Bhupinder Vohra, Ph.D.

Monte Harmon Professor of Biology; Professor of Biology; Oxbridge Molecular Biology Biology, Oxbridge Molecular Biology

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Vohra pursued further research in the pharmacology and neurobiology of learning and memory at Su-Yat-sun University in China through an Indo-Chinese scholar exchange grant, then completed post-doctoral research in neurodegeneration at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. At Washington University School of Medicine, he served as a senior scientist and research instructor, and at Yale University School of Medicine, he was an associate research scientist. Dr. Vohra’s research at William Jewell is focused on Parkinson’s disease, investigating whether early sign of enteric neurodegeneration can be used as an early marker of neurological and neurotoxicological conditions. He has published 32 peer-reviewed research publications, and in 2015, his research module was accepted by the National Science Foundation for presentation at a workshop and the International Meeting of American Society of Cell Biology.

Education

  • Kurukshetra University
  • Kurukshetra University
  • Kurukshetra University

  • Research Summary

    Research work in his lab is focused on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that modulate neuronal development and neurodegeneration. They are specifically interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to axon degeneration and the diseases that originate from this degenerative process. They are also interested in deciphering the mechanisms that control enteric nervous system development. This work involves a combination of molecular biology, live cell imaging, primary neuronal culture, stem cell culture, physiology, calcium imaging and biochemistry. They model the human disease conditions in vitro by lentivirus-mediated overexpression of human disease causing mutant genes or by silencing the normal functioning genes in the neuronal stem cells with the long term goal of understanding the mechanisms and find out the ways to treat or slowdown disease progression.

    Projects they are currently pursuing include:

    1. Determining mechanisms that control the proliferation, differentiation and fate of enteric nervous system stem cells.
    2. Determining the mechanism of enteric neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease.
    3. Determining the mechanism of sensory loss in Diabetes.
    4. Determining the mechanism of neurodegeneration in Tributyltin toxicity.
    5. Determining the role of voltage gated sodium channels (NaV 1.7) in human peripheral neuropathies
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