Research Interests

DNA present within cells, collectively known as the genome, is the instruction manual read by the cellular machinery to live and function. My lab is interested in understanding how the variation in genomes of Indians predisposes them to disparities in health and disease. We study this at two levels.

First, we identify genetic variation of individuals using cutting-edge high throughput sequencing technologies. As part of large nation-wide population genomics programs, we map the natural variation in healthy genomes. In particular, our interests lie in two classes of variations known as structural variations and tandem repeats.

We also study how the same DNA sequence can give rise to different phenotypes, as observed in various cell types of a single organism. Despite having an identical genome, cells can be regulated differently via epigenetic mechanisms that result in cell specific gene expression patterns. Using single cell genomic technologies, we analyze the gene expression and epigenetic profiles of various cells to understand cell heterogeneity.

Finally, we develop new computational methods that enable faster and better analysis of complex biological data, as well as more interactive and intuitive data visualization.

Selected Publications

Pathak AK, Mishra GP, Uppili B, Walia S, Fatihi S, Abbas T, Banu S, Ghosh A, Kanampalliwar A, Jha A, Fatma S, Aggarwal S, Dhar MS, Marwal R, Radhakrishnan VS, Ponnusamy K, Kabra S, Rakshit P, Bhoyar RC, Jain A, Divakar MK, Imran M, Faruq M, Sowpati DT, Thukral L, Raghav SK, Mukerji M. Spatio-temporal dynamics of intra-host variability in SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Feb 22;50(3):1551-1561. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkab1297.

Kumar V J, Banu S, Sasikala M, Parsa KVL, Sowpati DT, Yadav R, Tallapaka KB, Siva AB, Vishnubhotla R, Rao GV, Reddy DN. Effectiveness of REGEN-COV antibody cocktail against the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant of SARS-CoV-2: A cohort study. J Intern Med. 2022 Mar;291(3):380-383. Doi: 10.1111/joim.13408. Epub 2021 Nov 1.

Singh NK, Srivastava S, Zaveri L, Bingi TC, Mesipogu R, Kumar V S, Gaur N, Hajirnis N, Machha P, Shambhavi S, Khan S, Soujanya M, Nagabandi T, Mishra RK, Tallapaka KB, Sowpati DT†. Host transcriptional response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 patients. Clin Transl Med. 2021 Sep;11(9):e534. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.534.

Kulkarni O, Narreddy S, Zaveri L, Kalal IG, Tallapaka KB, Sowpati DT†. Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection without mutations in Spike protein. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Feb 16:ciab136. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab136. Online ahead of print.

Banu S, Jolly B, Mukherjee P, Singh P, Khan S, Zaveri L, Shambhavi S, Gaur N, Reddy S, Kaveri K, Srinivasan S, Gopal DR, Siva AB, Thangaraj K, Tallapaka KB, Mishra RK, Scaria V, Sowpati DT†. A Distinct Phylogenetic Cluster of Indian Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Isolates. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Sep 18;7(11):ofaa434. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa434. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Saha P, Sowpati DT, Soujanya M, Srivastava I, Mishra RK. Interplay of pericentromeric genome organization and chromatin landscape regulates the expression of Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatic genes. Epigenetics Chromatin. 2020 Oct 7;13(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s13072-020-00358-4.

Avvaru AK, Sharma D, Verma A, Mishra RK, Sowpati DT†. MSDB: a comprehensive, annotated database of microsatellites. Nucleic Acids Res. 2020 Jan 8;48(D1):D155-D159. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz886.