Ramya Ravishankar

Bio-banking:

Mammalian Cell Bio-banking

• Worked on developing a preservation technology for mammalian cells at higher temperatures such as -20C rather than conventional -80C storage
• Optimization of storage buffer formulation without DMSO, so that it can be used for the applications of gene therapy in human health
• Developed an assay to transport trehalose sugar intracellularly in cells without any specific transporter
• With vitrification technology, I have achieved up to 2 weeks of cell line storage at -20C
• Formulated a buffer that can be used to store cells at -80C for more than a year unlike standard DMSO stored cells
• Perform QC experiments for validating the functionality of cells post vitrification
• PCR project: Optimization of various PCR kits using vitrification technology
• Preparation of samples for flow cytometry

Bacterial Cell Bio-banking

• Currently working on stabilizing the Escherichia coli M18 strain at room temperature, 37C and 55 C temperatures
• Working on optimizing the buffer formulation that has no animal by-products but gives utmost viability of bacteria when eluted
• Future projects include stabilizing Competent E.coli bacteria at room temperature, 37C and 55C temperatures
• Proficient in data analysis with Excel, SoftMax Pro, GraphPad Prism, Image J software
• Proficient in using electronic notebooks for documentation purposes

• Worked on studying the stress response of cells and cancer by integrating classical molecular and cell biology assays with contemporary spatial analysis
• Studied different fusion oncoproteins and their role in cancer
• Managed day-to-day lab inventory and documentation of testing protocols
• Developed quality testing protocols
• Transfer of biochemical assays to automated platforms
• Performed Single molecule Fluorescence in situ Hybridization for studying the spatial localization of the active transcriptomes under stress
• Proficient in mammalian cell culture, both adherent and suspension cell lines
• Protein isolation, quantification and western blotting and bacterial transformations
• Performed RT-PCR to study the levels of chaperone genes under stress
• Conduct various immunofluorescence experiments using super resolution microscope to study individual cells on nanoscale
• Performed various assays such as cell-titer glow, 5-ethynyl uridine CLICK-iT assay
• Proficient in transfecting cells using both PEI and Lipofectamine transfection kit

• Worked on immunotherapy for autoimmune diseases using cell culture techniques, western blotting, transient transfection, BCA quantification assay, cloning and basic immunoassays
• Cultured T-cells, adherent HEK293T and INS-1 cells
• Performed data analysis using SnapGene, Bio-Rad image lab and Prism for molecular biology assays
• Developed constructs using viral transduction retronectin dishes
• Calibrated PEI for transient transfection using Green Fluorescent protein plasmid
• Review of data and information from scientific publications and literature

• Worked on the development and adaptation of Chinese Hamster Ovarian cell lines (CHOK-1)
• Acquired cell culture lab techniques and hood handling techniques
• Compared the results with the commercial CHO-S cell lines performance
• Performed various in-vitro cell studies such as lactate acid levels, glucose estimation and bioreactors
• Developed novel strategy to determine the mitochondrial membrane potential of the cells to determine its efficacy
• Conducted set of Batch and Fed-Batch experiments