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Dr. Swagata Halder

Area of Expertise

  • DNA repair and DNA damage response


Research Interests

  • DNA-protein crosslinks repair
  • Ubiquitin proteasome system in DNA damage response
  • Replication fork reversal and protection

Education

  • DPhil, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK


Past Associations

  • Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  • Scientist, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona, Switzerland

Bio

Dr. Swagata Halder aims to pursue his research in the area of DNA damage response in order to formulate novel therapeutic interventions against cancer. His laboratory expertise in molecular cell biology and in vitro protein biochemistry.

Dr. Halder obtained his DPhil degree from the University of Oxford, UK under the supervision of Prof. Kristijan Ramadan. During his DPhil research, Dr. Halder along with his colleagues discovered a new human syndrome, now known as SPARTAN syndrome or Ruijs-Aalfs syndrome. It has led to the further characterization of SPRTN-protease in DNA-protein crosslinks repair pathway and subsequently established why SPRTN-deficiency leads to premature ageing and early onset liver cancer.

Dr. Halder pursued his postdoctoral research as a scientist at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona, Switzerland at Prof. Petr Cejka’s laboratory. By utilizing in vitro biochemistry, Dr. Halder has demonstrated how breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2 protects stressed replication fork in RAD51 dependent manner and showed why a single cancer associated mutation in BRCA2 render these cells sensitive to DNA damaging agents (e.g., PARP inhibitors). His work additionally addressed some key fundamental questions in the DNA-repair field and paves the way for further research in this rapidly emerging and therapeutically important field.

Dr. Halder has received Goodger-Schorstein research scholarship in Medical Sciences, University of Oxford and Doctoral Transition Innovation Award from the European Institute of Innovation, Technology and Health, a body of the European Union. Dr. Halder is also a recipient of EMBO Long-Term Fellowship. Dr. Halder’s research has been published in prestigious scientific journals like Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Molecular Cell, Nucleic Acid Research, Scientific Reports and Chemical Science.

View his complete list of publications here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I1ieueUAAAAJ&hl=en