Vijay Saxena

A molecular biologist who has been translated to study proteins, their behavior, functionality and use as therapeutics. In the early part of research career, he has been exposed to solid phase peptide synthesis, peptide chemistry, and their conjugation and purification technologies. He has gained experience working with different G protein coupled receptor like MTNR1A and their role in influencing reproduction in sheep. He was selected for an Indo-Australian career-boosting fellowship which allowed him to work at the Centre of Animal Biotechnology, the University of Melbourne on M-cell targeted delivery system for triggering a mucosal immune response. He along with Dr Jean Pierre Scheerlinck and Alejandra Diaz, identified a novel M-cell marker in sheep and developed methods for targeted delivery of vaccine. He at his laboratory in India developed an engineered kisspeptin with an enhanced half-life. Another significant finding from his laboratory includes the identification of an unknown pathway of cysteine synthesis in a multicellular organism of animal kingdom. He also devised an alternative idea of pyridoxal phosphate permeability in E. coli. He has used protein engineering techniques to improve the properties and function of many therapeutic proteins. He has started a new group (PEBBLE Group) and established the Protein Science Laboratory at the School of Pharmacy, and he looks forward to making further contributions to the university’s research programs. He is using knowledge of antibody phage display and protein purification technologies to develop vaccines and biologics.

Some Important Publications

Mahla, A.S., Bunkar, S.K., Kumawat, B.L., Saxena, V.K., Selvaraju, S., Bhatt, R.S., Singh, R. and Kumar, A., 2023. Dietary n-3 PUFA augments pre-ovulatory follicle turnover and prolificacy in well-fed ewes. Animal Reproduction Science, 252, p.107231. [Elsieviers]

Saxena V. K*, Vedamurthy, G.V. and Raghvendar Singh (2022)., A novel concept of Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate permeability in E.coli for modulating the heterologous expression of PLP dependent proteins, Process Biochemistry, 113,pp 37-46 [Elsieviers]

Saxena, V.K.*, Vedamurthy, G.V., Swarnkar, C.P., Kadam, V., Onteru, S.K., Ahmad, H. and Singh, R.,(2021). De novo pathway is an active metabolic pathway of cysteine synthesis in Haemonchus contortus. Biochimie., 187,110-120 [Elsieviers]

Saxena, V.K., Diaz, A. and Scheerlinck, J.P.Y., (2019). Identification and characterization of an M cell marker in nasopharynx-and oropharynx-associated lymphoid tissue of sheep. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 208, pp.1-5. [Elsieviers]

Vedamurthy, G.V., Ahmad, H., Onteru, S.K. and Saxena, V.K., (2019). In silico homology modelling and prediction of novel epitopic peptides from P24 protein of Haemonchus contortus. Gene,703,pp102-111[Elsieviers]