Research Interests:
Stress signaling by nerves Control of the heat shock transcription factor HSF1 by the nervous system: implications to neurodegenerative diseases and cancer Control over p53 by neuronal IL-17 and development in an invertebrate metazoan Epigenetic memory of stress exposureAbout Veena Prahlad
Biography:
Veena Prahlad, Ph. D, is a Professor of Oncology in the Department of Cell Stress Biology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Prahlad is recognized for her pioneering research showing that the nervous system of animals controls an ancient and fundamental stress responsive transcription program, called the heat shock response, present in all cells from bacteria to man to counteract the build-up of misfolded proteins. Her laboratory currently works on the neural control of several cell stress response pathways and transcription factors at the heart of malignancies and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Prahlad’s work has been recognized by the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, and funding by federal grants from the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke and National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Prahlad was born and raised in India, where she completed her MSc in Life Sciences at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Dr. Prahlad completed her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Goldman at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, where she discovered novel mechanisms and rules that governed the assembly of the complex cytoskeletal networks in cells composed of intermediate filament proteins. She completed her postdoctoral training at Northwestern University in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Morimoto where she discovered the cell non-autonomous control over the heat shock response.
Before moving to Roswell Park in 2023, Dr. Prahlad was Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Iowa, and member of the Iowa Institute of Neuroscience and program of excellence aimed at understanding the role of sleep, mood and arousal in Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementias. Dr. Prahlad has taught several undergraduate and graduate level courses throughout her career, including an undergraduate course on the Mechanisms of Aging at the University of Iowa.
Dr. Prahlad serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several scientific journals and study sections and is a current member of the Cell Structure and Function-1 study section. Dr. Prahlad has been co-organizer for the Midwest Stress Response Meetings in Evanston, and the popular international “Metabolism, Aging, Pathogenesis and Stress in C. elegans (MAPS)” conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2022.
Positions
- Professor of Oncology
- Department of Cell Stress Biology
Background
Education and Training:
- MSc - Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
- PhD - Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Publications
1. Godthi, A., Das, S., Cruz-Corchado J., Deonarine A., Misel-Wuchter K., Issuree P.D., and Prahlad, V. (2023). Neuronal IL-17 controls C. elegans developmental diapause through p53/CEP-1. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.22.517560. (in revision)
2. Das S., Min, S., and Prahlad, V. (2021), Gene bookmarking by the heat-shock transcription factor programs the insulin-like signaling pathway. Mol. Cell. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2021.09.022
3. Ooi, F.K. and Prahlad, V. (2017) Olfactory experience primes the heat shock transcription factor HSF-1 to enhance the expression of molecular chaperones in C. elegans. Science Signal. 10: eaan4893. 10.1126.
4. Chikka, M. R., Anbalagan, C., Dvorak, K., Dombeck, K., Prahlad, V. (2016). Mitochondria-regulated innate immunity activated in the C. elegans intestine is neuroprotective. Cell Reports 16, 2399–2414.
5. Tatum M.C., Chikka M. R, Ooi F.K., Chauve L., Martinez-Velazquez L.A., Steinbusch H.W.M., Morimoto R.I. and Prahlad, V. (2015). Neuronal serotonin release triggers the heat shock response in Caenorhabditis elegans in the absence of temperature increase. Curr. Biol. 25: 163-174.