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Nandini Vasudevan

Portrait of Nandini Vasudevan
  • Associate Professor in Endocrinology
  • Research Division Lead, Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering.
  • Supervision of research done by post-graduate and undergraduate students.
  • Undergraduate advising.
  • Mentorship of Post-Doctoral Research Fellows. 

Areas of interest

Neuroendocrinology and Molecular Endocrinology with an emphasis on behaviour using physiologically relevant model systems.

Teaching

  • Part 1: Pathology and Histology
  • Part 2: Physiological Biochemistry
  • Part 2: Practical Animal Behaviour
  • Part 3: Medical Genetics
  • Part 3: Special Topics in Endocrinology
  • Part 3: Neurobiology (Module Convenor)

Research centres and groups

Member of the Impact, Enterprise and Outreach

  • Director of Outreach, SBS (2016-2019); revamped the UoR Scholars Programme and other science outreach events in local school with collaborators within the development.
  • Novel mechanisms of estrogen action and estrogen production in the brain can be used to discover new drug targets in diseases impacted by estrogen, such as breast cancer.
  • Control of social behaviours can lead to better welfare of managed animals.
  • Steroid synthesis in the brain can lead to better understanding of sexually dimorphic traits.
  • Target discovery for alleviation of symptoms of hypothyroidism.
  • Led yearly mini-courses, consisting of lectures and experiments on Brain and Behavior for high school students and for at-risk students in New Orleans, USA.
  • Participated in Brain Awareness Day activities, Soapbox Science, Pint of Science, School Career Days and Big Bang Fair to increase knowledge of the brain and STEM research amongst members of the public.

Research projects

  • Mechanisms of estrogen action in neuronal cells, including an emphasis on non-genomic and non-transcriptional signalling and their relevance to behaviour.
  • Mechanisms by which GPR30, a putative membrane Estrogen Receptor (mER) signals in neurons and the relevance to behaviour.
  • Role of locally synthesized steroids and their relevance to social behaviors.
  • Role of thyroid hormones in the regulation of anxiety and cognition.
  • Role of nuclear receptors and neuropeptides in C.elegans social behaviours and ageing.

Awards and honours

Esteem Factors

  • Was PI on a NSF CAREER (USA) grant "Role of nongenomic estrogen signaling in neuromorphology and behavior (April 2011- Dec 2015; 1 million USD).
  • Co-investigator on NIH R01 Grant "Short term estradiol in middle age: implications for female cognitive aging" (2012-2017; 1,388,365 USD; PI: Dr. Daniels).
  • Co-investigator on MRC grant "The Mouth Gut Brain Model" 2017-2019; 188983 GBP; PI: Dr. Lisa Methven, UoR.
  • Reviewer for endocrine and molecular endocrine journals.
  • Reviewer for National Science Foundation (NSF), USA and for ALW, MRC, BBSRC grants.
  • Editorial Board Member, Nuclear Receptor Research.

Professional bodies/affiliations

International and National Collaborators

  • Dr Kiran Soma, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Dr Jeffrey Tasker, Dr Gary Dohanich & Dr Jill Daniels, Tulane University, USA
  • Dr Sonoko Ogawa, Tsukuba University, Japan
  • Dr. Shinji Tsukahara, Saitama University.
  • Dr. Eva Kevei, Dr. Francesco Tamagnini, Dr. Evangelos Delivopoulos, Dr. Yoshikatsu Hayashi, Dr. Zuowei Wang, Professor Claire Williams, Professor Slawomir Nasuto and Professor Bhisma Chakrabarti: from either SBS, Psychology, Pharmacy or Mathematics, University of Reading.

Publications

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