Sushmaa Dangudubiyyam

Biography

I come from India and am passionate to pursue a career as a research scientist. In the future, I hope to make contributions in the field of molecular medicine – in developing targeted therapies against human pathologies. I have a Masters in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with over 3 years’ research experience, wherein I had the opportunity to work with human diseases (Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and Carbohydrate Active Enzymes (CAZymes). I had been looking forward to focus my research pursuits towards using molecular approaches aimed at treating human pathologies, for which the GlyCanDrug is a perfect opportunity. When I am not working in the lab, I love to curl up with a book, or hit the gym. I am always curious to learn something new, to meet new people and engage in interesting conversations.

Research project objectives

The DC9 project aims at the biochemical and structural characterization of recombinantly expressed and purified glycosyl transferases, and to screen potential inhibitor molecules against these enzymes to aid in the development of precision cancer therapeutic agents.

Key objectives include the following:

  1. Expression and purification of recombinant glycosyl transferases (STs: ST6Gal I and ST6GalNAcI).
  2. Biochemical characterization of recombinant enzymes and development of microplate assays for STs and FTs (which includes preparation of glycoprotein acceptor substrates and synthesis of sugar donors for the identification of potential specific STs and FTs inhibitors)
  3. Organic synthesis and structural biology by enzyme expression and purification, inhibitors characterization in cell-based assays.

Université de Lille/ Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle (UGSF)

The Joint Research Unit (JRU) 8576 – Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle (UGSF) is a joint unit of research between CNRS and Univ. Lille. It is a research institute entirely dedicated to Glycoscience that covers the study of carbohydrates and promotes a highly multidisciplinary research and scientists are from a variety of different fields including biochemistry, chemistry, computational sciences, developmental biology, genetics, microbiology aiming to a better understanding of the structure to functions relationships of complex carbohydrates.

Selected papers (10):

  1. HARDUIN-LEPERS A., KRZEWINSKI-RECCHI M.A., COLOMB F., FOULQUIER F., GROUX-DEGROOTE S. and DELANNOY, P. Sialyltransferases function in cancer. Front. Biosci. (2012) 4, 499-515. doi: 10.2741/e396
  2. PETIT D., TEPPA R.E., MIR A.-M., VICOGNE D., THISSE C., THISSE B., FILLOUX C. and HARDUIN-LEPERS A. Integrative view of β–galactoside α2,3-sialyltransferases (ST3Gal) evolutionary relationships and functional divergence in Chordates: Massive st3gal gene loss in Homo sapiens. Mol Biol Evol. (2015) Apr;32(4):906-27. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu395
  3. HARDUIN-LEPERS A., MOLLICONE R, DELANNOY P and ORIOL R. The animal sialyltransferases and sialyltransferase-related genes: a phylogenetic approach. Glycobiology (2005) 15 (8), 805-817. DOI: 10.1093/glycob/cwi063
  4. GILORMINI P.-A., LION C., NOEL M., KRZEWINSKI-RECCHI M.-A., HARDUIN-LEPERS A., GUERARDEL Y, BIOT C. Improved workflow for the efficient preparation of ready to use CMP-activated sialic acid  Glycobiology (2016) Nov;26(11):1151-1156. doi: 10.1093/glycob/cww084
  5. YAMAKAWA N., VANBESELAERE J., CHANG L-Y., YU S.-Y., DUCROCQ L., HARDUIN-LEPERS A., KURATA J., AOKI-KINOSHITA K., SATO C., KHOO K-H., KITAJIMA K., GUERARDEL Y. Systems glycomics of adult zebrafish identifies organ specific sialylation and glycosylation patterns. Nature communications (2018) November 07, 9, article number 4647. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06950-3.
  6. NOEL M., GILORMINI P.-A., COGEZ V., YAMAKAWA N., VICOGNE D., LION C., BIOT C., GUERARDEL Y, HARDUIN-LEPERS A. Probing the CMP-sialic acid donor specificity of two human –D-galactoside sialyltransferases (ST3Gal I and ST6Gal I) selectively acting on O- and N-glycosylproteins. ChemBioChem (2017) Jul 4;18(13):1251-1259. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201700024
  7. NOEL M., GILORMINI P.-A., COGEZ V., LION C., BIOT C., HARDUIN-LEPERS A., GUERARDEL Y. MicroPlate Sialyltransferase Assay (MPSA): a rapid and sensitive assay based on an unnatural sialic acid donor and bioorthogonal chemistry. Bioconjugate journal (2018) Oct 17;29(10):3377-3384. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.8b00529.
  8. GROUX-DEGROOTE S, VICOGNE D, COGEZ V, SCHULZ C, HARDUIN-LEPERS A. B4GALNT2 controls Sda and sLex antigens biosynthesis in healthy and cancer human colon ChemBioChem (2021) 22(24):3381-3390 doi: 101002/cbic202100363.
  9. HARDUIN-LEPERS A. The vertebrate sialylation machinery: structure-function and molecular evolution of GT-29 sialyltransferases. Glycoconjugate J. (2023) 40, 473–492. doi.org/10.1007/s10719-023-10123-w
  10. DECLOQUEMENT M, VENUTO MT, COGEZ V, STEINMETZ A., SCHULZ C, LION C, NOEL M, RIGOLOT V, TEPPA RE, BIOT C, REBL A, GALUSKA SP and HARDUIN-LEPERS A. Salmonid polysialyltransferases to generate a variety of sialic acid polymers. Sci. Rep. (2023) 13, 15610. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42095-0.