Present Research Interest
Knowing the cause responsible for a patient’s illness remains fundamental to evidence-based treatment and care. Even though the reliable diagnostic tools affect health care decisions to a degree well out of proportion to their cost, for most of the diseases, we still don't have reliable point-of-care tests (POCT) which can be used in resource limited settings by unskilled manpower. My research goal is to develop diagnostic solutions (POC immunoassays) which are reliable in local conditions, affordable, practical and have very high potential to reach the people who need them. My lab is developing and utilizing technologies required for diagnostic product development including recombinant antigen and antibody production in E. coli, yeast P. pastoris and mammalian cells, generation of monoclonal antibodies using synthetic human antibody library and hybridoma technology, immune-epitope mapping using gene/genome fragment phage display libraries, test cassette/cartridge designing using CAD tools and 3D-printing and finally the development of high performance lateral flow POCT (including multiplexed) utilizing nanoparticles (up-converting nanophosphors, europium nanoparticles, colloidal gold etc.) with aim to bring performance of POCT close to central lab tests.
Major scientific contribution
At ICGEB, I was involved in the development of diagnostic intermediates and assays for the detection of anti-dengue virus IgG, IgM antibodies and NS1 antigen. This “know-how” was transferred to a diagnostic company, which resulted in a very successful commercial product for detection of dengue NS1 antigen & differential detection of IgM & IgG antibodies.
At THSTI, we developed a fast (70 min run time) and stable SARS-CoV-2 RBD based IgG ELISA and achieved higher sensitivity than commercially available ELISAs and CLIAs. The assay has very high concordance with virus neutralization test. Assay is being commercialized by a diagnostic manufacturer.
Publications
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Mehdi, F.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Ramachandran, T.; Yadav, S.; Kumar, M,; Sinha, S.K., Goswami, S.; Kshetrapal,P.; Wadhwa, N.; Natchu, U.C.; Sopory,S.; Desiraju, B.K., Pandey, A.K.; Das, A., Verma, N.; Sharma, N., Sharma, P.; Bhartia, V., Gosain, M.; Lodha, R.; Lamminmäki, U.; Shrivastava, T.; Bhatnagar, S.; Batra. G (2021). Development of a fast SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA, based on receptor-binding domain, and its comparative evaluation using temporally segregated samples from RT-PCR positive individuals. Front Microbiol. 11:618097. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.618097
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Martiskainen, I., Juntunen, E., Salminen, T., Vuorenpaa, K., Bayoumy, S., Vuorinen, T., Khanna, N., Pettersson, K., Batra, G., and Talha, S.M. (2021). Double-Antigen Lateral Flow Immunoassay for the Detection of Anti-HIV-1 and -2 Antibodies Using Upconverting Nanoparticle Reporters. Sensors (Basel) 21. Doi: 10.3390/s21020330.
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Salminen, T.; Mehdi, F.; Rohila, D.; Kumar, M.; Talha, S. M.; Prakash, J. A. J.; Khanna, N.; Pettersson, K.; Batra, G.(2020). Ultrasensitive and Robust Point-of-Care Immunoassay for the Detection of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria. Analytical Chemistry. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c02748
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Martiskainen, I.; Talha, S. M.; Vuorenpaa, K.; Salminen, T.; Juntunen, E.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Kumar, D.; Vuorinen, T.; Pettersson, K.; Khanna, N.; Batra, G. (2020) Upconverting nanoparticle reporter–based highly sensitive rapid lateral flow immunoassay for hepatitis B virus surface antigen. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. DOI: 10.1007/s00216-020-03055-z
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Kaushik, N., Lamminmaki, U., Khanna, N., and Batra, G. (2020). Enhanced cell density cultivation and rapid expression-screening of recombinant Pichia pastoris clones in microscale. Sci Rep 10(1): 7458.
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Shukla, R., Beesetti, H., Brown, J.A., Ahuja, R., Ramasamy, V., Shanmugam, R.K., Poddar, A., Batra, G., Krammer, F., Lim, J.K., Kale, S., Lal, A.A., Swaminathan, S., and Khanna, N. (2020a). Dengue and Zika virus infections are enhanced by live attenuated dengue vaccine but not by recombinant DSV4 vaccine candidate in mouse models. EBioMedicine 60.
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Shukla, R., Shanmugam, R.K., Ramasamy, V., Arora, U., Batra, G., Acklin, J.A., Krammer, F., Lim, J.K., Swaminathan, S., and Khanna, N. (2020b). Zika virus envelope nanoparticle antibodies protect mice without risk of disease enhancement. EBioMedicine 54, 102738.
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Gupta, J., Kaul, S., Srivastava, A., Kaushik, N., Ghosh, S., Sharma, C., Batra, G., Banerjee, M., Shalimar, Nayak, B., Ranjith-Kumar, C.T., and Surjit, M. (2020). Expression, Purification and Characterization of the Hepatitis E Virus Like-Particles in the Pichia pastoris. Front Microbiol 11, 141.
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Lamminmäki, U., Batra, G., and Saviranta, P. (2018). "Array-In-Well Epitope Mapping of Phage-Displayed Antibodies," in Epitope Mapping Protocols, eds. J. Rockberg & J. Nilvebrant. (New York, NY: Springer New York), 129-140.
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Perez-Gamarra, S., Hattara, L., Batra, G., Saviranta, P., and Lamminmaki, U. (2016). Array-in-well binding assay for multiparameter screening of phage displayed antibodies. Methods.
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Kaushik, N., Rohila, D., Arora, U., Raut, R., Lamminmaki, U., Khanna, N., and Batra, G. (2016). Casamino acids facilitate the secretion of recombinant dengue virus serotype-3 envelope domain III in Pichia pastoris. BMC Biotechnol 16, 12.
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Batra, G.,Nemani, S.K., Tyagi, P., Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N. (2011) Evaluation of envelope domain III-based single chimeric tetravalent antigen and monovalent antigen mixtures for the detection of anti-dengue antibodies in human sera. BMC Infect Dis.11, 64.
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Batra,G., Gurramkonda,C., Nemani,S.K., Jain,S.K., Swaminathan,S. and Khanna, N.(2010) Optimization of conditions for secretion of dengue virus type 2 envelope domain III using Pichia pastoris, J. Biosci. Bioeng., 110, 408-14.
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Batra,G.,Talha,S.M., Nemani,S.K., Dhar,N., Swaminathan,S. and Khanna,N. (2010) Expression, purification and characterization of in vivo biotinylated dengue virus envelope domain III based tetravalent antigen. Protein Expr. Purif., 74, 99–105.
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Batra,G.,Raut,R., Dahiya,S., Kamran,N., Swaminathan,S. and Khanna,N. (2010) Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue virus type 2 envelope domain III elicits virus-neutralizing antibodies. J Virol. Methods., 167, 10-16.
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Swaminathan,S.,Batra,G. and Khanna,N. (2010) Dengue vaccines: state of the art. Expert. Opin. Ther. Pat., 20, 819-835.
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Etemad,B.,Batra,G.,Raut,R., Dahiya,S., Khanam,S., Swaminathan,S. and Khanna,N. (2008) An envelope domain III-based chimeric antigen produced in Pichia pastoris elicits neutralizing antibodies against all four dengue virus serotypes. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 79, 353-363.
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Hapugoda,M.D.,Batra,G., Abeyewickreme,W., Swaminathan,S. and Khanna,N. (2007) Single antigen detects both immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies elicited by all four dengue virus serotypes. Clin. Vaccine Immunol., 14, 1505-1514.
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Batra,G., Chauhan,V.S., Singh,A., Sarkar,N.K., Grover,A. (2007) Complexity of rice Hsp100 gene family: lessons from rice genome sequence data. J Biosci, 32(3):611-9.
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Marie Curie International Fellow award by European Commission in 2011.
DR. FARHA MEHDI
PROJECT RESEARCH SCIENTIST-II
MS. SARLA YADAV
PROJECT RESEARCH SCIENTIST-II
MS. SANGITA KUMARI SINHA
SENIOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANT
MR. SURESH KUMAR
TECHNICAL OFFICER-I
MR. RALZON ROSALIA R.
PH.D STUDENT
MR. SOON JYOTI DAS
PROJECT RESEARCH SCIENTIST-II
