Sreelaja Nair
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
India
Biography
Dr. Sreelaja Nair is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, TIFR. Her work focuses on Early embryogenesis relies on RNAs and proteins present in the mature egg prior to fertilization. Post-fertilization, the zygote transcribes its own genome during a transcriptional switch phase called the mid-blastula transition (MBT). MBT is species specific, depends on DNA content, and is crucial to embryonic viability. My interest lies in understanding the mechanism of MBT in vertebrates using zebrafish as a model organism. The experimental approaches are geared towards providing a pan-genomic view of MBT. Specific embryological analysis will help understand disease states linked to altered transcriptional profiles in embryos. A related, long term goal is to understand the developmental consequence of deviating from the normal diploid state in a vertebrate.
Research Interest
Genetics of maternal control of vertebrate development.
Publications
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Nair S, Li W, Cornell R, Schilling TF (2007) Requirements for Endothelin type-A receptors and Endothelin-1 signaling in the facial ectoderm for the patterning of skeletogenic neural crest cells in zebrafish. Development 134: 335.
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Nair S, Schilling TF (2008) Chemokine signaling controls endodermal migration during zebrafish gastrulation. Science 322: 89.
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Yabe T, Ge X, Lindeman R, Nair S, Runke G, Mullins MC, Pelegri F (2009) The maternal-effect gene cellular island encodes aurora B kinase and is essential for furrow formation in the early zebrafish embryo. PLoS Genetics 5: e1000518.
