Dr. Soumen Kanti Manna

Research

Research Areas: Mass Spectrometry, Metabolomics, Proteomics, Cancer, Environmental Health, and Personalized Medicine.   Our lab is interested in characterization of changes in metabolomic and proteomic (especially, post-translational modifications related to metabolism) signatures associated with gene-environment interaction and pathogenesis. Mass spectrometry and complementary analytical techniques are used as the tool for analyzing these changes in matrices of interest (biofluid, tissue, cell and organelle). Changes in metabolite distribution and gene expression patterns are combined to elucidate the system-level reorganization of molecular networks. The ultimate aim is to develop these signatures as biomarkers for personalized medicine and to identify target pathways to manipulate the outcome of gene-environment interaction and pathogenesis. We are working on mass spectrometry-based imaging methods to study spatio-temporal changes in biochemical landscape that could be used to replace or supplement traditional histology for accurate diagnosis and prognosis. We are also developing nanoparticle-based sensors for metabolites, which could eventually be used for real-time sub-cellular imaging of changes in metabolite distribution. Our interests include nutrition and child health, metabolic disorders, hepatobiliary diseases, cancer, radiation response and host-microbiome interaction. Along with cellular, molecular biological and biophysical approaches as well as studies involving animal model and patient samples, we invest in Chromatography and mass spectrometry. Chemoinformatics, bioinformatics and statistics. Synthesis and characterization of novel metabolites Elucidation of their biochemical origin and physiological importance.