Dr. Vishakha Tiwarekar

Preclinical efficacy of Measles vector-based MERS-Corona vaccine. • Multicolour intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) by flow cytometry, ELISA, cellular immune response by ELISpot, western blot, antigen expression by RT-qPCR, viral growth kinetics and IPMA. • Completed FELASA-B certification • Conducted experiments in BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories. • Additional experience includes routine cell culture, virus cultivation, gene cloning, DNA and RNA preparations, and viral gene sequence analysis.

Research focused on understanding role of APOBEC3G-regulated host factors REDD1 and KDELR2 in restriction of measles virus replication. Extensive cell culture, PBMC isolation, Measles Virus cultivation, confocal and Immunofluorescent microscopy of virus-infected cells, flow cytometry, cellular protein phosphorylation analysis by western blot, Co-IP of cellular and viral proteins, plaque assay, gene cloning, sh-RNA and si-RNA mediated gene silencing, PCR, and qRT-PCR.

Part of National Task Force for laboratory containment of poliovirus. Successfully prepared a national database for the containment of poliovirus involving more than 10000 potential laboratories in India Prepared survey documents for laboratories working/storing any Poliovirus or related materials.

Establish In-vitro screening assay for in-house natural product metabolite library to identify potential hits against Influenza virus, Herpes Simplex virus and Dengue virus. Primary screening and Dose-response study of in-house NCEs. Mode of action studies of Herpes Simplex virus with two leading anti-herpes herbal extracts. Determine the synergistic activity of synthetic biomarkers of lead compounds. Development of animal models to determine In-vivo efficacy of the lead compound in pre-clinical studies.