Dr. Pradeepa Madapura

Blizard Institute

Queen Mary University of London

Biography

My scientific career began as an MSc-Biochemistry researcher at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India. This research experience inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. and I joined the group of Prof. MRS Rao (JNCASR, Bangalore, India). Efforts to uncover how chromatin proteins function in chromatin remodeling during spermiogenesis during my Ph.D. introduced me to fascinating intricacies of epigenetics and gene regulation in development.

I did my postdoctoral research in Prof. Wendy Bickmore’s lab (MRC-IGMM in Edinburgh). I started my independent research in 2016 as a lecturer.

My lab at the Blizard Institute (Queen Mary University of London) is interested in deciphering the contribution of disease-associated (neurodevelopmental) mutations in noncoding regulatory DNA elements, the role of noncoding RNAs and chromatin modifications in the regulation of gene expression.

Education

PhD in Molecular Biology, 2004-2009

JNCASR - Bangalore,India
MSc Biochemistry, 2001-2003

University of Agricultural Sciences - Bangalore, India
BSc (Agriculture), 1997-2001

University of Agricultural Sciences - Bangalore, India

Research interests

We are interested in addressing fundamental questions in chromatin biology and regulation of gene expression, focusing on the mechanism of distal regulation of gene expression and how mutations at regulatory elements lead to disease, with focus on role of histone modifications, enhancers, and noncoding transcription. Current project in the chromatin and gene regulation lab include the investigation of the role of histone H3 globular acetylations (H3K122ac and H3K64ac), H4 tail acetylation (H4K16ac) and transcriptional coactivators including acetyl binding protein - BRD4 in enhancer function.

People

Group Leader

Dr. Pradeepa Madapura

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Debosree Pal (starting in October 2019)

Vacancy for Bioinformatics Postdoctoral fellow

Vacancy for experimental Postdoctoral fellow

Visiting Fellows/Students

Razvan Minca

PhD students

Please write to p.m.madapura@qmul.ac.uk if you are interested

MSc students

Past members

Dr. Myles Garstang

Jimmy Mathaikunju

Laurène Salesse

Deborah Abban-Mensah

Sophie Shi

Karabo Marole

Valentine Brugerolle

Dr. Tahir Khan

Gallery

Vacancies

Postdoctoral fellow

Self-funded candidates

Publications

Cornelia-de Lange syndrome-associated mutations cause a DNA damage signalling and repair defect

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome is a multisystem developmental disorder typically caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cohesin …

Olley G, Pradeepa M M, FitzPatrick D R., Bickmore W A. , Boumendil C., Cornelia-de Lange syndrome-associated mutations cause a DNA damage signalling and repair defect BioRxiv 2019 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/632992v1.full

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De novo mutations in fetal brain specific enhancers play a significant role in severe intellectual disability

The genetic aetiology of a large proportion of intellectual disability (ID) cases still remains undiagnosed as de novo mutations (DNMs) …

De Vas M G, Garstang M G, Joshi S S, Khan T, Atla G, Parry D , Moore D, Cebola I, Zhang S, Cu W, Lampe A K, Lam W W , FitzPatrick D R , Pradeepa M M* and Atanur S S* De novo mutations in fetal brain-specific enhancers play a significant role in severe intellectual disability. BioRxiv 2019 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/621029v1 *corresponding author

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BRD4 interacts with NIPBL and is mutated in a Cornelia de Lange-like Syndrome.

We found that the clinical phenotype associated with BRD4 haploinsufficiency overlapped with that of Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS), …

Olley G, Ansari M, Bengani H, Grimes GR, Rhodes J, Kriegsheim AV, Blatnik A, Stewart F J, Ross A, Bickmore WA, Pradeepa MM * , and FitzPatrick DR * . BRD4 interacts with NIPBL and is mutated in a Cornelia de Lange-like syndrome. Nature Genet. 2017 in press https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0042-y * Corresponding author

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Psip1/p52 regulates posterior Hoxa genes through activation of lncRNA Hottip

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in various biological functions including regulation of gene expression. However, …

Pradeepa M M, McKenna F, Taylor GCA, Bengani H, Grimes GR, Wood A, Bhatia S, and Bickmore W A. (2017) Psip1/p52 regulates distal Hoxa genes through activation of lncRNA Hottip PloS Genet 13, e1006677 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006677 A perspective article highlighting this work is published in PloS Genet

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Histone H3 globular domain acetylation identifies a new class of enhancers.

Histone acetylation is generally associated with active chromatin, but most studies have focused on the acetylation of histone tails. …

Pradeepa M M, Grimes G R, Kumar Y, Olley G, Taylor G, Schneider R and Bickmore W A. Histone H3 globular domain acetylations identifies new class of enhancers Nature Genet. 2016 https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3550 * Corresponding author

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H4K16 acetylation marks active genes and enhancers of embryonic stem cells, but does not alter chromatin compaction.

Compared with histone H3, acetylation of H4 tails has not been well studied, especially in mammalian cells. Yet, H4K16 acetylation is …

Taylor G, Eskeland R, Balkan B H, Pradeepa M M & Bickmore W A* (2013) H4K16 acetylation marks active genes and enhancers of embryonic stem cells but does not alter chromatin compaction. https://genome.cshlp.org/content/23/12/2053.full Genome Res, Corresponding author

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Psip1/Ledgf p52 binds methylated histone H3K36 and splicing factors and contributes to the regulation of alternative splicing.

Increasing evidence suggests that chromatin modifications have important roles in modulating constitutive or alternative splicing. Here …

Pradeepa, M M., Sutherland, H. G., Ule, J., Grimes, G. R., & Bickmore, W. A. (2012). Psip1/Ledgf p52 binds methylated histone H3K36 and splicing factors and contributes to the regulation of alternative splicing. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002717 PLoS Genet, 8(5), e1002717. doi:10.

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Contact

p.m.madapura@qmul.ac.uk
020 7882 2594
Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry,The Blizard Building, 4 Newark Street, London E1 2AT, UK.
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