K Sony Reddy

Associate Professor

K. Sony Reddy joined as an Assistant Professor at School of Biotechnology of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology on January 2016; and has been involved in teaching Immunology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry to Masters students. He has worked on developing blood-stage malaria vaccine during his PhD tenure at ICGEB, New Delhi; after which he got selected for the INSPIRE Faculty program by DST, Govt of India. His lab is interested to gain a detailed understanding of the molecular processes that are essential for survival of the malarial parasite inside the human erythrocyte and develop new antimalarial drug(s)/drug strategies to counter anti-malarial drug resistance. His lab uses immunological, biochemical, histochemical, microscopy, metabolomic and proteomics techniques to pursue their research goals.

Profile Links

Email :
[email protected]
Scopus Id :
57199384789
Google Scholar :
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m7SceXIAAAAJ&hl=en

Social Links

Educational Qualification
PhD

Projects
  1. Identification and functional characterization of novel P. falciparum exported proteins (DST-INSPIRE; 2016-2021; INR 97,00,000). Role- PI
  2. Role of PEXEL positive P. falciparum Hsp40 proteins in parasite protein trafficking and host cell remodelling inside the host erythrocyte (DST-SERB Early Career Award, 2016-2019, INR 42,00,000). Role- PI
  3. Validate the efficacy of traditional herbal healing produce as anti-malarial (DST-National Innovation Foundation, 2019-2020, INR 10,80,000). Role- PI
  4. Decrypting the functional role of the human erythrocyte HSP70 chaperones (HSPA1 and HSPA8) in intraerythrocytic development of Plasmodium falciparum. (DST-SERB Core Research Grant, 2022-2025, INR 39,00,000). Role- PI
  5. Role of Estrogen Related Receptor (ERR-α) on the self-renewal of breast cancer stem cells and its implications in chemoresistance. (ICMR-EMR, 2021-2024, INR 53,00,000). Role- Co-PI.


Administrative Responsibility
Coordinator Examination cell of KSBT, Member of School level Research Committee and NET-GATE Committee.

Awards & Honours
  1. Awarded with “INSA Medal for Young Scientist 2022” from Indian National Science Academy.
  2. Special Invitee to the Award ceremony of Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FINE) 2023, held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the august presence of the Hon’ble President of India, as well as a panellist to the round table conference.
  3. INSPIRE Faculty Awardee by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India on 2015.
  4. Awarded Best Oral Presentation Award at “Parasitology-2015”, held in JNU, New Delhi, India.
  5. Awarded Best Poster at “Bioepoch-2015”, held in JNU, New Delhi, India.
  6. Awarded Best Poster (First Prize) at “Parasitology-2014”, held in JNU, New Delhi, India.
  7. International Travel Support (ITS) from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), to present at “Gordon Research Conference on Molecular and Cell Biology of Malaria” held in Italy, 2013.
  8. Qualified Junior Research Fellowship (2009) from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India to pursue a Ph.D. degree in India.
  9. Qualified Junior Research Fellowship (2009) conducted by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India.
  10. Selected in National qualifying examination conducted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Masters in Biotechnology. Recipient of DBT scholarship during Masters in Biotechnology.


Memberships
  • Member of the Indian Society for Parasitology
  • Member of the Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery Society (BIDDS)


Outreach Activity
  1. Invited talk and practical session in “INSPIRE SCIENCE CAMP” held at NIST, Berhampur on February 2017.
  2. Invited talk and practical session in “INSPIRE SCIENCE CAMP” held at NIST, Berhampur on March 2018.
  3. Invited talk and practical session in “INSPIRE SCIENCE CAMP” held at NIST, Berhampur on February 2019.
  4. Invited speaker for “Global summit for Malaria Eradication” held at JNU, New Delhi, India on Sep 2019.
  5. Invited speaker for “International Conference on Molecular Basis of Disease and Therapeutics” held at the Central University of Rajasthan. India on March 2019.
  6. Invited as program progress reviewer for BIRAC grants at Yenepoya technology Business incubator, Yenepoya University, Bangalore (24th – 28th August 2022).
  7. Co-organised the 10th Annual Meeting of Chemical Biology Society (India) at KIIT (Deemed) University, Bhubaneswar (March 2023).
  8. Has served as a reviewer for multiple grants of DST-SERB, Govt of India.
  9. Has been serving as an expert reviewer for BIG grants of DBT-BIRAC, Govt of India.
  10. Have acted as a reviewer for journals like PLOS ONE, Scientific Reports, etc.

Journals/Conferences :
1. Welka Sahu, Tapaswini Bai, Pritam Kumar Panda, Archita Mazumder, Aleena Das, Deepak Kumar Ojha, Suresh K Verma, Selvakumar Elangovan, K Sony Reddy* . (2022) Plasmodium falciparum HSP40 protein eCiJp traffics to the erythrocyte cytoskeleton and interacts with the human HSP70 chaperone HSPA1. FEBS Lett. 596(1):95-111. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.14255. (*Corresponding Author).
2. Aleena Das, Welka Sahu, Deepak Kumar Ojha 1, K Sony Reddy*, Mrutyunjay Suar. (2022). Comparative Analysis of Host Metabolic Alterations in Murine Malaria Models with Uncomplicated or Severe Malaria. J Proteome Res., 21(10):2261-2276. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.2c00123. (*Corresponding author).
3. Hina Singh, Syed Yusuf Mian, Alok K. Pandey, Sri Krishna, Gaurav Anand, K. Sony Reddy, Neha Chaturvedi, Vanndita Bahl, Nidhi Hans, Man Mohan Shukla, Quique Bassat, Alfredo Mayor, Kazutoyo Miura, Praveen K. Bharti, Carole Long, Neeru Singh, Virander Singh Chauhan, Deepak Gaur (2020). Antibody combinations targeting the essential antigens CyRPA, RH5 and MSP-119 potently neutralize Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates from India and Africa. Journal of Infectious diseases, 223(11):1953-1964.
4. Joytirmay Tripathy , Amit Roy Chowdhury, Monica Prusty, Kartik Muduli, Nilima Priyadarshini , K Sony Reddy, Birendranath Banerjee, Selvakumar Elangovan (2020). α-Lipoic Acid Prevents the Ionizing Radiation-Induced Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Enhances the Radio-sensitivity in Breast Cancer Cells. European journal of Pharmacology, 871:172938
5. Aida Valmaseda, Eusebio Macete, Augusto Nhabomba, Caterina Guinovart, Pedro Aide, Azucena Bardají, Quique Bassat, Tacilta Nhampossa, Sonia Maculuve, Aina Casellas, Llorenç Quintó, Sergi Sanz, Alfons Jiménez, Gaoqian Feng, Christine Langer, Linda Reiling, K Sony Reddy, Alok Pandey, Chetan E Chitnis, Virander S Chauhan, Ruth Aguilar, John J Aponte, Carlota Dobaño, James G Beeson, Deepak Gaur, Clara Menéndez, Pedro L Alonso, Alfredo Mayor (2018). Identifying Immune Correlates of Protection Against Plasmodium falciparum Through a Novel Approach to Account for Heterogeneity in Malaria Exposure. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 66(4):586-593.
6. Mohit Kumar Gupta, Meetu Agarawal, Khadija Banu, K. Sony Reddy, Deepak Gaur, Suman Kumar Dhar (2018). Role of Chromatin assembly factor 1 in DNA replication of P. falciparum. Biochem Biophys Res Commun., 495(1):1285-1291.
7. Nawneet Mishra, K Sony Reddy, Uddhav Timilsina, Deepak Gaur, Ritu Gaur (2018). Human APOBEC3B interacts with the heterogenous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A3 in cancer cells. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, 119(8):6695-6703.
8. Gaurav Anand, K. Sony Reddy, Alok Kumar Pandey, Syed Yusuf Mian, Hina Singh, Shivani Arora Mittal, Emmanuel Amlabu, Q Bassat, Alfredo Mayor A, Virander Singh Chauhan, Deepak Gaur (2016). Identification of a novel Rhoptry protein involved in P. falciparum erythrocyte invasion through a sialic-acid dependent pathway. Scientific Reports; 6:29185.
9. Pallabi Mitra, Enna Dogra Gupta, Tajali Sahar, Alok K. Pandey, Poonam Dangi, K. Sony Reddy, Virander Singh Chauhan, Deepak Gaur. (2016) Evidence for the Nucleo-Apical Shuttling of a Beta-Catenin Like Plasmodium falciparum Armadillo Repeat Containing Protein. PLOS ONE; 11(2):e0148446.
10. K. Sony Reddy, Emmanuel Amlabu, Alok K. Pandey, Pallabi Mitra, Virander S. Chauhan, Deepak Gaur (2015) Multiprotein complex between the GPI-anchored CyRPA with PfRH5 and PfRipr is crucial for Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte invasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA); 112(4):1179-84.
This work is featured as an editorial highlight in Nature Reviews Microbiology. Also had been highlighted in NDTV as well as newspapers.
11. K. Sony Reddy, Alok K. Pandey, Hina Singh, Tajali Sahar, Emmanuel Amlabu, Chetan E. Chitnis, Virander S. Chauhan, Deepak Gaur (2014). Bacterially expressed full-length recombinant Plasmodium falciparum RH5 protein elicits potent strain-transcending parasite neutralizing antibodies. Infection & Immunity; 82(1):152-64.
12. Alok K. Pandey§, K. Sony Reddy§, Tajali Sahar, Sonal Gupta, Hina Singh, E. Jyotheeswara Reddy, Mohd Asad, Faiza A. Siddiqui, Pankaj Gupta, Bijender Singh, Kunal R. More, Asif Mohmmed, Chetan E. Chitnis, Virander S. Chauhan, Deepak Gaur (2013) Identification of a potent combination of key Plasmodium falciparum merozoite antigens that elicit strain-transcending parasite-neutralizing antibodies. Infection & Immunity; 81 (2): 441-451. §Co First Author
13. Nidhi Hans, Shailja Singh, Alok K. Pandey, K. Sony Reddy, Deepak Gaur, Virander S. Chauhan. (2013) Identification and Characterization of a Novel Plasmodium falciparum Adhesin involved in Erythrocyte Invasion. PLOS ONE 8(9):e74790
14. Tajali Sahar, K. Sony Reddy, Mitasha Bharadwaj, Alok K. Pandey, Shailja Singh, Chetan E. Chitnis, Deepak Gaur (2011). Plasmodium falciparum reticulocyte binding-like homologue protein 2 (PfRH2) is a key adhesive molecule involved in erythrocyte invasion. PLOS ONE; 6(2): e17102.
15. P. Nageswara Rao, K. Sony Reddy, Abani K. Bhuyan (2009). Amyloid fibrillation of human Apaf -1 CARD. Biochemistry (ACS); 48 (32):7656–7664.