Dr. Vidya Gopalakrishnan
Regular Member
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Pediatrics
Research Interests:
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Pediatric brain tumors
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Identification of novel therapeutic targets
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Regulation of transcription factors in brain tumors and normal brain development
Research in my lab is directed towards identifying novel therapeutic targets for medulloblastoma, a pediatric brain tumor. A major focus of our research involves the study of developmental signals required for normal cerebellar development as a means to understand the molecular basis and pathophysiology of medulloblastoma. A second major goal of our research is to identify epigenetic alterations of gene expression in pediatric brain tumors and determine the therapeutic efficacy of drugs that reverse these changes in mouse models of brain tumors. A tutorial in my lab would provide experience with cloning methods, site-directed mutagenesis, analysis of gene and protein expression and functional assays. Students will also gain experience in fluorescence and deconvolution microscopy, immunohistochemistry and generation of mouse models in my lab.
Selected Publications:
Kong M, Zhang M, Gopalakrishnan V, Wolff J. Dose-Time-Effect modeling for Cancer Cell growth in in-vitro Experiments. Stat Biopharm Res. 2(1): 84-96, 2010.
Das CM, Taylor H, Aguilera D, Wolff JE, Zage PE and Gopalakrishnan V. Chromatin remodeling at the topoisomerase II-beta promoter is associated with enhanced sensitivity to etoposide in human neuroblastoma cell lines. Eur J. Cancer, 2010 (In Press) DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2010.05.010.
Program Affiliation:
Program in Neuroscience
Contact Information
Phone: 713.792.0498
Email: vgopalak@mdanderson.org
Office: MDA MOD1.017a (Unit 853)
Title: Assistant Professor
Education:
Ph.D. - University of Pittsburgh - 1995
