I did my M.S. and PhD in Biochemistry from Banares Hindu University, Varanasi, India. I joined Pathology department at UVM in 2001 and presently I am an Associate Professor in the same department.

My research in basic and applied cellular and molecular biology focuses on studying cell signaling mechanisms of asbestos fibers-induced lung diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma. We are exploring asbestos-induced signaling mechanisms in human mesothelial cells as well as in different mesothelioma cell lines to be targeted by APMS beads loaded with different anti cancer drugs. We are trying to elucidate possible mechanisms of asbestos-induced carcinogenesis. Mechanistically, we are focusing our investigations on how ERK cell signaling pathway plays a role in the development of malignant mesothelioma (MM). Our previous work showed that crocidolite asbestos and erionite carcinogenesis are linked to the ability of these minerals to induce the MAPK and ERK pathways which lead to AP-1 activation. Our focus is on CREB, ERK1/2 and ERK5 and their downstream signaling proteins as these proteins are critical targets of asbestos-induced carcinogenesis.

Our current interest is to explore the role of inflammation with particular emphasis on inflammasomes (NLRP3) in MM tumorigenesis and drug resistance.