparing Mycoplasma broth and agar media for detecting Mycoplasma in tick tissues. Keeping research records in notebook. Other responsibilities: Maintaining various mammalian cell lines using cell culture techniques. Cryopreserving various mammalian cell lines Maintaining the research laboratory and all the equipments. Ordering materials required for all ongoing projects. (2) Project of Designing Microarray chip for Molecular changes occurring in Colorectal Cancer development. In this project different unpublished Colorectal Cancer specific genes and were found and arranged with different combination of perfect match and mismatch pairing. Few of the housekeeping genes were used and the whole microarray chip was designed to use it for identification of genes and expression profiles correlated with colorectal metastasis. Genes were identified using NCBI and BLAST. Other Laboratory skills learned and used: Mammalian and bacterial Tissue Culture: Standard mammalian and bacterial tissue culture technique, cell viability assays, grams staining.

Molecular Biology techniques: DNA, RNA and protein isolation, Plasmid preparation, reverse-transcriptase, PCR, Molecular cloning, Southern/ Northern Hybridization, Western Blotting, SDS-PAGE, agarose gel electrophoresis, Immunoblotting, ELISA Microscopy: Fluorescent microscope, Confocal Microscopy, Dark Field Microscope, Light Microscope. Computer Skills known: Bioinformatics skills (BLAST, FASTA, CLASTAL W, PRIMER 3), HTML, MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access), Database Designing for Biological research data (Access), SPSS, NCSS and Excel for statistical analysis.

PUBLICATIONS: In Vitro Effectiveness of Samento and Banderol Herbal Extracts on the Different Morphological Forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi by Akshita Datar, Navroop Kaur, Seema Patel, David F. Luecke, and Eva Sapi, PhD Lyme Disease Research Group University of New Haven.
Published in Townsend Letter, the Examiner of Alternative Medicine (sic) July 2010.

Evaluation of in vitro antibiotic susceptibility of different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Eva Sapi, PhD1, Navroop Kaur, MS1, Samuel Anyanwu, MS1, David F. Luecke, BS 1, Akshita Datar, MS1, Seema Patel, MS1, Michael Rossi PhD1, and Raphael B. Stricker,MD2 1-Lyme Disease Research Group, Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of New Haven, New Haven, CT, and 2-International Lyme & Associated Diseases Society, Bethesda, MD.

Infection & Drug Resistance Journal April 2011

HONORS/ AWARDS Best Research Assistant at University of New Haven, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, CT, USA. (2008-09 and 2009-10) UNH Lyme Symposium: Hosted, helped in organizing the event and participated in Poster Presentation Detection of human pathogenic Mycoplasma species in Ixodes scapularis ticks collected in Southern Connecticut. 2nd Rank at Sardar Patel University BS Biochemistry Participated in National Science Symposium for Poster Presentation Role of Leptins ( 2004-2005), Christ College, Rajkot, Gujarat, India. Participated in Debate on Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (In support) Presentation on BACs, PACs and YACs

Presentation and Reviewing Published Articles: a) NV-128, A Novel Isoflavone Derivative, Induces Caspaseindependent Cell Death Through the Akt/Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Pathway. Ayesha B. Alvero,MD1; Michele K. Montagna, MS1; Rui Chen, PhD1,2; Ki Hyung Kim, MS1; Kim Kyungjin, MD1; Irene Visintin, MS1; Han-Hsuan Fu, MS1; David Brown, PhD3; and Gil Mor, MD, PhD1. b) Myostatin Induces Cyclin D1 Degradation to Cause Cell Cycle Arrest through a Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/AKT/GSK-3_Pathway and Is Antagonized by Insulinlike Growth Factor 1. Wei Yang, Yong Zhang, Yanfeng Li, Zhenguo Wu, and Dahai Zhu JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY . 282: 37993808, 2007 REFERENCE Laurel A. Raftery, Ph.D: : laurel.raftery@unlv.edu Eva Sapi Ph.D: unh@evasapi.net Xia Wang: wanx3@unlv.nevada.edu. Michael J. Rossi, Ph.D: mrossi@newhaven.edu