Virology & Mycology
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0517
ISSN: 2161-0517
Neelam Sharma-Walia
Executive Editor
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, USA
Dr. Sharma-Walia received her Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India in 1998. She was appointed as Senior Demonstrator in the Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India from 1998-2000. She worked as postdoctoral fellow in the Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago in 2001 and in the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology at University of Kansas Medical Center from 2002-2005. She joined the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in July, 2005 as a Research Assistant Professor. She is invited reviewer for many reputed scientific journals and scientific research grants.
Our studies focus on arachidonic acid (AA) pathway in Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpes virus (KSHV) pathogenesis. Our previous studies reported the upregulation of prostaglandin pathway’s major stress angiogenic protein cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and its lipid metabolite prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in the endothelial cells strictly displaying viral latency and Body-cavity B-cell lymphoma (BCBL) cells carrying multicopy viral genome. Our studies showed that KSHV induced COX-2/PGE2 play important role in KSHV pathogenesis related events like inflammation, invasion, angiogenesis and cell survival. Using a variety of cutting edge technologies, we are currently deciphering the role of prostaglandin pathway in KSHV episome maintenance and chromatin remodeling. Our research also focuses on the identification of the cellular and viral factors involved in the stability of COX-2 and continuous regulated secretion of PGE2 in KSHV positive lymphoma cells.