Introduction:
Divya Sain is a PhD candidate in the GGB program whose project involves using bioinformatics and wet bench techniques to study evolution of the fungal cell wall across major lineages. She is integrating phylogenomics and functional genomics approaches to study the evolutionary history of the genes involved in the biosynthesis and maintenance of the fungal cell wall as well as attempting to find novel genes having a cell wall related function by using fungus- Neurospora crassa as a model system.
She passed her qualifying exam in September 2010. She has served as a Teaching assistant for the BIOL 102 course in Winter 2012 and has been mentoring undergraduates in the lab since 2011.
Education:
Bachelors in Technology (Biotechnology)-CET-IILM-AHL (Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow, India)
Publications:
- Ma LJ, van der Does HC, Borkovich KA, Coleman JJ, Daboussi MJ, Di Pietro A, Dufresne M, Freitag M, Grabherr M, Henrissat B, Houterman PM, Kang S, Shim WB, Woloshuk C, Xie X, Xu JR, Antoniw J, Baker SE, Bluhm BH, Breakspear A, Brown DW, Butchko RA, Chapman S, Coulson R, Coutinho PM, Danchin EG, Diener A, Gale LR, Gardiner DM, Goff S, Hammond-Kosack KE, Hilburn K, Hua-Van A, Jonkers W, Kazan K, Kodira CD, Koehrsen M, Kumar L, Lee YH, Li L, Manners JM, Miranda-Saavedra D, Mukherjee M, Park G, Park J, Park SY, Proctor RH, Regev A, Ruiz-Roldan MC, Sain D, Sakthikumar S, Sykes S, Schwartz DC, Turgeon BG, Wapinski I, Yoder O, Young S, Zeng Q, Zhou S, Galagan J, Cuomo CA, Kistler HC, Rep M. Comparative genomics reveals mobile pathogenicity chromosomes in Fusarium.Nature. 2010 Mar 18;464(7287):367-73
- Divya Sain, Lorena Rivera and Jason E. Stajich. Utilizing functional genomics in Neurospora crassa to identify genes involved in cell wall growth and maintenance. In prep.
- Divya Sain, Hugo Melida, Vincent Bulone and Jason E. Stajich. Mucoran- A Zygomycetal Fucoidan. In prep.
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Hugo Melida, Divya Sain, Jason E. Stajich and Vincent Bulone. Reconstructing the Fungal cell walls of early diverging lineages. In prep
Awards and Honors:
- Klotz Memorial Travel Award- 2013
- UCR Graduate Student Association Travel Grant- 2013
- Guru Gobind Singh Fellowship- 2012
- Dean’s Graduate Division Fee Fellowship 2012
- Klotz Memorial Travel Award- 2011
- UCR Graduate Division Fellowship- 2008
Posters presented:
- John Abramyan, Divya Sain, Jason E. Stajich. Bioinformatic analysis of species-specific gene family changes in the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Evolution 2010. Portland. June 2010
- Divya Sain, Jason E. Stajich. Studying Fungal Cell Wall evolution using comparative genomics & phylogenetics. 1st Annual SoCal SysBio. Irvine. Jan 2011.
- Divya Sain and Jason E. Stajich. Utilizing functional genomics in Neurospora crassa to identify cell wall genes. 26th Fungal Genetics Conference. Asilomar. March 2011
Prior projects:
- Study of Superoxide dismutase (SOD)1 activity in humans with disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Biomantra Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
- Association studies of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in Human Lung Cancer. Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi.
Prior Work Experience:
- Research Assistant- Identification of phylogenetic subgroups of Glomales within colonized roots of Sorghum Bicolor. The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi
Other Achievements:
- Currently training two undergraduates in wet bench techniques in the lab.
Extracurricular activities:
- Member of the National Honor Society- Omicron Delta Kappa.
- An active member of Rotaract Club (Youth Branch Of Rotary Club)
- Awarded the ‘Project leader of the year’ by Rotaract Club, Riverside (India)
- Project Co-lead of the Art of Living Basic Course July 2012 (Rancho Cucamonga, CA)
- Chair, GGB Graduate Student Association Seminar committee 2011-2012
- Member of the organizing committee of Biotech National Seminar- BIOGENESIS (CET-IILM-AHL)
- Secured 1st Position in the Biotech Dept. Poster Competition (CET-IILM-AHL)
- Secured 1st Position in the Interbranch Quiz Competition held at (CET-IILM-AHL)
