Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology and Immuno-genetics of Autoimmune diseases

Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology and Immuno-genetics of Autoimmune diseases

JIVAN (Jiva-Vijnan-Anweshan-Niketan) — Centre for Research in Biological Sciences, RKMVERI

 

Kunal Sikder
☘ Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Science and Technology and Dept. of Sports Science and Yoga
RKMVERI, Belur Math, Howrah-711202, West Bengal, India
☘ Research Scientist 
Cardiology and Metabolic disorder group
JIVAN— Centre for Research in Biological Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, RKMVERI
RKMSP Hospital, 99, Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata-700026, West Bengal, India
Contact:
Email:

Research Interests

  1. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), Cardiac inflammation
  2. Cellular cross-talks and stress pathways in cardiomyopathies
  3. Genetic predisposition of autoimmune diseases including myocarditis and autoimmune thyroid disorders.

Ongoing projects

  1. Finding underlying causes of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM), an array of seemingly unrelated forms of cardiomyopathies
  2. Genetic polymorphism and epigenetic alterations in autoimmune thyroid diseases
  3. Novel cellular stress pathways and biomarkers of diabetic retinopathy

Application criteria for potential Research Scholars (PhD)

The candidates should be passionate about working in the field of cardiovascular physiology, immunology and cell biology. They should be willing to tackle problems and be able to develop novel experimental approaches to answer outstanding questions in the field. Prior experience with biochemical assays, mammalian cell culture, genetic manipulation, basic molecular biology techniques like PCR and protein blotting would be advantageous. An eagerness to learn and to exploit and develop innovative methods is the critical requirement.

Visit the admission page for more details and how to apply online.

Recent Publications

  1. Saha S, RoyChowdhury D, Khan AH, Mandal S, Sikder K, Manna D, Maity AR, Chakraborti S, Basu A. Harnessing the effect of iron deprivation to attenuate the growth of opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2025 Apr 9:e0168924. doi: 10.1128/aac.01689-24. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40202344.
  2. Talukdar D, Haldar AK, Kumar S, Dastidar R, Basu A, Roy A, Sarkar S, Dey S, Sikder K*. Leukocyte infiltration and cross-talk with cardiomyocytes exploit intracellular stress pathways in dilated cardiomyopathy of idiopathic origin. Mol Biol Rep. 2024 Oct 24;51(1):1090. doi: 10.1007/s11033-024-10028-3. PMID: 39446238 *(corresponding author).
  3. Dastidar R, Sikder K, Das B. A Comparative Study on the Efficacy Between Cystatin C and Creatinine-Based Equations for Early Detection of Renal Damage in Patients of Eastern India. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2024 Jul;39(3):408-414. doi: 10.1007/s12291-023-01125-4. Epub 2023 Mar 20. PMID: 39005865; PMCID: PMC11239629.
  4. Sikder K, Phillips E, Zhong Z, Wang N, Saunders J, Mothy D, Kossenkov A, Schneider T, Nichtova Z, Csordas G, Margulies KB, Choi JC. Perinuclear damage from nuclear envelope deterioration elicits stress responses that contribute to LMNAcardiomyopathy. Sci Adv. 2024 May 10;10(19):eadh0798. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0798. Epub 2024 May 8. PMID: 38718107; PMCID: PMC11078192.
  5. Barman S, Chakraborty A, Saha S, Sikder K, Maitra Roy S, Modi B, Bahadur S, Khan AH, Manna D, Bag P, Sarkar AK, Bhattacharya R, Basu A, Maity AR. Efficient Synergistic Antibacterial Activity of α-MSH Using Chitosan-Based Versatile Nanoconjugates. ACS Omega. 2023 Mar 30;8(14):12865-12877. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c08209. PMID: 37065019; PMCID: PMC10099120.
  6. Saunders J, *Sikder K, Phillips E, Ishwar A, Mothy D, Margulies KB, Choi JC. Med25 Limits Master Regulators That Govern Adipogenesis. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Mar 24;24(7):6155. doi: 10.3390/ijms24076155. PMID: 37047128; PMCID: PMC10093881 *(combined first author).
  7. Dastidar R and Sikder K. Diagnostic reliability of serum active vitamin B12 (holo-transcobalamin) in true evaluation of vitamin B12 deficiency: Relevance in current perspective. BMC Research Notes (accepted for publication, 28 September 2022)
  8. Chakraborty A, Halder S, Kishore P, Saha D, Saha S, Sikder K, Basu A. The structure-function analysis of Obg like GTPase proteins along the evolutionary tree from bacteria to humans. Genes to Cells. 2022; Jul;27(7):469-481.
  9. Talukdar D, Akash AK Haldar, Dastidar R, Kumar S, Lodha M, Banerjee A, Karmakar S and Sikder K. Inflammation-related Biomarkers Are Associated With Severity Of Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy (IDCM): A Brief Report On Patients Of West Bengal, India. Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research. 2022;13(1):1693.
  10. Kolpakov, A.K, Sikder, K., Sarkar, A., Chaki, S., Shukla, S.K., Guo, X., Qi, Z., Barbery, C., Sabri, A. & Rafiq, K. Inflammatory serine proteases play a critical role in the early pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry. 2019;53(6):982-998.
  11. Sikder, K., Shukla, S.K, Patel, N., Singh, H. & Rafiq, K. High fat diet upregulates fatty acid oxidation and ketogenesis via intervention of PPAR-gamma. Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry. 2018;48(3):1317-1331.
  12. Shukla, S.K, Sikder, K., Sarkar, A., Addya, S. & Rafiq, K. Molecular network, pathway, and functional analysis of time-dependent gene changes related to cathepsin G exposure in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Gene. 2019;671:58-66.
  13. Shukla, S., K., Liu, W., Sikder, K., Addya, S., Sarkar, A., Wei, Y., & Rafiq, K. HMGCS2 is a key ketogenic enzyme potentially involved in type 1 diabetes with high cardiovascular risk. Scientific reports. 2017 Jul 4;7(1):4590.

Editorial and scientific reviewer positions

  • Editorial board member- ‘Food and nutrition research’ since 2015
  • Reviewer for- ‘Life Sciences’ and ‘Scientific reports’ since 2019