Aswathi research focuses on Age-related cardiac fibrosis
Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) is a debilitating disease condition among the elderly population, where the underlying pathophysiology is incompletely understood and no clinical intervention is known to decrease morbidity and mortality. Myocardial fibrosis is entangled in the pathogenesis of HFpEF and an important hallmark of ageing. My research focuses on the generation of an in vitro cardiac fibrosis model, to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in (HFpEF) in age-related syndromes.
Having completed her Bachelors in Biotechnology from National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC), India, Aswathi was keen on specialising her research. Her passion for understanding basic biology at the molecular level, to contribute to personalised medicine urged her to start a Masters in Molecular Medicine. She completed her postgraduate research on micropatterning of hydrogels for differentiation of hiPSCs at Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine (ACNSMM), India. During this period, she was a recipient of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) Scholarship. She was also a part of on research projects related to synthesis of nanoparticles for chondrogenic and adipogenic differentiation of hiPSCs and generation of adipose stem and progenitor cells from hiPSCs for fat graft applications -Thematic Projects in Frontiers of Nano S&T (TPF-Nano), funded by Nano Mission.
Key Publications
*Aswathi Gopalakrishnan, Sahadev A, Shankarappa, Rajanikant G.K, 2019. 'Hydrogel Scaffolds: Towards restitution of ischemic stroke injured brain’, Translational stroke research, 10(1):1-18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30151667
S.Vignesh,*Aswathi Gopalakrishnan, M R Poorna, R Jayakumar, Ullas Mony, 2018. ‘Fabrication of micropatterned alginate-gelatin and k-carrageenan hydrogels of defined shapes using simple wax mould method as a platform for stem cell/iPSC culture', International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.112(2018):737-744. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29427684
Suvanish Kumar, V.S.,*Aswathi Gopalakrishnan, Naziroglu, M. and Rajanikant, G.K., 2014. ‘Calcium ion–the key player in cerebral ischemia’, Current medicinal chemistry, 21(18): 2065-2075. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24372212