Chetana Sachidanandan PhD
Chief Scientist
CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), South Campus, New Delhi, India
Professor
Faculty of Science, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Delhi, India
Head, Human Resource
CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), South Campus, New Delhi, India
AcSIR Coordinator
CSIR-IGIB, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Delhi, India
Address: CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), South Campus, New Delhi 110025
Phone: 9717444144
Email: chetana@igib.in, chetana.igib@csir.res.in
Website: https://www.chetanasachidanandan.com, http://www.igib.res.in
Date of Birth: 01 December 1973
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My lab studies human neurodevelopmental diseases using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and model organisms. We direct our efforts to probing the genetics of neurodevelopmental disorders such as Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, Autism, Intellectual Disability, Epilepsy etc.
Research Keywords: human disease, iPSCs, zebrafish, neurodevelopmental disorders, embryonic development, specific learning disorders, dyslexia, autism
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Education:
1996-2002: PhD in Life Sciences from CSIR-CCMB, Hyderabad, India
1994-1996: MSc in Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
1991-1994: BSc in Biochemistry from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi
Research Experience:
Nov 2025 - Present
Chief Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India
Nov 2021 – Nov 2025
Senior Principal Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India
Nov 2015 – Nov 2021
Principal Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India
Nov 2010 – Nov 2015
Senior Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India
June 2010 – Nov 2010
Senior Scientist Ad hoc at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India
April 2006 - March 2010
Research fellow in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
March 2002 - March 2006
Post-doctoral research fellow at the Cancer Research UK, London, UK
Awards:
2010-2012 EMPOWER (Encouraging and Motivating Pursuit of World Class Exploratory
Research) from CSIR, India
2010-2015 Ramalingaswami Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India
2010- Selected for Ramanujan Fellowship (DST), India (did not avail)
2007-2008 Executive Committee on Research-Fund for Medical Discovery (ECOR-
FMD)
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
2002-2006 Post-doctoral Research Fellowship awarded by Cancer Research UK,
London, UK
Memberships:
· Indian Society of Developmental Biology, India (Life) [Board Member]
· Chemical Biology Society, India (previous)
· Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing, London, UK (previous)
· British Society for Developmental Biology, UK (previous)
Responsibilities (IGIB and others)
· AcSIR Coordinator for CSIR-IGIB: Coordinating the IGIB PhD Program (~200 students at any time) (2015- 2020), (2023-present)
· PhD Coursework Coordinator for the IGIB PhD Program (~171 students went through coursework during this period) 2010-2015
· Chair, Students’ Affairs Committee, Academic Committee
Other Interests and Accomplishments:
· Translation of Stolen Gods (Apaharikkapetta Daivangal by Anand) from Malayalam published by Thornbird, Niyogi Books
· Translation of The Book of Destruction (Samharathinte Pustakam by Anand) from Malayalam published by Penguin Books India. This book was among the 6 shortlisted for The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2016
· Dyslexic children today, but tomorrow’s future. Appeared in Hindustan Times on Nov 2023
· Lalji Singh (1947-2017): The pioneer of DNA evidence. Article co-authored with K Thangaraj. Appeared in The Indian Express dated Dec 2017
· March for Science: Indian science needs more funds, more faith and more support. Opinion piece. Appeared in Hindustan Times on Aug 2017
· Anxiety in a child’s world. An article on childhood anxiety. Appeared in The Indian Express June 2020
· Helping dyslexic children bloom. A public science article on Dyslexia. Appeared in The Hindu October 2020
· It doesn't add up (living with dyscalculia). A public science piece on Dyscalculia. Appeared in The Indian Express October 2021
· Opening our arms and minds (to Autism and diversity). A public science piece on Autism. Appeared in The Indian Express April 2022
· Panelist on Neurodiversity unveiled: Decoding the Brain for Evolutionary Success at the India Science Festival 2023
· Featured on The Life of Science© Calendar 2022 (https://thelifeofscience.com/2022/02/11/calendar-2022/)
· Writes a science blog, Peregrinations (https://peregrinations-mine.blogspot.com/)
Scientific Publications:
1. A comprehensive analysis of the inherited lncRNA and circRNA repertoire of zebrafish. DC Joshi, A Kadam, C Sachidanandan, B Pillai. 2025 Bioinformatics Advances, vbaf139
2. KAT3 mutations impair neural crest migration through EMT regulators snai1b and snai2 in Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome. Verma S, Dalabehera S, Gowda S, Chandrasekaran K, Singh D, Prasher B, Bapat S, Ramalingam S and Sachidanandan C bioRxiv, 2024.05. 19.593474
3. Generation of an induced pluripotent stem cell line IGIBi18-A from an Indian patient with Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome. Verma S, Dalabehera S, Maurya R, Singh D, Prasher B, Pandey R, Bapat S, Ramalingam S, Sachidanandan C#. Stem Cell Res. 2024 May 28;78:103456. doi: 10.1016/j.scr.2024.103456.
4. Non-POU Domain-Containing Octomer-Binding (NONO) protein expression and stability promotes the tumorigenicity and activation of Akt/MAPK/β-catenin pathways in human breast cancer cells. Lone BA, Siraj F, Sharma I, Verma S, Karna SKL, Ahmad F, Nagar P, Sachidanandan C, Pokharel YR. Cell Commun Signal. 2023 Jun 27;21(1):157. doi: 10.1186/s12964-023-01179-0.
5. A diet-independent zebrafish model for NAFLD recapitulates patient lipid profiles and offers a system for small molecule screening. Singh MK#, Yadav R, Bhaskar AK, Sengupta S, Sachidanandan C#. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 2022 Oct 4;1868(1):159246. doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2022.159246. PMID: 36202338
6. BML-257, a Small Molecule that Protects against Drug-Induced Liver Injury in Zebrafish. Jagtap U, Basu S, Lokhande L, Bharti N, Sachidanandan C#. Chem Res Toxicol. 2022 Aug 15;35(8):1393-1399. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.2c00100. Epub 2022 Jul 7. PMID: 35796757
7. Chronic systemic exposure to IL6 leads to deregulation of glycolysis and fat accumulation in the zebrafish liver. Singh MK, Jayarajan R, Varshney S, Upadrasta S, Singh A, Yadav R, Scaria V, Sengupta S, Shanmugam D, Shalimar, Sivasubbu S, Gandotra S, Sachidanandan C#. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 2021 May;1866(5):158905. doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2021.158905. Epub 2021 Feb 12. PMID: 33582286
8. A Temporal Map of Gene Expression Pattern During Zebrafish Liver Regeneration. Jagtap U, Sivadas A, Basu S, Verma A, Sivasubbu S, Scaria V, Sachidanandan C#. Zebrafish. 2020 Feb;17(1):1-10. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2019.1790. Epub 2019 Nov 26. PMID: 31770088
9. Genomics of rare genetic diseases-experiences from India. GUaRDIAN Consortium, Sivasubbu S, Scaria V. Hum Genomics. 2019 Sep 25;14(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s40246-019-0215-5. PMID: 31554517
10. Chemical screens in a zebrafish model of CHARGE syndrome identifies small molecules that ameliorate disease-like phenotypes in embryo. Asad Z, Sachidanandan C#. Eur J Med Genet. 2020 Feb;63(2):103661. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmg.2019.04.018. Epub 2019 May 1. PMID: 31051269
11. Small Molecule Inhibitors of NFkB Reverse Iron Overload and Hepcidin Deregulation in a Zebrafish Model for Hereditary Hemochromatosis Type 3. Basu S, Jalodia K, Ranjan S, Yeh JJ, Peterson RT, Sachidanandan C#. ACS Chem Biol. 2018 Aug 17;13(8):2143-2152. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.8b00317.
12. Chemical and genetic rescue of an ep300 knockdown model for Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome in zebrafish. Babu A, Kamaraj M, Basu M, Mukherjee D, Kapoor S, Ranjan S, Swamy MM, Kaypee S, Scaria V, Kundu TK, Sachidanandan C#. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2018 Apr;1864 (4PtA): 1203-1215. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2018.01.029.
13. Deciphering the role of hydrophobic and hydrophilic bile acids in angiogenesis using in vitro and in vivo model systems. Kundu S,Bansal S, Muthukumarasamy KM, Sachidanandan C, Motiani RK, Bajaj A. Med. Chem. Commun., 2017, Advance Article doi: 10.1039/C7MD00475C
14. Teratogenic, Cardiotoxic and Hepatotoxic Properties of Related Ionic Liquids Reveal the Biological Importance of Anionic Components. Pandey A, Ekka MK, Ranjan S, Maiti S and Sachidanandan C#. RSC Advances 2017,7, 22927-22935.
15. Sustainable, Rapid Synthesis of Bright-Luminescent CuInS2-ZnS Alloyed Nanocrystals: Multistage Nano-xenotoxicity Assessment and Intravital Fluorescence Bioimaging in Zebrafish-Embryos. Chetty SS, Praneetha S, Basu S, Sachidanandan C, Murugan AV. Sci Rep. 2016 May 18;6:26078. doi: 10.1038/srep26078.
16. The Light Intermediate Chain 2 Subpopulation of Dynein Regulates Mitotic Spindle Orientation. Mahale S, Kumar M, Sharma A, Babu A, Ranjan S, Sachidanandan C, Mylavarapu SV. Sci Rep. 2016 Dec;6(1):22. doi: 10.1038/s41598-016-0030-3.
17. Rescue of neural crest-derived phenotypes in a zebrafish CHARGE model by Sox10 downregulation. Asad Z, Pandey A, Babu A, Sun Y, Shevade K, Kapoor S, Ullah I, Ranjan S, Scaria V, Bajpai R, Sachidanandan C#. Hum Mol Genet. 2016 Aug 15;25(16):3539-3554. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddw198.
18. Identification of noreremophilane-based inhibitors of angiogenesis using zebrafish assays. Muthukumarasamy KM, Handore KL, Kakade DN, Shinde MV, Ranjan S, Kumar N, Sehrawat S, Sachidanandan C#, Reddy DS#. Org Biomol Chem. 2016 Feb 7;14(5):1569-78. doi: 10.1039/c5ob01594d.
19. The Zebrafish GenomeWiki: a crowdsourcing approach to connect the long tail for zebrafish gene annotation. Singh M, Bhartiya D, Maini J, Sharma M, Singh AR, Kadarkaraisamy S, Rana R, Sabharwal A, Nanda S, Ramachandran A, Mittal A, Kapoor S, Sehgal P, Asad Z, Kaushik K, Vellarikkal SK, Jagga D, Muthuswami M, Chauhan RK, Leonard E, Priyadarshini R, Halimani M, Malhotra S, Patowary A, Vishwakarma H, Joshi P, Bhardwaj V, Bhaumik A, Bhatt B, Jha A, Kumar A, Budakoti P, Lalwani MK, Meli R, Jalali S, Joshi K, Pal K, Dhiman H, Laddha SV, Jadhav V, Singh N, Pandey V, Sachidanandan C, Ekker SC, Klee EW, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S. Database (Oxford). 2014 Feb 26;2014:bau011. doi: 10.1093/database/bau011.
20. Time for the zebrafish ENCODE. Sivasubbu S#, Sachidanandan C #, Scaria V#. J Genet. 2013 Dec;92(3):695-701.
21. Zebrafish: a multifaceted tool for chemical biologists. Basu S, Sachidanandan C#. Chem Rev. 2013 Oct 9;113(10):7952-80. doi: 10.1021/cr4000013. Review.
22. lncRNome: a comprehensive knowledgebase of human long noncoding RNAs. Bhartiya D, Pal K, Ghosh S, Kapoor S, Jalali S, Panwar B, Jain S, Sati S, Sengupta S, Sachidanandan C, Raghava GP, Sivasubbu S, Scaria V. Database (Oxford). 2013 Jul 11;2013:bat034. doi: 10.1093/database/bat034.
23. Conceptual approaches for lncRNA drug discovery and future strategies. Bhartiya D, Kapoor S, Jalali S, Sati S, Kaushik K, Sachidanandan C, Sivasubbu S, Scaria V. Expert Opin Drug Discov. 2012 Jun;7(6):503-13. doi: 10.1517/17460441.2012.682055. Review.
24. Inhibition of bone morphogenetic protein signaling attenuates anemia associated with inflammation. Steinbicker AU*, Sachidanandan C *, Vonner AJ, Yusuf RZ, Deng DY, Lai CS, Rauwerdink KM, Winn JC, Saez B, Cook CM, Szekely BA, Roy CN, Seehra JS, Cuny GD, Scadden DT, Peterson RT, Bloch KD, Yu PB. Blood. 2011 May 5;117(18):4915-23. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-10-313064.
25. In vivo natriuretic peptide reporter assay identifies chemical modifiers of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy signalling. Becker JR, Robinson TY, Sachidanandan C, Kelly AE, Coy S, Peterson RT, MacRae CA. Cardiovasc Res. 2012 Mar 1;93(3):463-70. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvr350.
26. Differential axial requirements for lunatic fringe and Hes7 transcription during mouse somitogenesis. Stauber M*, Sachidanandan C *, Morgenstern C, Ish-Horowicz D. PLoS One. 2009 Nov 24;4(11):e7996. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007996.
27. BMP type I receptor inhibition reduces heterotopic [corrected] ossification. Yu PB, Deng DY, Lai CS, Hong CC, Cuny GD, Bouxsein ML, Hong DW, McManus PM, Katagiri T, Sachidanandan C, Kamiya N, Fukuda T, Mishina Y, Peterson RT, Bloch KD. Nat Med. 2008 Dec;14(12):1363-9. doi: 10.1038/nm.1888.
28. Identification of a novel retinoid by small molecule screening with zebrafish embryos. Sachidanandan C, Yeh JR, Peterson QP, Peterson RT. PLoS One. 2008 Apr 9;3(4):e1947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001947.
29. Structure-activity relationship study of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling inhibitors. Cuny GD, Yu PB, Laha JK, Xing X, Liu JF, Lai CS, Deng DY, Sachidanandan C, Bloch KD, Peterson RT. Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2008 Aug 1;18(15):4388-92. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2008.06.052.
30. Dorsomorphin inhibits BMP signals required for embryogenesis and iron metabolism. Yu PB*, Hong CC*, Sachidanandan C *, Babitt JL, Deng DY, Hoyng SA, Lin HY, Bloch KD, Peterson RT. Nat Chem Biol. 2008 Jan;4(1):33-41.
31. Regeneration screens in model organisms. Sachidanandan C, Peterson RT. Chapter in Chemical and Functional Genomic Approaches to Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, 2008 John Wiley & Sons Inc. Edited, Ding S. (Review)
32. Skeletal Muscle Progenitor Cells in Development and Regeneration. Sachidanandan C, Dhawan J. Proc Indian Natl Sci Acad. 2003 5: 719-740. (Review)
33. Tristetraprolin and LPS-inducible CXC chemokine are rapidly induced in presumptive satellite cells in response to skeletal muscle injury. Sachidanandan C, Sambasivan R, Dhawan J. J Cell Sci. 2002 Jul 1;115(Pt 13):2701-12.