Research Projects

Cellular exposure to extreme environments leads to the expression of multiple proteins, including telomeres, which play a crucial role in pathophysiological exhibitions. Telomeres are marked by heterochromatic epigenetic modifications and differential epigenetic modifications regulate telomere length, possibly through regulating the access of telomerase to telomeres. The relevance of telomeres increases due to the prevalence of stress, UV radiations, and hypobaric hypoxia at high altitudes (HA). Methylation within promoter regions plays a pivotal role in changing gene expression regulation to disease patterns. However, the methylation patterns of most telomere-related genes and their correlation with high altitude disorders is still unknown. The research objective is to study the methylation status of telomeric genes like TERT, TERC, TNKs, TRF, and RTEL, telomere length, telomerase activity, finding functional sNPs in methylation sites, mRNA & protein levels, and performing association studies. The data obtained from this study may have implications in the army, travel, and tourism sector, as it may predict individuals prone to disease development and their sojourn can be prevented. Telomeres are a novel and promising target to explain adaptation/maladaptation phenomena at HA. Understanding the roles of Telomeres is critical, and methylation and correlation of telomere and telomerase study might be helpful in other diseases apart from HA sickness if the mechanism is known.