Cercle Gutenberg

Gaïti Hasan

I currently hold a SERB-Distinguished Fellowship at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru. My group studies regulation of calcium ion levels over minutes and hours in neurons and we have focused our efforts in understanding why altered calcium signals lead to loss of motor coordination with age. Our findings show that slow calcium dynamics affect the expression of specific neuronal genes from fruit flies and in human stem-cell derived neural precursor cells. These findings open new avenues of therapeutic intervention in the neurodegenerative conditions of Parkinson’s syndrome and Spino-cerebellar Ataxias. This work has been recognized both nationally and internationally.

Research Project for the Gutenberg Chair: INTRACELLULAR Ca2+ SIGNALING IN DROSOPHILA GLIAL CELLS

This project will be to understand how Ca2+ signaling in glial and immune cells impacts neuronal function in Drosophila. Mechanisms of glial-neuron signaling, its effects on the functions of intact neural circuits, their behavioral outputs, and their contributions to brain diseases, remain to be fully elucidated. The complementary expertise of my group in neuronal Ca2+ signaling and that of Dr. Giangrande (at the IGBMC, Strasbourg) on glial and immune cells will make it possible to manipulate the expression/activity of the SOCE Ca2+ signaling pathway in these cell populations in vivo. The Gutenberg Chair Award further cements a larger and long-term collaborative project that has been positively evaluated by the CNRS and by the University of Strasbourg in 2017. This has led to the creation in January 2019 of a ‘Laboratory without walls’ between the IGBMC and the NCBS directed by Dr. Giangrande (Laboratoire International Associé or LIA CALIM), of which I am the major Indian partner.

 As part of these programs we will analyze specific molecular, cellular and organismal outputs using transdisciplinary approaches that combine genome wide analyses, in vivo and behavioral assays as well as cell and molecular biology. These findings will serve as a platform for understanding the impact of Ca2+ signaling in the fly immune and nervous systems in the context of neurodegeneration. In the long term, they will also contribute to understand the physio-pathological mechanisms of human diseases linked to dysfunctional SOCE.

Significant PUBLICATIONS (past 5 years):

  • Manjila, S. B., Kuruvilla, M., Ferveur, J-F., Sane, S. P. and Hasan, G. (2019). Extended flight bouts require disinhibition from GABAergic Mushroom Body neurons. Current Biology, 29, 283-293. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.070
  • Jayakumar, S., Richhariya, S., Deb, B. K. and Hasan, G. (2018). A multi-component neuronal response encodes the larval decision to pupariate upon amino acid starvation. J. Neuroscience, 38, 10202-10219. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1163-18.2018
  • Ravi, P., Trivedi, D. and Hasan, G. (2018). FMRFa receptor stimulated Ca2+ signals alter the activity of flight modulating central dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila melanogaster. Plos Genetics, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007459
  • Gopurapilly, R., Deb, B.K., Chakraborty, P. and Hasan, G. (2018) Stable STIM1 knockdown in self-renewing human neural precursors promotes premature neural differentiation. Front. Mol. Neurosci, 11:178, DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2018.00178
  • Chakraborty, S., Deb, B. K., Chorna, T., Konieczny, V., Taylor, C. W. and Hasan, G. (2016) IP3 receptors attenuate store-operated Ca2+ entry by destabilizing STIM-Orai interactions in Drosophila neurons. J. Cell Sci 129, 3903-3910. DOI: 10.1242/jcs.191585
  • Jayakumar, S., Richhariya, S., Reddy, O.V., Texada, M. and Hasan G. (2016), Drosophila larval to pupal switch under nutrient stress requires IP3R/Ca2+ signalling in glutamatergic interneurons. eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.17495
  • Deb, B. K., Pathak, T. and Hasan, G (2016). Store independent modulation of Ca2+ entry by Septin 7. Nature Communications, 7:11751, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11751
  • Pathak, T., Agrawal, T., Richhariya, S., Sadaf, S. and Hasan, G (2015). Store-operated calcium entry through Orai is required for transcriptional maturation of the flight circuit in Drosophila. J. Neurosci, 35, 13784-13799
  • Agrawal, T and Hasan, G Maturation of a central brain flight circuit in Drosophila requires Fz2/Ca2+ signaling (2015). DOI: eLife,10.7554/eLife.07046
    Sadaf, S., Reddy, O.V., Sane, S.P. and Hasan G., Neural control of wing coordination in flies (2015). Current Biology, 25, 80-86. DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.069