Arturo Falaschi Emeritus Scientist (AFES)
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg
110 067 New Delhi, India
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +91-11-26742357/60, 26741358, 2741361
Facilities:
Recombinant Diagnostics and Vaccines
Education
University of Lucknow, Department of Biochemistry, Lucknow, India, MSc, 1977
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, New Delhi, India, PhD, 1983
Career History
Since 2021, Arturo Falaschi Emeritus Scientist, ICGEB New Delhi, India
Since 2015, Adjunct Professor, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta GA, USA
Since 2012, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director, Centre of Bio-design and Diagnostics, Translational Health Sciences and Technology (THSTI), NCR, Haryana, India
1994-2020, Group Leader, Recombinant Gene Products Laboratory, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India.
1990-1994, Senior Research Scientist, ICGEB, New Delhi.
1989-1990, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Irvine, USA.
1989-1987, Postgraduate Research Biologist, Centre for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego, USA.
1987-1983, Alberta Heritage Foundation Fellow at Cell Regulation Group, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Scientific Activity
The research focus of my group is providing knowledge-based translational solutions for strengthening the fight against the dengue menace. Based on our “know-how”, a 3-in-1 dengue test (Dengue Day 1) has been developed by an Indian company for simultaneous point-of-care detection of Dengue NS1 Antigen & differential detection of IgM & IgG antibodies in Human Serum/ Plasma. This Dengue Day 1 kit which was launched in 2011 today becomes the first line testing kit for the dengue diagnosis. It has been a phenomenal success with 100% sensitivity and 99.91% specificity. This kit is able to detect all four dengue virus serotypes and could diagnose both primary and secondary infections.
There are no effective antivirals against dengue and this boosted our quest for the development of a botanical drug that could be used against this disease. Based on Ayurveda’s knowledge and bioassay guided approach, we identified Cissampelos pareira (CIPA) that has natural anti-dengue potential. Clinical development of CIPA is being pursued under AYUSH guidelines in collaboration with Sun Pharma.
In addition to dengue diagnostics and anti-dengue botanical drug, efforts are being made to develop a safe, affordable and efficacious dengue vaccine candidate in collaboration with Sun Pharma. Despite decades of research efforts, the dengue vaccine has remained elusive. Recently approved whole virus-based dengue vaccine (Dengvaxia) is facing several limitations. It is effective only in age group of 9-45 years who are previously exposed to dengue virus. It has concerns of efficacy in dengue naïve individuals and it seems to cause disease enhancement in children and is contraindicated.
An ideal dengue vaccine should elicit dengue virus neutralizing immune responses which are devoid of any potential of disease enhancement. Our group has designed a recombinant subunit virus like particle based tetravalent dengue vaccine candidate that elicits virus neutralizing antibodies in the absence of any significant disease enhancing immune responses. This vaccine is targeted for all age groups in both dengue endemic and non-endemic areas.
Awards and honors include:
Padma Shri (2020)
Anjani Mashelkar innovation award (2017)
Fellow of Indian National Science Academy (2017)
Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (2016)
Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (2015)
Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, Scientist Award (2015)
Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation Award in Biotechnology (2013)
Ranbaxy Research Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, by Ranbaxy Science Foundation (2012)
Biotech Commercialization Award by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (2011)
VASVIK Industrial Research Award in Biological Science and Technology (2007)
Selected Publications
Out of a total of 132
Rajpoot, R.K., Shukla, R., S., Arora, U., Swaminathan, Khanna, N. 2018. Dengue envelope-based ‘four-in-one’ virus-like particles produced using Pichia pastoris induce enhancement-lacking, domain III-directed tetravalent neutralising antibodies in mice. Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 8643 (2018) PubMed Link
Shukla, R., Rajpoot, R.K., S., Arora, U., Poddar, A., Swaminathan, Khanna, N. 2018. Pichia pastoris-Expressed Bivalent Virus-Like Particulate Vaccine Induces Domain III-Focused Bivalent Neutralizing Antibodies without Antibody-Dependent Enhancement in Vivo. January 2018 | Volume 8 | Article 2644 PubMed Link
Ramasamy V., Arora U., Shukla R., Poddar A., Shanmugam R.K., White L.J., Mattocks M. M., Raut R., Perween A., Tyagi P., Silva A.D., Bhaumik S.K., Kaja M.K, Villinger F., Ahmed R., Johnston R., Swaminathan, Khanna, N. 2018. A tetravalent virus-like particle vaccine designed to display domain III of dengue envelope proteins induces multi-serotype neutralizing antibodies in mice and macaques which confer protection against antibody dependent enhancement in AG129 mice. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 12(1): e0006191 PubMed Link
Khetarpal, N., Shukla, R., Rajpoot, R.K., Poddar, A., Pal, M., Swaminathan, S., Arora, U., Khanna, N. 2017. Recombinant Dengue Virus 4 Envelope Glycoprotein Virus-Like Particles Derived from Pichia pastoris are Capable of Eliciting Homotypic Domain III-Directed Neutralizing Antibodies. Am J Trop Med Hyg 96,126-134 PubMed link
Poddar, A., Ramasamy, V., Shukla, R., Rajpoot, R.K., Arora, U., Jain, S.K., Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N. 2016. Virus-like particles derived from Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue virus type 1 glycoprotein elicit homotypic virus-neutralizing envelope domain III-directed antibodies. BMC Biotechnol 16, 50 PubMed link
Sharma, C., Sankhyan, A., Sharma, T., Khan, N., Chaudhuri, S., Kumar, N., Bhatnagar, S., Khanna, N., Tiwari, A. 2015. A repertoire of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies specific to S. typhi: as potential candidate for improved typhoid diagnostic Immunol Res 62, 325-340 doi: 10.1007/s12026-015-8663-z PubMed link
Talha, S.M., Juntunen, E., Salminen, T., Sangha, A., Vuorinen, T., Khanna, N., Pettersson, K. 2015. All-in-one dry-reagent time-resolved immunofluorometric assay for the rapid detection of HIV-1 and -2 infections. J Virol Methods 226, 52-59 PubMed link
Beesetti, H., Khanna, N., Swaminathan, S. 2014. Drugs for dengue: a patent review Expert Opin Ther Pat 24, 1171-1184 PubMed link
Talha, S.M., Hytönen, J., Westhorpe, A., Kumar, S., Khanna, N., Pettersson, K. 2013. Europium nanoparticle based high performing immunoassay for the screening of treponemal antibodies. PLoS One 8 PubMed link
Khetarpal, N., Poddar, A., Nemani, S.K., Dhar, N., Patil, A., Negi, P., Perween, A., Viswanathan, R., Lünsdorf, H., Tyagi, P., Raut, R., Arora, U., Jain, S.K., Rinas, U., Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N. 2013. Dengue-specific subviral nanoparticles: design, creation and characterization. J Nanobiotechnology doi: 10.1186/1477-3155-11-15 PubMed link
Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N., Herring, B., Mahalingam, S. 2013. Dengue vaccine efficacy trial: does interference cause failure? Lancet Infect Dis 13, 3, 191-192 PubMed link
Arora, U., Tyagi, P., Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N. 2013. Virus-like particles displaying envelope domain III of dengue virus type 2 induce virus-specific antibody response in mice. Vaccine 31, 6, 873-878 PubMed link
Swaminathan, S., Khanna, N. 2013. Experimental dengue vaccines. In: Molecular Vaccine-From Prophylaxis to Therapy (Editor: M. Giese), Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg
Patents
R.K. Rajpoot, R. Shukla, U. Arora, N. Khanna. Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine And Processes Thereof. PCT/IN/2018/050352
R.K. Rajpoot, R. Shukla, U. Arora, N. Khanna. Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine And Processes Thereof. 201711034626
N. Khanna and V. Ramasamy. Vaccine. WO 2016/034974 A1.
P.K. Bhatnagar, C. K. Katiyar, N. Khanna, D. J. Upadhyay, S. Swaminathan, K. Srinivas, N. Sharma, A. Kanaujia, R. Sood, S. Singhal, G. Shukla, R. Duggar, P. K. Pareek, Y. Singh, S. Khan, and R. Raut. Use of Cissampelos pariera extracts for treating dengue. US 20160243182 A1
P.K. Bhatnagar, C. K. Katiyar, N. Khanna, D. J. Upadhyay, S. Swaminathan, K. Srinivas, N. Sharma, A. Kanaujia, R. Sood, S. Singhal, G. Shukla, R. Duggar, P. K. Pareek, Y. Singh, S. Khan, and R. Raut. Anti-dengue activity of Cissampelos pariera extracts. US 2012/0107424 A1
P.K. Bhatnagar, C. K. Katiyar, N. Khanna, D. J. Upadhyay, S. Swaminathan, K. Srinivas, N. Sharma, A. Kanaujia, R. Sood, S. Singhal, G. Shukla, R. Duggar, P. K. Pareek, Y. Singh, S. Khan, and R. Raut. Anti-dengue activity of Cissampelos pariera extracts. EP2389184
P.K. Bhatnagar, C. K. Katiyar, N. Khanna, D. J. Upadhyay, S. Swaminathan, K. Srinivas, N. Sharma, A. Kanaujia, R. Sood, S. Singhal, G. Shukla, R. Duggar, P. K. Pareek, Y. Singh, S. Khan, and R. Raut. Anti-dengue activity of Cissampelos pariera extracts. CN102361644 (A)