Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
I am a researcher with 15+ years of experience in the field of experimental Hematology and Oncology. After receiving my doctoral degree from the University of Munich (LMU), I moved as Post-doctoral fellow to the Institute of Experimental Cancer Research at the University of Ulm and currently working at Internal Medicine III, Univesity Hospital, Ulm. I am working as an independent senior research scientist. In these years, I have acquired broad technical and scientific knowledge and extensive experience including in-vitro, in-vivo murine models and stem cell assays. In this process, I also gained experience in the characterization of oncogenes and oncogenic targets and targeting of cancer cells either by using conventional therapeutic drugs or by photodynamic therapy using conjugated ruthenium bio-hybrids. I am currently looking forward to pursue my career in the pharma and biotechnology industry with an emphasis on the field of preclinical research and development. I would specifically like to work on pharmacodynamics or pharmacokinetics of drugs by testing developed innovative medicines or the fastest growing class of pharmaceuticals, biosimilars using my expertise. Research topics currently working on: • studying the relevance of transcription factors (Fusion genes and homeobox genes) and their underlying mechanisms in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. • targeting cancer cells by drug studies and using novel approaches of photodynamic therapy (both in-vitro and in-vivo). • Understanding the importance of antioxidants in normal hematopoiesis and in leukemic conditions using conditional knock out models. All the above areas of interest have resulted in publications in peer reviewed journals and have been presented at national and international conferences. Besides my regular research commitments, I also have good experience in mentoring Masters, MD, and Ph.D. students including project design and experimental training. I am also in charge of organizing weekly lab and assessment meetings of all research projects at our institute, where project aims and experimental design are discussed, regular journal clubs and also teaching master students. I am a highly confident, goal-oriented, self-motivated researcher. My positive qualities are my enthusiasm to learn new things, excellent communication skills, hard-working, well organized, team worker, and ability to make collaborations. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7665-4447 https://scholar.google.de/citations?hl=en&user=ydKUrwUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works
Identification and charecterization of Transcription factors and Oxidative enzymes in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. https://scholar.google.de/citations?hl=en&user=ydKUrwUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works Vegi NM et al,. Somatostatin receptor mediated targeting of acute myeloid leukemia by photodynamic metal complexes for light induced apoptosis. Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 371 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57172-6. Altamura S, Naidu M. Vegi et al., Glutathione peroxidase 4 and vitamin E control reticulocyte maturation, stress erythropoiesis and iron homeostasis. Haematologica. 2019 Jun 27. pii: haematol.2018.212977 (* equal contribution). Naidu M. Vegi et al., MEIS2 Is an Oncogenic Partner in AML1-ETO-Positive AML. Cell Rep. 2016 Jul 12;16(2):498-507. Rawat VPS, Götze M, Rasalkar A, Vegi NM et al., The microRNA miR-196b acts as tumor suppressor in Cdx2 driven acute myeloid leukemia. Haematologica. 2019 Sep 26. pii: haematol.2019.223297. Silvia Thoene, Tamoghna Mandal, Naidu M Vegi et al., The ParaHox Gene Cdx4 Induces Acute Erythroid Leukemia in Mice.Blood Adv., 3 (22), 3729-3739 2019 Nov 26. Chakrabortty S, Agrawalla BK, Stumper A, Vegi NM, et al., Mitochondria targeted Protein-Ruthenium photosensitizer for efficient photodynamic applications. J Am Chem Soc. 2017 Feb 15;139 (6):2512-2519. Monica Cusan, Naidu M. Vegi, et al., Controlled stem cell amplification by HOXB4 depends on its unique N-terminal proline-rich region. Blood. 2017 Jan 19;129 (3):319-323. Eva Gentner, Naidu M Vegi et al., VENTX induces expansion of primitive erythroid cells and contributes to the development of acute myeloid leukemia in mice. Oncotarget. 2016 Dec 27; 7(52):86889-86901.
Role of homeobox genes in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. Role of redox enzymes in ferroptosis. Özge Canli, Yasemin B. Alankuş, Sasker Grootjans, Naidu M. Vegi, et al.,Glutathione peroxidase 4 prevents necroptosis in mouse erythroid precursors. Blood (2016) Jan 7;127(1):139-48. CR.Stadler#, N Vegi#, MA Mulaw, VPS Rawat, KE Edmaier, A Dolnik, L Bullinger, B Heilmeier, L Quintanilla-Fend, K Spiekermann, W Hiddemann, K Döhner, H Döhner, M Feuring-Buske, C Buske. The leukemogenicity of Hoxa9 depends on alternative splicing. (# contributed equally) Leukemia (2014) 28, 1838–1843. K. E. Edmaier, K. Stahnke, N. Vegi, M. Mulaw, A., Scheffold, K. L. Rudolph , C.Buske. Expression of the lymphoid enhancer factor 1 (Lef-1) is required for normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell function Leukemia. 2014 Jan;28(1):227-30. Markus Wortmann, Manuela Schneider, Joachim Pircher, Juliane Hellfritsch, Michaela Aichler, Naidu Vegi, Pirkko Kölle, Peter Kuhlencordt, Axel Walch, Ulrich Pohl, Georg W. Bornkamm, Marcus Conrad, and Heike Beck. Combined deficiency in glutathione peroxidase 4 (Gpx4) and vitamin E causes multi-organ thrombus formation and early death in mice. Circ Res. 2013 Aug 2;113(4):408-17.
Role of fusion genes and their collaborating genetic events in inducing AML.
Understanding the role of AML1-ETO (fusion gene) and its collaboration with homeobox genes leading to AML. Sridhar Vempati, Carola Reindl, Ulla Wolf, Ruth Kern, Konstantin Petropoulos, Vegi M. Naidu, Christian Buske, Wolfgang Hiddemann, Tobias M. Kohl, and Karsten Spiekermann. Transformation by oncogenic mutants and ligand dependent activation of FLT3-WT requires the tyrosine residues 589 and 591. Clin Cancer Res. 2008 Jul 15;14(14):4437-45. Rawat VP, Thoene S, Vegi M Naidu, Arseni N, Heilmeier B, Metzeler K, Petropoulos K, Deshpande A, Quintanilla-Martinez L, Bohlander SK, Spiekermann K, Hiddemann W, Feuring-Buske M, Buske C. Over expression of CDX2 perturbs HOX gene expression in murine progenitors depending on its N-terminal domain and is closely correlated with deregulated HOX gene expression in human acute myeloid leukemia. Blood. 2008 Jan 1;111(1):309-19.