Zoology and Physiology
Ram Shukla
Assistant Professor
Zoology and Physiology
Office: Biological Sciences room 314F
email: rshukla@uwyo.edu
About me: I earned my PhD in Biology from the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan,
where my dissertation explored the anatomy of serotonergic infrastructure, including
receptors and transporters, across human, macaque, marmoset, and mouse brains. Intrigued
about the role of serotonin and other monoaminergic systems in psychiatry, I switched
from basic science to translational psychiatric research for my postdoctoral studies
at the University of Toronto. This transition expanded my research horizons into behavioral,
experimental, and computational domains. My present work focuses on understanding
the similarities and differences between psychiatric disorders and their cellular
and molecular underpinnings. Something that has intrigued me recently are the ribosomes,
and I am dwelling on my hypothesis that these tiny molecular machines, with their
mobility around neurons, are responsible for the variable presentation of mood (and
other psychiatric) disorders.
Major Research Focus of NeuroPsych Group:
Ribosome Heterogeneity and Mood Disorders: Most stress paradigms downregulate RPGs and upregulate RP pseudogenes These dysregulations
may cause stress-induced ribosomal specialization. Downregulated RPGs can change RP
stoichiometry, while upregulated RPG pseudogenes can replace RPs with RP paralogs,
creating a specialized ribosome. These hypotheses will be tested in postmortem major
depression patients, chronic variable stress-exposed mice, and chronically glucocorticoid-stressed
primary neurons.
Integrating single-cell transcriptomics and biophysical computer modeling to study
stress and recovery: Using our novel single cell transcriptomics-based analytical pipeline, machine learning
approaches, and parallels between the stress-related cell-types in the mouse and human,
we will test the central hypotheses that the stress and stress recovery states are
distinguished by distinct interactions between gut microbial and prefrontal cortex
cellular profiles and that the non-pharmacological recovery state closely resembles
the direct inverse. The findings will inform a biophysical model of the prefrontal
cortex and predict novel therapeutics for reversing stress rather than compensating
for it.
Selected publications:
- Zhang X, Eladawi MA, Ryan WG, Fan X, Prevoznik S, Devale T, Ramnani B, Malathi K,
Sibille E, Mccullumsmith R, Tomoda T, Shukla R. Ribosomal dysregulation: A conserved pathophysiological mechanism in human depression
and mouse chronic stress. (2023) Proceedings of National Academy of Science-Nexus
- Smail MA, Chandrasena SS, Zhang X, Reddy V, Herman JP, Sherif M and Shukla R. Differential vulnerability of Anterior cingulate cortex cell-types to disease and
drugs. (2022) Molecular Psychiatry
- Alnafisah RS, Reigle J, O’Donovan S, Funk AJ, Meller J, Mccullumsmith R and Shukla R. Pharmacological impacts on schizophrenia functional analysis: a postmortem proteome
study. (2022) Neuropsychopharmacology
- Reddy V, Sherif M, and Shukla R. Integrating single-cell transcriptomics and microcircuit computer modelling. (2021)
Current Opinion in Pharmacology
- Smail MA, Wu X, Henkel ND, Eby HM, Herman JP, Mccullumsmith RE, and Shukla R. Similarities and dissimilarities between psychiatric cluster disorders. (2021) Molecular Psychiatry
- O’Donovan S, Mccullumsmith R and Shukla R. Neurosciences: Advances in the field. (2022) Current Opinion in Pharmacology (Editorial)
- Wu X, Shukla R*, Alganem K, Depasquale E, Reigle J, Meller J, Mccullumsmith R. Transcriptional profile
of pyramidal neurons in chronic schizophrenia reveals lamina-specific dysfunction
of neuronal immunity. (2021). Molecular Psychiatry *Equal contribution
- Henkel ND, Smail MA, Wu X, Enright HA, Fisher N, Eby HM, Mccullumsmith R and Shukla R. Cellular, molecular, and therapeutic characterization of pilocarpine-induced temporal
lobe epilepsy. (2021) Scientific Report
- Shukla R*, Newton D, Sumitomo A, Zare H, Mccullumsmith R, Lewis D, Tomoda T, and Sibille E.
Molecular Characterization of Depression Trait and State. (2021) Molecular Psychiatry. *Corresponding
- Shukla R*, Henkel N, Alganem K, Hamoud A, Reigle J, Alnafisah RS, et al. Signature based approaches
for Informed Drug Repurposing: Targeting CNS Disorders. (2020) Invited review. *Corresponding
- Shukla R, Oh H, Sibille E. Molecular and cellular evidence for age by disease interactions:
updates and path forward. (2019) American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
- Shukla R, Prevot TD, French L, Isserlin R, Rocco BR, Banasr M, and Sibille E. The relative
contributions of cell-dependent cortical microcircuit aging to cognition and anxiety.
(2019) Biological Psychiatry.
- Shukla R, Watakabe A, and Yamamori T. mRNA expression profile of serotonin receptor subtypes
and distribution of serotonergic terminations in marmoset brain. (2014) Frontiers Neural Circuits.