SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm:

Postal address: Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting address: Berzelius väg 35, Stockholm, 17177, Sweden
Web page: http://www.cgb.ki.se/

Collaboration with South Asia:

The laboratory has been involved in a collaboration project with the Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research and the Department of Chemistry and Biology, Delhi University, India. The research collaboration received support for three years (2005-07) from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), for a project on ”Drug target validation and antiinfective development for HIV/AIDS and associated infections”. More information.

The focus of the collaboration was to develop novel nucleic acid binding molecules to control HIV an associated infections.
OBJECTIVES: 1). Design and synthesise RNA binding antisense agents to learn which of the many essential genes are most stringently required for growth. 2). Assess essential gene function and the mechanism of action of antimicrobials by using pair-wise combinations of antisense agents and protein level inhibitors. 3). Synthesise and characterise new DNA binding antimicrobials.
METHODOLOGY included: solid and liquid phase synthesis, standard antimicrobial susceptibility testing to evaluate gene function and drug mechanism of action.
MODE OF COOPERATION involved shared goals and interests in the two labs, where the Indian labs provide synthetic chemistry and the Swedish lab biological activity studies. An important part of the collaboration involves visits between the participating laboratories. As part of the collaboration Associate Professor Liam Good visited Delhi in the Fall 2004, and Dr. Satish Kumar Awasthi visited Stockholm through the summer of 2005.
Other participants in the project were Dr. Abbas Nikravesh (in Sweden), and Dr. Vibha Tandon (in India).

The collaboration programme built on recent collaborative publications between the Indian and Swedish researchers including:
• Nekhotiaeva, N., Kumar-Aswasti, S., Nielsen. P.E. and Good, L. (2004): Inhibition of S. aureus gene expression and growth using antisense peptide nucleic acids. Molecular Therapy, 10: 652-659.
• Dryselius, R., Kumar-Aswasti, S., Rajarao, K.R., Nielsen. P.E. and Good, L. (2004): The translation start codon region is sensitive to antisense PNA inhibition in Escherichia coli. Oligonucleotides, 13: 427-433.
• Tawar, U., Jain, A.K., Chandra, R., Singh, Y., Dwarakanath, S., Chaudhury, N.K., Good, L. and Tandon, V. (2003): Minor groove binding DNA ligands with expanded A/T sequence length recognition, selective binding to bent DNA regions and enhanced fluorescent properties. Biochemistry 42:13339-13346.

Dr. Liam Good has now left Karolinska Institutet, and joined the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in UK.