Ron Batra

Post-Doctoral Fellow Post-Doc Alumni

Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (MDF) Postdoctoral Fellowship Fellow

 

 

Summary

Ron is a postdoctoral scholar at Gene Yeo lab at the University of California, San Diego and funded by the myotonic dystrophy foundation (MDF). Ron finished his Bachelors degree in Pharmacy at the University of Delhi at New Delhi, India. During his undergraduate, Ron worked on drug-receptor interactions and biopharmaceutics. Subsequently, Ron joined the masters program in pharmacology at the Ohio State University at Columbus, Ohio where he was a part of Jeff Kuret lab used transmission electron microscopy to study the kinetics of aggregation of the Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia related protein Tau (MAPT). Ron completed his PhD in genetics at Maurice Swanson’s lab at the University of Florida and elucidated the role of muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins in alternative splicing (AS) and alternative polyadenylation (APA) in cellular models, mouse models, and patient tissues of myotonic dystrophy patients. Ron spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL where he studied RNA processing defects in sporadic and C9orf72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis human autopsy samples. Ron joined Yeo lab in 2015 and is interested in studying the role of RNA-binding proteins and RNA processing in neurological disorders. Ron wants to use novel cutting-edge technologies such as single cell systems, and high-throughput genomics/proteomics to study pathological mechanisms of diseases such as myotonic dystrophy and ALS. In his free time, Ron likes to indulge in fitness training, hiking, and exploring/cooking food.

 

Education

PhD, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2013

B.Pharm, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, 2005

 

Contact

robatra at ucsd.edu

Publications

  • Krach F§, Batra R§, Wheeler EC, Vu AQ, Wang R, Hutt K, Rabin SJ, Baughn MW, Libby RT, Diaz‑Garcia S, Stauffer J, Pirie E, Saberi S, Rodriguez M, Madrigal AA, Kohl Z, Winner B, Yeo GW, Ravits J. Transcriptome–pathology correlation identifies interplay between TDP‑43 and the expression of its kinase CK1E in sporadic ALS. Acta Neuropathologica, 2018. (§ indicates equal contribution)

  • Batra R§, Nelles DA§, Pirie E, Blue SM, Marina RJ, Wang H, Chaim IA, Thomas JD, Zhang N, Nguyen V, Aigner S, Markmiller S, Xia G, Corbett KD, Swanson MS, Yeo GW. Elimination of Toxic Microsatellite Repeat Expansion RNA by RNA-Targeting Cas9. Cell. 2017 Aug 10. (§ indicates equal contribution)

  • Batra R, Stark TJ, Clark E, Belzile J-P, Roberts BT, Huelga SC, Spector DH, Yeo GW. Host RNA binding protein CPEB1 drives HCMV infection. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, 2016.

  • Goodwin M, Mohan A, Batra R, Swanson MS “Dysregulation of alternative polyadenylation in myotonic dystrophy brain”; Accepted Cell Reports

  • Prudencio M * , Belzil V * , Batra R * , Ross C, et. al. “Distinct brain transcriptome profiles in C9orf72-associated and sporadic ALS” Nature Neuroscience 2015 Jul 20. doi: 10.1038/nn.4065 ( *indicates equal contribution)

  • Batra R, Manchanda M, Swanson MS Means to an end: Global insights into alternative polyadenylation regulation. RNA Biology, 2015.

  • Nussbacher JK, Batra R, Lagier-Tourenne C, Yeo GW RNA-binding proteins in neurodegeneration: Seq and you shall receive. Trends in Neurosciences, 2015.

  • Batra R * , Charizanis K , Manchanda M, Li M, Mohan A, Finn D, Goodwin M, Sobczak K, Zhang C, Thornton CA, Swanson MS. Loss of MBNL leads to disruption of developmentally regulated alternative polyadenylation in RNA mediated disease; Molecular Cell, Oct 23;56(2):311-22, 2014 (indicates equal contribution)

  • Lee, K.-Y., Li, M., Manchanda, M., Chamberlain, C.M., Batra, R., Mohan, A., Charizanis, K., Finn, D., Hong, H., Ranum, L.P.W., and M. S. Swanson. (2013) “Mouse muscleblind-like compound knockout models of myotonic dystrophy.” EMBO Mol Med. 2013 Dec;5(12):1887-900

  • Poulos, M.G. , Batra, R. * , Li, M., Yuan, Y., Zhang, C., Darnell, R.B., and Swanson M.S. (2013) “Progressive impairment of muscle regeneration in muscleblind-like 3 isoform knockout mice.” Human Mol. Gen. 2013 Sep 1;22(17):3547-58 (indicates equal contribution)

  • Charizanis, K., Lee, K.-Y., Batra, R., Goodwin, M., Zhang, C., Yuan, Y., Shiue, L., Cline, M., Scotti, M.M., Xia, G., Kumar, A., Ashizawa, T., Clark, H.B., Kimura, T., Takahashi, M.P., Fujimura, H., Jinnai, K., Yoshikawa, H., Gomes-Pereira, M., Gourdon, G., Sakai, N., Nishino, S., Foster, T.C., Ares Jr, M., Darnell, R.B., and Swanson, M.S.(2012) “Muscleblind-Like 2 mediated alternative splicing in the developing brain and dysregulation in myotonic dystrophy.” Neuron 75:437-450.

  • Poulos, M.G., Batra, R., Charizanis, K., and Swanson, M.S.(2011). “Developments in RNA processing disease.” Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol., 3(1). pii: a000778.

  • Batra R., Charizanis K., Swanson M.S.(2010) “Partners in crime: bidirectional transcription in unstable microsatellite disease.” Hum Mol Genet 19:R77-82