Robin Roychaudhuri, PhD

Book Chapters (peer reviewed)

1. David Teplow, Mingfeng Yang, Robin Roychaudhuri, Eric Pang, Phat Huynh, Mei-Sha Chen, Shiela Beroukhim. The amyloidbeta-protein and Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer's Disease: Targets for New Clinical Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies; in CRC Press – Pg 2-85. (Book Chapter) 2012.

 Submitted or In-Revision Peer-reviewed journal articles

1. Robin Roychaudhuri, Moataz Gadalla, Lauren Albacarys, Timothy West and Solomon H. Snyder. Mammalian D-cysteine is a physiologic downregulator of insulin promoter methylation. (Under Scientific Review; 2022).  corresponding and first author.

2. Robin Roychaudhuri, Moataz M. Gadalla, Timothy West and Solomon H. Snyder. A Novel Stereospecific Assay for the Detection of Endogenous D-Cysteine. (ACS Chem Neuroscience 2022).  corresponding and first author.

Nature has inherent asymmetry. This asymmetry translates to homochirality in biological systems, i.e, molecules existing in a particular configuration (L or D). Mammals strongly differentiate between these two configurations. Homochirality is critical for molecular recognition in substrate-enzyme reactions, ligand-receptor binding as well as template driven processes such as DNA replication, RNA transcription, and protein translation.

My work at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine identified endogenous mammalian D-cysteine, the fastest spontaneous racemizing amino acid that till now precluded detection. D-cysteine is present in substantial amounts in mouse and human brain and in cerebrospinal fluid in addition to few other organs.

My work in mammalian brain has revealed that D-cysteine regulates neural progenitor cell proliferation during development, an action mediated via Akt signaling by the FoxO family of transcription factors.

The goal of my lab is to elucidate the function of endogenous D-cysteine in mammalian development and understand the role of chirality in biology and medicine.

1997   University Grants Commission-Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (UGC-CSIR) Junior Research   Fellowship by Govt. of India (Science and Technology).

1997  95^th percentile in Graduate Aptitude Test (GATE) in Chemistry; All India

1998  U.K Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship at University of Cambridge U.K.  

2001  Milton E. Mohr Graduate Fellowship at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

2011  Second Prize in UCLA Dept of Neurology Annual Science Day Poster presentation

2012  Third Prize at Seaborg Symposium Poster Presentation

2012  UCLA Department of Neurology Service Award

2013  Dean’s Prize finalist at UCLA Science Poster Day

2014  Curriculum Development and Educational Leadership at UCLA School of Medicine

Pending Grants

7/01/22                                          (PI, 50% effort)

 Role of D-cysteine in Neural Progenitor Cell Dynamics in the Developing Brain.

 R21MH130832 (scored; pending resubmission); NIMH/NINDS Total Direct Costs: $450,313 (two years)

Completed Grants

09/01/85-2/29/20                          Snyder (PI)                                                              

Neurochemical Actions of Psychotropic Drugs R01 MH18501 Total Direct Costs: $2,499,210 Role: Key Personnel

 09/15/18-5/31/23                         Snyder (PI)

 Targeting cell signaling pathways to disrupt drug abuse. 5 P50 DA044123 Total Direct Costs: $850,000 Role: Key Personnel

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/right-target-but-missing-the-bulls-eye-for-alzheimers

Local and National Service

2009-2010                   Journal of Immunology (Ad hoc reviewer)

2010-2010                   Biochemistry (Ad hoc reviewer)

2013-2013                   Journal of American Chemical Society (Ad hoc reviewer)

2013-2013                   Journal of Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry (Ad hoc reviewer)

2013-2013                   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Ad hoc reviewer)

2016-2016                   Science (Ad hoc reviewer)

 Reviewed original manuscripts from the journals listed above.

Teaching Service

2001-2002                  Graduate Teaching Assistant (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), BIOC 321L, Biochemistry Lab and Lecture,  30 students, 4 hours/day, once a week for one semester (5 months). Two semesters total.

 2004-2005                  Mentored high school students (two) in summer lab research. Harvard Medical School, Boston. 4 months.

 2014                           Instructor; Winter Quarter (UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles), M262A and M262B: “Molecular Mechanisms of Human Disease”. 25 students, 3 hours/day, twice a week (3-4 months). One quarter total.

 1. Invited speaker at the International Symposium on Chirality. July 2022, Chicago. Title: Mammalian D-Cysteine endogenously  regulates neural progenitor cell proliferation in the mammalian brain.

2. Keynote speaker at the International Conference for D-Amino Acid Research (ICDAR). July 2022, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Title: Mammalian D-Cysteine is a regulator of neural  progenitor cell proliferation in the mammalian brain.

1. Micro dissection of mouse brain sub ventricular zone (SVZ), isolation and culture of SVZ neural stem cells.

2. Mass Spectrometric (ESI) techniques and data analysis

3. Ion Mobility Spectroscopy

4. Islet isolation and culture from mouse

5. Enzyme kinetics

6. Cell Biology (mouse embryonic stem cells 3D culture, stem cell derived neuronal culture)

7. Biophysics and Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy (Peptide/Protein assembly, conformation and analysis)

8. Protein structure, expression, conformation and analysis.

9. Mouse procedures (stereotaxis, intraperitoneal injections, inflammatory cell isolations)

10. Biochemical Techniques.

Novel Neurotransmitters and Global Lipidomics: A TMIC Success Story - The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (metabolomicscentre.ca)