Paras Jain

Indian Institute of Science

Collaborators: Sugandha Bhatia, Queensland University of Technology; Erik W. Thompson, Queensland University of Technology; Mohit Kumar Jolly, Indian Institute of Sciences

Title: Population dynamics of Epithelial-Mesenchymal heterogeneity in cancer cells

Short Abstract:  Epithelial-Mesenchymal heterogeneity in cancer has been widely characterized in vitro, in vivo, and in silico over the past two decades, owing to its connections with the tumor-initiating program, drug resistance, and metastasis. However, little is known about how this heterogeneity emerges spontaneously. Here, we present noise or fluctuations in copy number doubling during the cell cycle and later partitioning of EMT-inducing transcription factor SNAIL at cell division among the daughter cells as a possible mechanism of spontaneous state transition. Our in-silico model explained observed bulk-level and single-cell clonal behavior reported in PMC42-LA breast cancer cells.

Presenter Biosketch: Paras Jain earned his B. Tech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from SRMIST, Katthankulathur, Chennai, before joining the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, IISc as a graduate student in the year 2020 in Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly’s lab. His research interests currently involve random events and population behavior as seen at the cellular level in biology.

Link to Full Abstract: JAIN_PARAS

Link to Poster: Poster Paras Jain

Contact: parasjain@iisc.ac.in