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Research Overview

My postdoctoral research is mainly focused on neurobiology of regeneration and pain. On regeneration side, my work is aimed to understand and identify the molecular mechanisms responsible for poor CNS regeneration and ways to maneuver them to improve the outcomes following peripheral and central nervous system injuries. The Woolf and Costigan labs have identified a particular inbred mouse strain, which has remarkable regenerative capacity on central myelin following preconditioned injury. Working with both groups, I am using high throughput qRT-PCR, RNASeq and bioinformatics tools, to exploit this mouse strain, to identify a specific gene signature of regrowth following injury and ultimately utilize this to manipulate axonal growth in a challenging CNS environment.
 
I am also working on cancer chemotherapeutics induced (CCI) neuropathy and neuropathic pain. Here I am exploring the cellular signals for neuronal sensitization and progression of neurodegeneration and pain following CCI treatment. Through this work, I hope to discover novel mechanisms and targets for the treatment of CCI neuropathic pain.

Research Background

I received my Bachelors degree in Pharmacy and Masters in Pharmacology from India. Subsequently, I worked in Pharmaceutical industry for three years on metabolic disorders especially type 2 diabetes and learned about the drug development process. Afterwards, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Zochodne at University of Calgary, Canada in 2008 for my Ph.D. in Neuroscience. My doctoral work was focused on studying the impact and mechanisms of extracellular electrical stimulation on peripheral nerve regeneration. I also worked on identifying novel cellular mechanisms of neuroregenerative failure in diabetic sensory neurons.
I joined Clifford Woolf’s lab in January 2014 for my Postdoctoral training.

Selected Publications:

  1. Singh B, Singh V, Krishnan A, Koshy K, Martinez JA, Cheng C, Almquist C, Zochodne DW. Regeneration of diabetic axons is enhanced by selective knockdown of the PTEN gene. Brain. 2014 Apr;137:1051-67.
  2. Singh B, Plemel JR. Neutrophil contribution in facilitating optic nerve regeneration. J Neurosci. 2014 Jan 22;34(4):1081-2.
  3. Christie KJ, Krishnan A, Martinez JA, Purdy K, Singh B, Eaton S, Zochodne DW. Enhancing adult nerve regeneration through the knockdown of retinoblastoma protein. Nature Communications, 2014 Apr 22;5:3670.
  4. Singh B, Sangle GV, Murugan J, Umrani R, Roy S, Kulkarni O, Semwal A, Unnikrishnan M, Jain M. Effect of combination treatment of S-amlodipine with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists on metabolic and cardiovascular parameters in Zucker fa/fa rats. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2014 Mar 28;6(1):45. doi: 10.1186/1758-5996-6-45.
  5. Franz CK, Singh B, Martinez JA, Zochodne DW, Midha R. Brief Transvertebral Electrical Stimulation of the Spinal Cord Improves the Specificity of Femoral Nerve Reinnervation. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2013 Mar;27(3):260-8.
  6. Singh B, Xu QG, Franz CK, Zhang R, Dalton C, Gordon T, Verge VM, Midha R, Zochodne DW: Accelerated axon outgrowth, guidance, and target reinnervation across nerve transection gaps following a brief electrical stimulation paradigm. J Neurosurgery. 2012 Mar;116(3):498-512.
  7. Singh B, Xu Y, McLaughlin T, Singh V, Martinez JA, Krishnan A, Zochodne DW. Resistance To Trophic Neurite Outgrowth of Sensory Neurons Exposed to Insulin. J Neurochem. 2012 Apr; 121(2):263-76
  8. Kan M, Guo G, Singh B, Singh V, Zochodne DW. GLP-1, sensory neurons and diabetic neuropathy. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2012 Jun;71(6):494-510
  9. Webber CA, Christie KJ, Cheng C, Martinez JA, Singh B, Singh V, Thomas D, Zochodne DW. Schwann cells direct peripheral nerve regeneration through the Netrin-1 receptors, DCC and Unc5H2. Glia. 2011 Oct;59(10):1503-17.
  10. Christie KJ, Webber CA, Martinez JA, Singh B, Zochodne DW. PTEN Inhibition to Facilitate Intrinsic Regenerative Outgrowth of Adult Peripheral Axons. J Neurosci. 2010 Jul 7;30(27):9306-15.