Biological and Life Sciences

Advisory Board Member: Venture Studio, Ahmedabad University, India.

Advisory Board Member: Bhavans Research Centre, Bhavans College, Mumbai, India.
Director & Scientific Advisory Board Member: iBioAnlaysis Pvt. Ltd. Ahmedabad, India.
Adjunct Principal Investigator: Bioinformatics Institute, Agency for Science Technology & Research (A*STAR), Biopolis, Singapore

Member, Live Education Task Force, International Society for Advancement of Cytometry, USA
 
Dr. Vivek Tanavde joined Ahmedabad Unviersity in 2017. Prior to this, he was a Principal Investigator at the Bioinformatics Institute, Singapore for more than 10 years. He was also heading the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Lab at Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai where his work focused on developing mesenchymal stromal cell based therapies for cardiac and neuronal disorders. From 1999 to 2002 he was a post doctoral fellow with Dr. Curt Civin at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre, Johns Hopkins University working on expansion of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Dr. Tanavde obtained his Ph.D from the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai (1999) in Applied Biology. He was also the Secretary of the Stem Cell Society, Singapore for 5 years & serves on the education committee of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC).

My current focus at Ahmedabad University is to develop saliva based diagnostics for cancer. My group is part of the oral cancer cluster at Ahmedabad University. We are currently assessing the utility of salivary exosomal miRNAs in understanding initiation and progression of oral cancer. We are also assessing the utility of cell free DNA from saliva for cancer diagnosis. Liquid biopsies are becoming increasingly important in cancer diagnosis, given their ease of collection and the fact that they accurately reflect molecular changes happening in tumours, especially hard to reach tumours. Saliva is a useful body fluid for liquid bopsies, but the challenge of isolating good quality RNA from saliva has hindered previous efforts to use saliva for liquid biopsy. We aim to solve this problem by studying RNA from salivary exosomes. Since exosomes encapsulate the RNA it remains protected and isolating exosomes can lead to good quality RNA from saliva. We have identified putative biomarkers for predicting progression and chemoresistance in oral cancer. Apart from assessing their utility as biomarkers, we are also interested in understanding the role these miRNAs play in tumour progression. Previously my laboratory has identified signaling pathways critical for bone marrow derived MSC growth and differentiation (Ng Blood 2008) & miRNA networks that regulate signaling pathways in MSC (Koh BMC Genomics 2010). We are deconvoluting similar miRNA-mRNA networks in oral squamous cell carcinoma. In addition we are also assessing the utility of serum exosomal miRNAs for early detection of glioblastoma.

1. Aditi Patel, Shanaya Patel, Parina Patel, Vivek Tanavde. (2022) Saliva based liquid biopsies in Head and Neck Cancer: How far are we from the clinic? Frontiers in Oncology (In Press).
2. Patel S, Patel A, Nair A, Shah K, Shah K, Tanavde V, Rawal R. (2021) Salinomycin mediated therapeutic targeting of circulating stem like cell population in oral cancer. Mol Struct Dyn. 2021 Jul 26;1-13. doi: 10.1080/07391102.2021.1957018.
3. Louis JM, Vaz C, Balaji A, Tanavde V, Talukdar I. (2020). TNF-alpha regulates alternative splicing of genes participating in pathways of crucial metabolic syndromes; a transcriptome wide study. Cytokine. 2020 Jan;125:154815. doi: 10.1016/j.cyto.2019.154815. 
4. Mishra A, Sriram H, Chandarana P, Tanavde V, Kumar RV, Gopinath A, Govindarajan R, Ramaswamy S, Sadasivam S. (2018). Decreased expression of cell adhesion genes in cancer stem-like cells isolated from primary oral squamous cell carcinomas. Tumour Biol. 2018 May;40(5):1010428318780859. doi: 10.1177/1010428318780859.
5. Guo J, Lin F, Zhang X, Tanavde V, Zheng J. (2017) NetLand: quantitative modeling and visualization of Waddington's epigenetic landscape using probabilistic potential. Bioinformatics. 2017 Jan 19. pii: btx022. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btx022.
6. Guneta V, Tan NS, Chan SK, Tanavde V, Lim TC, Wong TC, Choong C. (2016) Comparative study of adipose-derived stem cells and bone marrow-derived stem cells in similar microenvironmental conditions. Exp Cell Res. 2016 Nov 1;348(2):155-164.
7. Tkatchenko AV, Luo X, Tkatchenko TV, Vaz C, Tanavde VM, Maurer-Stroh S, Zauscher S, Gonzalez P, Young TL. (2016) Large-Scale microRNA Expression Profiling Identifies Putative Retinal miRNA-mRNA Signaling Pathways Underlying Form-Deprivation Myopia in Mice. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 13;11(9): e0162541.
8. Takeda K, Sriram S, Chan XH, Ong WK, Yeo CR, Tan B, Lee SA, Kong KV, Hoon S, Jiang H, Yuen JJ, Perumal J, Agrawal M, Vaz C, So J, Shabbir A, Blaner WS, Olivo M, Han W, Tanavde V, Toh SA, Sugii S (2016). Retinoic Acid Mediates Visceral-Specific Adipogenic Defects of Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells. Diabetes. 2016 May;65(5):1164-78. doi: 10.2337/db15-1315.
9. Wong QW, Vaz C, Lee QY, Zhao TY, Luo R, Archer SK, Preiss T, Tanavde V, Vardy LA (2016). Embryonic Stem Cells Exhibit mRNA Isoform Specific Translational Regulation. PLoS One. 22; 11(1):e0143235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143235.
10. Vaz C, Wee CW, Lee GP, Ingham PW, Tanavde V, Mathavan S. (2015) Deep sequencing of small RNA facilitates tissue and sex associated microRNA discovery in zebrafish. BMC Genomics. 2015 Nov 16;16:950.
11. Tanavde V, Vaz C, Rao MS, Vemuri MC, Pochampally RR (2015). Research using Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells: quality metric towards developing a reference material. Cytotherapy. 17(9):1169-7
12. CandidaVaz, Choon Wei Wee, Serene Gek Ping Lee, Philip W Ingham, Vivek Tanavde, Sinnakaruppan Mathavan (2015). Deep sequencing of small RNA facilitates tissue and sex specific microRNA discovery in zebrafish. BMC Genomics. 16:950 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-2135-7
13. Tanavde V, Vemuri MC, Pochampally R. Mesenchymal stromal cells: novel methods for characterization, understanding differentiation, and function (2014). Stem Cells Int. ;2014:630936.
14. Sundaram GM, Common JE, Gopal FE, Srikanta S, Lakshman K, Lunny DP, Lim TC, Tanavde V, Lane EB, Sampath P. (2013) ‘See-saw' expression of microRNA-198 and FSTL1 from a single transcript in wound healing. Nature. 2013 Mar 7;495(7439):103-6.
15. Chan XH, Nama S, Gopal F, Rizk P, Ramasamy S, Sundaram G, Ow GS, Ivshina AV, Tanavde V, Haybaeck J, Kuznetsov V, Sampath P. (2012) Targeting glioma stem cells by functional inhibition of a prosurvival oncomiR-138 in malignant gliomas. Cell Rep. 2012 Sep 27;2(3):591-602
16. Zimmer B, Kuegler PB, Baudis B, Genewsky A, Tanavde V, Koh W, Tan B, Waldmann T, Kadereit S, Leist M. Coordinated waves of gene expression during neuronal differentiation of embryonic stem cells as basis for novel approaches to developmental neurotoxicity testing. (2011). Cell Death Differ. 18(3):383-95.
17. Ng F,.Boucher, S, Koh S, Sastry K. S., Chase L, Lakshmipathy U, Choong C, Yang Z, Vemuri M. C, Rao M. S, Tanavde, V.(2008) PDGF, TGF-b and FGF signaling is important for differentiation and growth of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs): transcriptional profiling can identify markers and signaling pathways important in differentiation of MSC into adipogenic, chondrogenic and ostoegenic lineages.Blood. 112(2):295-307
18. Vinod K Shah,Arvind J Desai,Jagdish B Vasvani,Mukesh M Desai,Bharat P Shah,Tilak K Lall,Manoj R Mashru,Kavita K Shalia, Vivek Tanavde, Satish S Desai, Bhavin J Jankharia (2007). Bone Marrow Cells for Myocardial Repair - A New Therapeutic Concept. Indian Heart Journal Dec 2007 482 - 490;
19. P. Shetty, K. Bharucha, V. Tanavde (2007) Human umbilical cord blood serum can replace fetal bovine serum in the culture of mesenchymal stem cells. Cell Biol International 31.293-298.
20. V Tanavde, M Malehorn, R Lumkul, Z Gao, J Wingard, E Garrett & Civin CI. (2002) Human stem-progenitor cells from neonatal cord blood have greater hematopoietic expansion capacity than those from mobilized adult blood. Exp. Hematol 30 pp:816-823.
21. V.M. Tanavde, S.S. Desai & S.G.A. Rao (1997) Erythrocyte depletion of human umbilical cord blood using dextran sedimentation. Ind. J. Med Res. 106 pp:16-19.
22. Rao, V.S. Chitnis, A. Deora, V. Tanavde and S.S. Desai (1996) An ICAM-1 like cell adhesion molecule is responsible for CD34 positive haemopoietic stem cell adhesion to bone marrow stroma. Cell Biol. Int 20 (4) pp: 255-259.

Relevant Book Chapters

1. Vivek Tanavde and Mohan C Vemuri (2012) Mesenchymal; Stromal Cells in the Clinic: What Do the Clinical Trials Say? In: Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy, Lucas Chase & Mohan Vemuri (Eds), Humana Press.
2. Vivek M Tanavde. (2011) Commercialization of Cord Blood. In: Umbilical Cord Stem Cells: A Future for Regenerative Medicine? Suzanne Kadereit, Gerald Udolph (eds.), World Scientific.
3. Jyoti Kode and Vivek Tanavde. (2010) Flow cytometry as a tool to understand Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and explore their clinical applications. In: Flow Cytometry in Stem Cell Research and Tissue Regeneration, Awtar Krishan, H Krishnamurthy, Satish Totey (eds.), Wiley Blackwell.
4. Vivek M. Tanavde, Lailing Liew, Jiahao Lim and Felicia Ng (2009) Signaling Networks in Mesenchymal Stem Cells. In: Regulatory Networks in Stem Cells, V.K. Rajasekhar, M.C. Vemuri (eds.), Humana Press.

Patents
“In-Vitro Culture of MSC and a Process for the Preparation Thereof", Patent granted in South Africa (No ZA200404101), 2005.

Winter 2022: Advanced Cell Biology Lab, Foundation Studio: Water
Monsoon 2021: Cancer Biology
Winter 2021: Advanced Cell Biology Lab, Foundation Studio: Water

Monsoon 2020: Cancer Biology, Developmental Biology

1. 2021-Current: Member, Editorial Board, BMC Research Notes.
2. 2011-2016: Secretary, Stem Cell Society Singapore (SCSS). Chair, Organizing Committee, SCSS Annual Symposium 2015 with the theme Opportunities and Challenges in Stem Cell Based Therapies.
3. 2010-2016:  Executive Committee member, SCSS.
4. 2009-Current: Member, Live Education Task Force, International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC). Responsible for organizing flow cytometry workshops in India, China & ASEAN regions. From April 2015 coordinating all ISAC workshops in South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
5. 2006- Current: Member, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). Local organizing committee member ISSCR Regional Forum Singapore, Nov 2014.
6. 2012- 2014: Regional Treasurer, Asia, International Society for Cellular Therapy.
7. 2005-2010: Member Board of Studies, Microbiology, University of Mumbai, India. This Board sets the syllabi for undergraduate & post graduate degree programs and appoints thesis examiners in microbiology for the University of Mumbai. Also a member of the syllabus sub-committee set up by the University to revise M.Sc (Part II) syllabus for Microbiology.

• SAHAJ, DBT. Tanavde (PI) Kumar A (Co-Investigator) 2022-2027 Imaging and Flow Cytometry Facility at Ahmedabad University. Infrastructure grant awarded by Department of Biotechnology under the SAHAJ scheme.
• GSBTM Research Support Scheme. Tanavde (PI) April 2019 -Sept 2021. Identification of Salivary Exosomes derived miRNAs as potential early diagnostic biomarkers in oral cancer patients: a liquid biopsy approach. Awarded by the Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission.
• IAF111216. Tanavde (PI) Jan 2016-Dec 2016. Effect of Biomin’s phytogenic feed additives versus antibiotics on chicken. Awarded by Agency for Science Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore.
• IAF 111079.  Tanavde (PI) June 2012- June 2013. Dissecting differences in footprint-free iPSC lines using RNASeq IonPGM Sequencer. Awarded by Agency for Science Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore for collaboration with Life Technologies.
• CRC Life Technologies       Lakshmipathy (PI) June 2012 – June 2013. Dissecting differences in footprint-free iPSC lines using RNASeq IonPGM Sequencer. Awarded by Life Technologies, Carlsbad, USA. External PI
• CRC Life Technologies       Lakshmipathy (PI) June 2011 – December 2011. Cell based Assays to Bridge Epigenome & Function. Awarded by Life Technologies, Carlsbad, USA. External PI