Postdoctoral training: Princeton University

PhD: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

MS and BS: Miranda House & Delhi University, India

The Govind lab uses Drosophila genetics to understand the mechanisms underlying hematopoietic development, inflammation and cancer. The lab is also studying structures and functions of proteins found in unusual organelles produced in the venom of parasitic wasps to block immune signaling and inflammation in infected fly hosts.

1975-1980 National Science Talent Scholar, NCERT, New Delhi, India
7/88-6/91 New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Fellowship
7/97-6/2001 American Heart Association New Investigator Development Award
2006-2007 Excellence in Mentoring Award, CCNY
2013 President’s Award for Excellence
2018 Graduate Center Award for Excellence in Mentoring by a Doctoral Faculty Member

NF-kB signaling and embryonic d/v patterning

• Govind, S. and Steward, R.  (1991) Dorsoventral pattern formation in Drosophila: signal transduction and nuclear targeting. Trends in Genetics 7: 119-125.

• Govind S, Whalen AM, Steward R (1992) In vivo self-association of the dorsal protein of Drosophila. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:7861-7865.
• Govind S, Brennan L, Steward R (1993) Homeostatic balance between dorsal and cactus proteins in the Drosophila embryo. Development 117:135-148.

• Govind S, Drier E., Huang LH, Steward R (1996) The regulated nuclear import of the Drosophila Rel protein Dorsal: Structure-Function Analysis. Mol. Cell Biol. 16:1103-1114.
 

Hematopoiesis and cellular immunity

• Lemaitre B, Meister M, Govind S, Georgel P, Steward R, Reichhart J-M, Hoffmann JA[*] (1995) Functional analysis and regulation of nuclear import of dorsal during immune response of Drosophila. EMBO J. 14:536-545. [* 2011 Nobel Laureate]
• Govind S (1996) Rel signaling pathway and the melanotic tumor phenotype of Drosophila. Biochemical Society Transactions. 24:39-44.

• Qiu P, Pan P, Govind S (1998) A role for the Drosophila Toll/Cactus pathway in larval hematopoiesis. Development 125:1909-1920.

• Sorrentino RP, Carton Y, Govind S (2002) Cellular immune response to parasite infection in the Drosophila lymph gland is developmentally regulated. Dev. Biol. 243 (1):65-80.

• Sorrentino RP, Melk JP, Govind S (2004) Genetic analysis of contributions of dorsal group and JAK-Stat92E pathway genes to larval hemocyte concentration and the egg encapsulation response in Drosophila. Genetics 166:1343-1356.
• Kalamarz ME, Paddibhatla I, Nadar C, Govind S (2012) Sumoylation is tumor-suppressive and confers proliferative quiescence to hematopoietic progenitors in Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Biology Open 1:161-172.

• Gueguen G, Kalamarz ME, Uribe J, Ramroop J, Govind S (2013) Polydnaviral ankyrin proteins aid parasitic wasp survival by coordinate and selective inhibition of hematopoietic and immune NF-kappa B signaling in insect hosts. PLoS Pathogens 9(8): e1003580.
• Small C, Ramroop J, Otazo M, Huang LH, Saleque S, Govind S (2014) An unexpected link between Notch signaling and ROS in restricting the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors in Drosophila. Genetics 197(2):471-483.
 

Inflammation and cancer

• Chiu H, Ring B, Sorrentino RP, Garza D, Kalamarz M, Govind S (2005) Drosophila Ubc9 negatively regulates larval hematopoiesis and the antifungal peptide activation. Developmental Biology 288(1):60-72.
• Paddibhatla I, Lee MJ, Kalamarz ME, Ferrarese R, Govind S (2010) Role for sumoylation in systemic inflammation and immune homeostasis in Drosophila larvae. PLoS Pathogens 6(12):e1001234.

• Scarpati M, Qi Y, Govind S, Singh, S (2019) A combined computational strategy of sequence and structural analysis predicts the existence of a functional eicosanoid pathway in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS One 14(2):e02118.
• Panettieri S, Paddibhatla I, Chou J, Rajwani R, Moore RS, Goncharuk T, John G, Govind S (2019) Discovery of aspirin-triggered eicosanoid-like mediators in a Drosophila metainflammation-blood tumor model. Journal of Cell Science doi: 10.1242/jcs.236141.

The fly-wasp host-parasite model system

• Melk JP, Govind S (1999) Developmental analysis of Ganaspis xanthopoda: A larval parasitoid of Drosophila. J. Exp. Biol. 202:1885-1896.

• Small C, Paddibhatla I, Rajwani R, Govind S (2012) An introduction to parasitic wasps of Drosophila and the antiparasite immune response. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 63:e3347.

• Schlenke TA, Morales J, Govind S, Clark AG (2007) Contrasting infection strategies in generalist and specialist wasp parasitoids of Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS Pathogens 3(10):e158.

• Ferrarese R, Morales J, Fimiarz D, Webb BA, Govind S (2009) A supracellular system of actin-lined canals controls biogenesis and release of virulence factors in parasitoid venom glands. J. Exp. Biol. 212:2261-2268.

Immune suppression by wasps
 

• Chiu H, Govind S (2002) Natural infection of D. melanogaster by virulent parasitic wasps induces apoptotic depletion of hematopoietic precursors. Cell Death and Differentiation 9:1379-1381.

• Chiu H, Morales J, Govind S (2006) Identification and immuno-localization of p40, a protein component of immune-suppressive virus-like particles from Leptopilina heterotoma, an obligate parasitoid wasp of Drosophila. Journal of General Virology 87:461-470.

• Heavner ME, Gueguen G, Rajwani R, Small C, Govind S (2013) Partial venom gland transcriptome of a Drosophila parasitic wasp, Leptopilina heterotoma, reveals novel and shared bioactive profiles among stinging Hymenoptera. Gene 526(2):195-204.

• Heavner ME, Ramroop J, Gueguen G, Ramrattan G, Dolios G, Scarpati M, Kwait J, Bhattacharya S, Wang R, Singh S, Govind S (2017) Novel organelles with elements of bacterial and eukaryotic secretion systems weaponize parasites of Drosophila. Current Biology 27(18):2869-2877.

• Wey B, Heavner, ME, Wittmeyer KT, Briese T, Hopper KR Govind S (2020) Immune-suppressive extracellular vesicle proteins of Leptopilina heterotoma are encoded in the wasp genome. G3: pii: g3.400349.2019 doi: 10.1534/g3.119.400349.

For full publication list:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1p54YHGfplg57/bibliography/48…

Postdoctoral fellows

Ping Qiu, Roberto Ferrarese, Gwenaelle Gueguen, Indira Paddibhatla

Graduate students

PhD students: Richard Sorrentino, Jorge Morales, Marta Kalamarz, Indira Paddibhatla, Chiyedza Small, Johnny Ramroop, Mary Ellen Heavner, Brian Wey

MS students: Pang Chu Pan, Natasha Persaud, Hsiling Chiu, Mark J. Lee, Maria Otazo, Rebecca Moore, Adam Hudgins, Roma Rajwani, Noelle Dziedzic, Michelle Batchu, Lady Cardenas (current), Carlo Miguel Sevilla (current)

Undergraduate/post-bac students

Jing Mei Hsu, Jonathan Melk, Steven Cortes, Chiyedza Small, Curlan Joseph, Christiane Toussaint, Claudia Pitter, Luz Liriano, Rosemary Plaza, Stacey Ann Doobar, Rasha Aaskar, Jessica Erace, Iva Hacker-Delaney, Christina Nadar, Orin Abel, Aziz Rehman, Jeffrey Uribe, Tamara Goncharuk, Roma Rajwani,Maria Otazo, Bodunde Onemola, Jemila Caplan Kester, Shuhebur Rahman, Shalena Islam, Chitra Chand, Arielle Scardino, Lawrence Huang, Rebecca Moore, Hamzah Adel Ramawad, Adam Hudgins, Sandra Shamberger, Zoya Huda, Joyce Chan, Zubaidul Razzak, DeAndre Eccles, Jackson Chen, Thuriah Abadi, Kushagra Vasisht, Xiao Mei, Brandon Wright, Alitzel Gonzalez

High school & middle school students

Mark (Bong Gea) Lee, Sarah Song, James Choe, Richa Gode, Victoria Gorelik, Jessica Jung, Farrah Lopez, Diego Mendia

Research associates

Anne Choi, Hsiling Chiu, Jennifer Chou, Nigel Greenaway, Sharon Leung, Deirdre Matt, Jodi Meltzer, Thiri Oo, Zoe Papadopol, Khine Tun

Biology 206 Introduction to Genetics

Biology 31122 Genomics and Genetics of Development & Disease

Biology V0005 Graduate Genetics