Vivek Bhaskaran

Dr. Vivek Bhaskaran is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. He received his PhD. from Manipal University, Karnataka, India in 2014 and joined Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral fellow in the same year.

Dr. Bhaskaran began work on brain tumors, investigating neural stem cells and their malignant transformation in Harvey Cushing Neuro-oncology laboratories headed by Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca (Professor and Chairman of Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA). Dr. Bhaskaran focused on the analysis of major cell signaling pathways in glioma stem cell proliferation, which is the contributing factor in brain cancer. As he and his colleague began to understand how these brain cancer cells grow and spread, they were able to begin work on preventing, or inhibiting, this growth, and spread, through remarkable work in antibodies, the anti-tumor reagents that interrupt not only brain tumors but other tumors as well. His work was published in Clinical Cancer Research and in the journal Oncogene. Dr. Bhaskaran then went on to work in antibody research involved in the herpes simplex virus, where he contributed to the study of anti-tumor treatment that led to yet another publication in Clinical Cancer Research in 2018. Later he continued his study into microRNAs under the mentorship of Dr. Pierpaolo Peruzzi (Neurosurgeon and Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) specifically how they function together to regulate complex cellular processes and how they can be used to treat GBM. The Peruzzi lab have been able to apply their work to the design of gene therapy that can target and, ideally eliminate, brain tumors. His work led to a vast array of media attention for his recent publication in the prestigious Nature Communications journal.

Brigham Research Institute honored Dr. Bhaskaran with the Research Excellence award in 2017 recognizing the zeal of productivity he brings to the scientific research community.

List of Publications:

• Vivek Bhaskaran, Yizheng Yao, Fengfeng Bei and Pierpaolo Peruzzi. Engineering, delivery, and biological validation of artificial microRNA clusters for gene therapy applications. Nature Protocols, (in press)

• Vivek Bhaskaran and Pierpaolo Peruzzi. Characterization of Functionally Associated miRNAs in Glioblastoma and their Engineering into Artificial Clusters for Gene Therapy. Journal of Visualized Experiments, (in press).

• Vivek Bhaskaran and Pierpaolo Peruzzi. MicroRNAs in cancer: look at the forest, not at the tree. Journal of Experimental Neuroscience 2019, March 29, Vol 13, 1-3.

• Vivek Bhaskaran, Michal O Nowiki, Mahmoud Idriss, Miguel Jimenez, Gianmarco Lugli, Josie Heyes, Ahmad B Mahmoud, Rachel Zane, Carmela Passaro, Sean E Lawler, E Antonio Chiocca, and Pierpaolo Peruzzi. The functional synergism of microRNA clustering provides therapeutically relevant epigenetic interference in glioblastoma. Nature Communications, 2019 Jan 25: 10(1):442.

• Vivek Bhaskaran, Girish T.S., Gopal B., Misquith S., Colaco M. Cysteine crucial for activity of an M20D peptidase from Staphylococcus aureus. (communicated).

• Carmela Passaro, Quazim Alayo, Isabella DeLaura, John McNulty, Korneel Grauwet, Hirotaka Ito, Vivek Bhaskaran, Marco Mineo, Sean E Lawler, Khalid Shah, Maria Speranza, William Goins, Eric McLaughlin, Soledad Fernandez, David Reardon, Gordon Freeman, E. Antonio Chiocca, and Hiroshi Nakashima. Arming an oncolytic herpes simplex virus type 1 with a single chain variable antibody against PD-1 for experimental glioblastoma therapy. Clinical Cancer Research, 2018 Oct 02.

• Nandhu MS, Prajna Behera, Vivek Bhaskaran, Sharon Longo, Lina Marcela Barrera-Arenas, Sadhak Sengupta, Diego Rodriguez-Gil, Ennio A. Chiocca and Mariano S. Viapiano. Development of a function-blocking antibody against fibulin-3 as targeted reagent for glioblastoma. Clinical Cancer Research, 2018 Feb 15; 24(4): 821-833.

• Nandhu MS, Aneta Kwiatkowska, Vivek Bhaskaran, Bin Hu and Mariano S. Viapiano. Tumor-derived fibulin-3 activates pro-invasive NF-kappa B signaling in glioblastoma cells and their microenvironment. Oncogene, 2017 Aug 24; 36(34): 4875-4886.

• T. S. Girish, Vivek Bhaskaran, Melwin Colaco, Sandra Misquith and B. Gopal “Structure of an amidohydrolase, SACOL0085, from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus COL” Acta Cryst. (2013). F69, 103-108.