Hem Chandra Jha

Biography:

Dr Hem Chandra Jha did his PhD in 2010 from Institute of Pathology in Delhi with Dr. Aruna Mittal, where he worked on Molecular Diagnosis and Pathogenesis of Chlamydia pneumonia in coronary artery disease patients and awarded PhD from BITS Pilani, Rajasthan. He then moved to University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia for postdoctoral research where he joined Prof. Erle S Robertson group working on tumor viruses specifically EBV (Epstein bar Virus) and KSHV (Kaposi sarcoma associated Herpesvirus). He has been working on understanding role of EBV latent antigens in transformation of B-cells by regulation of Aurora Kinase B and Histone H2AX. He also involved in the study of epigenetics changes with virus infection in primary cells. Further he moved to India at IIT Indore in July 2016 as Ramanujan Fellow. Subsequently join Assistant Professor in Feb 2017 and Head of the Department in Aug 2018 and promoted to Associate Professor in Feb 2022. His current research work comprises of how EBV co-infection with Helicobacter pylori leads to aggressive gastric carcinoma and drug resistance. What are the biological mechanisms behind this co-infected patient’s higher mortality compared to other gastric cancer groups? Also, he is looking how this EBV is playing role in several neural diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s diseases. He has published more than 80 research papers including PNAS, PloS Pathogens, mBio, Journal of Virology, etc. He is also members of Editorial and review board of several peer reviewed National and International journals. Last two years his research group actively working in SARS-CoV2 virus and exploring new avenues in these domains.