Research Interests

Autophagy is one of the most fundamental cell survival processes that executes numerous homeostatic programs of normal and stressed cells. Dysfunctional autophagy is linked to multiple diseases including cancer, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders. Our lab tries to understand the molecular mechanisms by which autophagy executes its functions in healthy and diseased cells.

The major contributor to acute inflammation is the innate immune systems that gets activated upon microbial invasion or sterile tissue damage. Our lab study the mechanisms of innate immune responses to bacteria, viruses and sterile tissue damages.

Also, we are interested in understanding the crosstalk between autophagy and innate immune responses in autoimmune diseases. In addition we are interested in understanding the mechanisms of cancer progression. Especially, we are interested in the immunological response (esp. type 1 interferons) to cancer.

For more details please visit https://www.autophagylab.com/

Selected Publications

Jena KK, Mehto S, Yadav R, Priyadarsini S, Samal P, Krishna S, Dhar K, Jain A, Chauhan NR, Murmu KC, Bal R, Sahu R, Jaiswal P, Sahoo BS, Patnaik S, Kufer TS, Rusten TE, Chauhan S, Prasad P, Chauhan S. Selective Autophagy of RIPosomes Maintains Innate Immune Homeostasis during Bacterial Infection. EMBO J. 2022 Dec 1;41(23):e111289.

Nath P, Chauhan NR, Jena KK, Datey A, Kumar ND, Mehto S, De S, Nayak TK, Priyadarsini S, Rout K, Bal R, Murmu KC, Kalia M, Patnaik S, Prasad P, Reggiori F, Chattopadhyay S*, Chauhan S*. Inhibition of IRGM establishes a robust antiviral immune state to restrict pathogenic viruses. EMBO Rep. 2021 Sep 1:e52948. (Cover page article)

Kolapalli SP, Sahu R, Chauhan NR, Jena KK, Mehto S, Das SK, Jain A, Rout M, Dash R, Swain R, Lee DY, Rusten TE, Chauhan S*, Chauhan S*. RNA binding RING E3-ligase DZIP3/hRUL138 is a novel driver of cell cycle and cancer progression by employing a unique mechanism to stabilize Cyclin D1. Cancer Research, 2021 Jan 15;81(2):315-331. (Cover page article)

Jena KK, Mehto S, Nath P, Chauhan NR, Sahu R, Dhar K, Das SK, Kolapalli SP, Murmu KC, Jain A, Krishna S, Sahoo BS, Chattopadhyay S, Rusten TE, Prasad P, Chauhan S, Chauhan S*. Autoimmunity gene IRGM suppresses cGAS-STING and RIG-I-MAVS signaling to control interferon response. EMBO Rep. 2020 Jul 27:e50051.

Mehto S, Jena KK, Nath P, Chauhan S, Kolapalli SP, Das SK, Sahoo PK, Jain A, Taylor GA, Chauhan S*. The Crohn's disease risk factor IRGM limits NLRP3 inflammasome activation by impeding its assembly and by mediating its selective autophagy. Molecular Cell. 2019 Feb 7;73(3):429-445.e7. (Publication highlighted in the issue)

Jena KK, Kolapalli SP, Mehto S, Nath P, Das B, Sahoo PK, Ahad A, Syed GH, Raghav SK, Senapati S, Chauhan S, Chauhan S*. TRIM16 controls assembly and degradation of protein aggregates by modulating the p62-NRF2 axis and autophagy. EMBO J. 2018 Sep 14;37(18).