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Meghana Tare

Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Cellular and Molecular Genetics of Human Diseases
Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani- 333031, Rajasthan. India.

About the Faculty

Dr. Tare joined BITS Pilani campus in July of 2017. She took her PhD in Biology at University of Dayton, Dayton, OH in 2013. Her Doctoral thesis work was in Dr. Amit Singh's Lab as a graduate student. Dr. Tare has worked on various projects during her PhD, which uncovered molecular and genetic mechanisms involved in patterning and neurodegeneration. For her doctoral thesis, she has characterized role of Cullin-4, an E3 ubiquitin ligase in regulating Wingless and JNK signaling pathways. Their team also pioneered work in Drosophila models of Amyloid Beta mediated nerodegeneration. Tare et al, in 2011 reported the involvement of JNK mediated cell death upon onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Meghana Tare worked as a post doctoral researcher in Dr. Andreas Bergmann's Lab in department of Molecular Cell and Cancer Biology at University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA  from June, 2013- July, 2017. Her post doctoral work was focused on understanding the genetic regulation of apoptosis. For details of these works, please visit her publications page.  Apart from Research work, Dr. Tare is interested in enhancing the undergraduate teaching curriculum. She would like to utilize the teaching and research experiences from different aspects to make undergraduate courses more fun, and, more connected to real world.

Research Interest

At Tare lab, we are using a well established and celebrated model of Drosophila melanogaster to understand genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in cell death, leading to diseases, such as neurodegeneration. Eukaryotic cell death has been largely linked to stress stimuli which affect sub cellular organelles such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes, depending on type of cell death. Our long term research interest is to develop an understanding towards the disturbed mitochondrial biology in Parkinson’s disease. A fine balance between process of cell death and division is required in the body, in order to maintain homeostatic conditions. Upon disturbance of this balance, cells might accumulate and form tumors, leading to cancers of many forms; or, they may die prematurely causing cell death as occurs in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Interestingly, despite the divergence in etiology and pathogenesis for these two different clinical conditions, the underlying mechanisms for both cancer and neurodegeneration involve disturbance in fine tuning between processes of cell death and cell proliferation. I am interested in studying genetic and molecular mechanisms at sub-cellular level, involved in alterations of cell death processes occurring upon onset of these conditions. I am also interested to dwell into territories of personalized medicine systems, such as Ayurveda, to understand how ancient Indian herbal medicinal system can be used to restore the genetic and cellular dynamics disturbed upon onset of these diseases. One arm of Tare lab is involved in gaining mechanistic insights into how these Indian medicinal systems work, at cellular and molecular levels.