Ronak Shetty
Toronto,Canada
Summary
Highly motivated, hard-working, and diligent stem cell biologist with 10+ years of experience in stem cell research with a goal to advance a career in the field of regenerative medicine. Expertise in hPSC/iPSC culture, differentiation, and in vivo approaches. Over 10 years of experience working with several cancer cell lines, primary cell lines, and mouse model systems. Involved in studies to develop in vitro and in vivo approaches to study liver, cardiovascular, hematopoietic progenitors. Worked on dynamic collaborative projects and demonstrated ability at independent planning, execution, and analysis of experiments. Organized and meticulous with good oral and written communication skills.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
Work History
Post-Doctoral research
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
01.2018 - 01.2023
- Deconstructing the stem cell niche to identify liver progenitors involved in liver regeneration.
· Differentiated hPSC (H9) into early endoderm progenitors and hepatocytes (2D) in feeder-free conditions and characterized them by qPCR, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence.
· Analysis of adult and embryonic mouse liver progenitors’ and organoids upon injury, and drug administration methods by immunofluorescence (confocal), qPCR, flow cytometry and lineage tracing.
· Analysis of mouse and human liver/ bone marrow single-cell RNA seq studies[AV1] using R.
· Analysis of absence of TIMPs on hematopoietic development using multiple approaches like primary/secondary transplant, reverse transplant and assaying them by flow cytometry.
Scientific Research Associate
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
01.2016 - 01.2018
- Analysis of EMT (epithelial to mesenchymal transition) in breast cancer cell lines and during human embryo development.
· Generation and analysis of manipulated hPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system.
· Analysis of genetically modulated HR+ and HR- [AV1] breast cancer cell lines using lentiviral vectors and analyzed EMT and EMT-associated changes in them by immunofluorescence, qPCR, migration, and proliferation assays.
· Analyzed the effect of vascular-specific genetic modulation on microtubule stability in mouse endothelial cell lines.
analyzed EMT defects in first trimester human abortuses migration assays, immunofluorescence, and qPCR
[AV1]Explain if applying to non-breast cancer jobs
Doctoral thesis Research
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
01.2008 - 01.2016
- Analysis of the role of BCAS3/Rudhira during vascular development.
· Studied the role of BCAS3 in vascular development using knock-out mouse, hPSC, breast cancer cell lines, keratinocyte cell lines and endothelial cell lines.[AV1]
· Generated lentiviral mediated genetically modulated hPSCs and characterized their pluripotency and differentiation to all these germ layers by IF, qPCR, and Western Blot.
· Differentiation of hPSCs towards mesenchymal and cardiovascular lineages through 2D, 3D, and spin EB methods.
· Involved in the human iPSC derivation from the primary keratinocytes and smooth muscle cells and their maintenance and creation of cell banks.
· Trained researchers on the culture and maintenance of hPSCs and iPSC lines.
Education
PhD - Vascular development and stem cell research
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR)
12.2016
M.Sc. - Biotechnology
Nirma University
12.2008
B.Sc. - Biochemistry
Gujarat University
12.2006
Skills
- HPSC/iPSC culture: hPSC culture and maintenance, GMP stem cell bank and distribution, iPSC reprogramming
- Differentiation: tri-lineage differentiation methods using EBs, monolayer method, vascular, cardiac, and mesodermal differentiation
- Gene editing: CRISPR/Cas9 RNA design and delivery, eGFP and RFP fusion-based reporter line generation, lentiviral, retroviral mediated construct delivery
- Molecular Biology techniques: ddPCR, qPCR, Western blot, ELISA, Paraffin sectioning, Immunofluorescence, Immunohistochemistry, Flow Cytometry and FACS (FlowJo), Imaging and confocal microscopy, Bioprinting
- Animal studies: Animal handling, colony maintenance, IP and subcutaneous Injection, mouse surgical studies mouse dissection, liver cells isolation and perfusion, bone marrow cells isolation, drug administration
- Bioinformatics: Statistical methods for data collection, analysis, and interpretation, R language and single-cell studies
- Human and Rodent cell culture studies: mouse and human cancer cell lines culture, liver organoid culture, primary cell culture techniques
- Soft Skills: Research Methodologies, Interdisciplinary Coordination, Project Management, Scientific Writing, Teaching Experience, Networking Abilities, Multidisciplinary Team Collaboration, Interpersonal and Written Communication
Awards Contributions
- Gold medal in post-graduate course in biotechnology (2008)
- CSIR-JRF fellowship for pursuing PhD research (2008)
- Mentored 2 Research Assistants in their project on analyzing EMT dynamics (2013-2017)
- Involved in writing a grant on “Role of Epithelial to mesenchymal transition during early human development”. Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, grant no143 BT/PR7968/MED/31/216/2013 (2013)
Conferences
- JNCASR Annual Conferences (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
- Indo-Australia conference on stem cell biology in JNCASR in Bangalore (12/2011)
- All India Annual Cell Biology meeting at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) (12/2013)
- Gordon conference on “Structure, Function and New Methods in Metalloproteases” in Lucca Italy (05/2019)
- Selected and Participated in the “Summer by Design 2020” Workshop Organized by the University of Toronto (06/2020)
Selected Publications
- Metalloproteinase inhibitors regulate biliary progenitor cell dynamics during hepatic homeostasis and injury. Virginie Defamie, Ronak Shetty, Yang Washington Shao, Soumili Sarkar, Swami Reddy Narala, Hui Fang and Rama Khokha (manuscript in prep).
- Abnormal B-cell development in TIMP-deficient bone marrow. Weiss A, Saw S, Aiken A, Aliar K, Shao YW, Fang H, Narala S, Shetty R, Waterhouse PD, Khokha R. Blood Adv. 2021 Oct 26;5(20):3960-3974.
- Rudhira/BCAS3 is essential for mouse development and cardiovascular patterning. Ronak Shetty, Divyesh Joshi, Mamta Jain, Madavan Vasudevan, Jasper Chrysolite Paul, Ganesh Bhat, Poulomi Banerjee, Takaya Abe, Hiroshi Kiyonari, K. VijayRaghavan, Maneesha S. Inamdar. Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 4; 8(1):5632.
References
- Dr. Rama Khokha, Professor, Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower, MaRS Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, rama.khokha@uhn.ca
- Dr. Maneesha Inamdar, Director, Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, GKVK - Post, Bangalore, India, director@instem.res.in
- Dr. Sudhir H. Ranganath, Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Biomedical Innovations via Engineering & NanoTechnology (Bio-INvENT Lab), Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), India, sudhiratnus@gmail.com
Timeline
Post-Doctoral research
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
01.2018 - 01.2023
Scientific Research Associate
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
01.2016 - 01.2018
Doctoral thesis Research
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
01.2008 - 01.2016
PhD - Vascular development and stem cell research
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR)
M.Sc. - Biotechnology
Nirma University
B.Sc. - Biochemistry
Gujarat University
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