Dr. Karmacharya is working at the intersection of chemical biology and stem cell biology to investigate the cellular-molecular underpinnings of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He received an A.B. in Biochemistry from Harvard, an M.S. in Molecular Biophysics from Yale, and an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After his clinical training, he undertook postdoctoral studies in chemical biology under the mentorship of Prof. Stuart Schreiber.

Questions being addressed in the lab

  1. Stem cell models for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
  2. Synaptogenesis in human neurons
  3. Novel targets for Parkinson’s disease

Projects underway to answer these questions

  1. Disease signatures for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using patient iPSC-derived neurons

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  3. Modulating synaptogenesis with HDAC6 inhibitors through acetylation of non-histone proteins

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  5. Gene expression-based screen to identify novel therapeutic leads for Parkinson’s Disease

     

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Answers Found

  1. Identify cellular pathways aberrant in disease through perturbational profiling of patient-dervied cells

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  3. Use selective inhibitors to study HDAC isoforms that modulate synaptogenesis in human neurons

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  6. Investigate neuroprotective effects of small molecules in human midbrain dopaminergic neurons

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Highlighted Publications from the lab


HDAC6 inhibitors modulate Lys49 acetylation and membrane localization of β-catenin in human iPSC-derived neuronal cells
March, 2015