Dr. Arun Mehra

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Dartmouth College
Medical School
Genetics
Dunlap Lab
Postdoctoral FellowAppointed: 2001
Professional Headshot of Arun Mehra

Mailing Address

Dartmouth Medical School
Department of Genetics
HB 7400
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
United States

Contact Information

arun.mehra@dartmouth.edu

Qualifications

Ph.D., University of Toronto, Anatomy and Cell Biology, 2002.
M.Sc., University of Toronto, Molecular and Medical Genetics, 1995.
B.Sc., University of Toronto, Double Major in Biology and Physics, 1992.

Expertise and Research Interests

I am interested in the nearly universal biological phenomenon of circadian rhythms; these are biological oscillations that have a period of approximately a day (from Latin, circa = about, diem = day). Simply, how (and why) does an organism tell time?

Currently, I am studying the molecular mechanisms of clock function in the fungus Neurospora crassa. This organism is easily manipulated genetically and biochemically which makes it a desirable model system for chronobiology. Moreover, studies of the clock in Neurospora have predicted mechanistic parallels across diverse organisms from insects to mammals.

I am particularly interested in the problem of temperature compensation. How does a cold-blooded organism establish an essentially invariant period length over a wide physiological range of temperature?

Furthermore, I've recently generated an ordinary differential equations model of the cyanobacterial Kai oscillator. In some surprising and elegant work, Kondo and co-workers have shown that this organism's oscillator can function in vitro with only an excess of ATP and 3 proteins, KaiA, KaiB and KaiC. I chose to mathematically model the in vitro oscillator given that all of its parts are explicitly known.

Other Expertise

Specific approaches used: transient and stable transfection of mammalian cells, transcriptional response assays--CAT and luciferase, yeast two-hybrid, immunoprecipitation, Western blotting, Northern and Southern hybridisation, subcloning, immunofluorescence, metabolic labelling of proteins--in vitro and in vivo, EMSA, DNA footprinting, whole mount in situ hybridisation, ODE mathematical modelling.

Keywords

COS Keywords:

Biochemistry, Cell Culture, Circadian Rhythms, Endocrinology, Genetics, Mathematical Modeling (Medical), Molecular Biology, Molecular Genetics, Zoology.

Additional Terms:

Mathematical Modelling.

Languages

(Reading, Writing, Speaking)

French: (Functional, Basic, Basic)
Hindi: (Basic, Basic, Fluent)

Honors and Awards

2006, Research Excellence Trainee Travel Award, Society for Research on Biological Rhythms
2001, NSERC Industrial Partnership for Post-doc studies, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, (declined)
2000-2001, Joe Connolly OGSST, Connolly Family/University of Toronto, University of Toronto
1991, Trinity College Scholarship, Trinity College, University of Toronto
1990, NSERC Summer Studentship, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, University of Toronto
1989, John D. Schulz Scholarship, Ontario Heart Association, Hospital for Sick Children
1988, Provost Entrance Scholarship, Trinity College, University of Toronto
1988, Book Award, Martingrove Collegiate / University of Toronto
1988, Ontario Scholarship for Academics, Ontario Government, Martingrove Collegiate
1988, Biology Proficiency Award, Government of Ontario, Martingrove Collegiate
1988-1990, Canada Scholarship for Studies in Science, Canadian Government, University of Toronto
1988, Martin L. Wills Scholarship, Ontario Heart Association, Hospital for Sick Children
1986, Shad Valley Travel Scholarship, Digital Equipment Corporation of Canada (now HP)

Previous Positions

1999-1999, Tutorial Assistant, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Science, Zoology
1995-1996, Research Technician II, Hospital for Sick Children, Endocrinology

Funding Received

  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR): Post-doctoral Fellowship, 2002 to 2004.
  • Ontario Government / University of Toronto: Ontario Graduate Studies in Science and Technology Fund, 1999 to 2000.
  • Medical Research Council (now CIHR): MRC Studentship, 1996 to 1999.

Publications

  • Mehra A, Shi M, Baker CL, Colot HV, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC (May 2009) A role for casein kinase 2 in the mechanism underlying circadian temperature compensation., Cell, 137 (4), 749-60 Abstract
  • Gooch VD*, Mehra A*, Larrondo LF, Fox J, Touroutoutoudis M, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC, *First two authors contributed equally* (Jan 2008) Fully codon-optimized luciferase uncovers novel temperature characteristics of the Neurospora clock., Eukaryotic cell, 7 (1), 28-37 Abstract
  • Loros JJ, Dunlap JC, Larrondo LF, Shi M, Belden WJ, Gooch VD, Chen CH, Baker CL, Mehra A, Colot HV, Schwerdtfeger C, Lambreghts R, Collopy PD, Gamsby JJ, Hong CI (2007) Circadian output, input, and intracellular oscillators: insights into the circadian systems of single cells., Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology, 72, 201-14 Abstract
  • Dunlap JC, Loros JJ, Colot HV, Mehra A, Belden WJ, Shi M, Hong CI, Larrondo LF, Baker CL, Chen CH, Schwerdtfeger C, Collopy PD, Gamsby JJ, Lambreghts R (2007) A Circadian Clock in Neurospora: How Genes and Proteins Cooperate to Produce a Sustained, Entrainable, and Compensated Biological Oscillator with a Period of about a Day., Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology, 72, 57-68 Abstract
  • Mehra A, Hong CI, Shi M, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC, Ruoff P (Jul 2006) Circadian rhythmicity by autocatalysis., PLoS computational biology, 2 (7), e96 Abstract
  • Lee-Hoeflich ST, Zhao X, Mehra A, Attisano L (Aug 2005) The Drosophila type II receptor, Wishful thinking, binds BMP and myoglianin to activate multiple TGFbeta family signaling pathways., FEBS letters, 579 (21), 4615-21 Abstract
  • Mehra A, Mechanisms of TGF-beta Signalling and Antagonism, Ph.D. Thesis, 2002
  • Mehra A, Wrana JL (2002) TGF-beta and the Smad signal transduction pathway., Biochemistry and cell biology = Biochimie et biologie cellulaire, 80 (5), 605-22 Abstract
  • Mehra A, Attisano L, Wrana JL (2000) Characterization of Smad phosphorylation and Smad-receptor interaction., Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 142, 67-78 Abstract
  • Mehra A, Gaudet J, Heck L, Kuwabara PE, Spence AM (Jun 1999) Negative regulation of male development in Caenorhabditis elegans by a protein-protein interaction between TRA-2A and FEM-3., Genes & development, 13 (11), 1453-63 Abstract
  • Carlyle JR, Martin A, Mehra A, Attisano L, Tsui FW, Zúñiga-Pflücker JC (May 1999) Mouse NKR-P1B, a novel NK1.1 antigen with inhibitory function., Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950), 162 (10), 5917-23 Abstract
  • Wisotzkey RG*, Mehra A*, Sutherland DJ, Dobens LL, Liu X, Dohrmann C, Attisano L, Raftery LA, *First two authors contributed equally* (Apr 1998) Medea is a Drosophila Smad4 homolog that is differentially required to potentiate DPP responses., Development (Cambridge, England), 125 (8), 1433-45 Abstract
  • Newfeld SJ, Mehra A, Singer MA, Wrana JL, Attisano L, Gelbart WM (Aug 1997) Mothers against dpp participates in a DDP/TGF-beta responsive serine-threonine kinase signal transduction cascade., Development (Cambridge, England), 124 (16), 3167-76 Abstract
  • Mehra A, Direct interaction between FEM-3 and TRA-2A, two sex determining proteins of C. elegans, M.Sc. Thesis, 1995
  • Coles JG, Romaschin AD, Wilson GJ, Mickle DA, Dasmahapatra H, Martell M, Mehra A, Tsao P (Jul 1992) Oxygen free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation injury in acute cardiac allograft rejection., Transplantation, 54 (1), 175-8 Abstract
  • Williams WG, Rebeyka IM, Tibshirani RJ, Coles JG, Lightfoot NE, Mehra A, Freedom RM, Trusler GA (Dec 1990) Warm induction blood cardioplegia in the infant. A technique to avoid rapid cooling myocardial contracture., The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, 100 (6), 896-901 Abstract
  • LaBourene JI, Coles JG, Johnson DJ, Mehra A, Keeley FW, Rabinovitch M (Feb 1990) Alterations in elastin and collagen related to the mechanism of progressive pulmonary venous obstruction in a piglet model. A hemodynamic, ultrastructural, and biochemical study., Circulation research, 66 (2), 438-56 Abstract

Profile Details

Last Verified: 6/30/2009

COS Expertise ID #843991
Reference this profile directly: http://myprofile.cos.com/ArunMehra