Deepak Kumar Jha PhD, MS

Deepak Kumar Jha is a Senior Scientist of Genome and Biomarker Sciences at the Merck. He received his undergraduate degree in B.Sc Human Biology (Major: Biochemistry) from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, and his master's in Life Sciences from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Broadly speaking, his scientific interests encompass how cells receive, process, and respond to extrinsic and intrinsic signals. He is interested in how chromatin structure is regulated by interactions (functional and molecular) between DNA and histone modifications, transcription factors, and signaling molecules to control cell fates and cell states. One could define this as epigenetics (see relevant commentaries here and here).

He aims to study basic mechanisms, their dysfunction in diseases (e.g. cancer, cancer predisposition, autoimmunity, and neuro-inflammation), and novel strategies to target these mechanisms in disease conditions. In service of these goals, he uses various model systems: human cell lines, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), mice, and primary patient-derived cells. Please see my publications to get a flavor of my science.