After completing MSc and M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, I matriculated at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, Houston, in 1983 to pursue my doctoral degree in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology.
There I discovered that the TATA box, an upstream promoter region cis-element is necessary for transcription (by RNA polymerase III) of the gene encoding U6 small RNA, a catalytic component of the spliceosome.
Until then, this upstream promoter region cis-element was considered to be restricted to genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II, whereas genes transcribed by RNA polymerase III were thought to be dependent on a gene-internal (within the coding region) promoter (EMBO Journal, 1988). This finding has had an important impact on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the transcriptional regulation of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II and III.
After earning a PhD in 1988, I joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, New York, where my research as a Leukemia Society Fellow focused on transcriptional regulation in human cancer cells.
I made the novel finding that context of a particular gene promoter rather than simple tethering of a transcriptional regulator to the promoter region dictates how the transcription factor regulates transcription of the gene. This observation (Nature, 1995) disproved the prevailing dogma that all it takes for a transcription factor to regulate transcription of any given gene is its ability to bind the promoter region.
In 1994 I moved to the Cancer Therapy & Research Center and University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas as an Assistant professor. There I started working on the crosstalk between estrogen receptors and tumor suppressor protein p53. I relocated to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2002. At Roswell Park we are actively pursuing basic, translational and clinical cancer research.
We’re looking for a postdoctoral fellow
The Das Lab at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to study molecular mechanisms underlying breast cancer and exploit the new findings to develop novel therapeutic strategies in the clinic.
View job posting
Contact the Das Lab
Email: Gokul.Das@RoswellPark.org
Phone: 716-845-8542
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo, NY 14263