Presently, I am CSIR-Nehru postdoctoral fellow in Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow (India). My present research work is focused to identifying novel therapeutic options for skeletal muscle atrophy by means of repositioning of FDA approved drugs. My expertise area have rich exposure of both in vitro and in vivo techniques includes handling of various cell lines, western blotting, electroporation, immunohistochemistry, , and development of diabetic model (streptozotocin) and skeletal muscle atrophy (dexamethasone, fasting, denervation and cecal-ligation puncture induced-muscle atrophy and freeze-injury model. I had completed my M. S. (Pharm) in the discipline of Regulatory Toxicology, from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Punjab, India. The outcome of my M.S. work has been published in form of research paper entitled ‘Evaluation of multi-organ DNA damage by comet assay from 28 days repeated dose oral toxicity test in mice: A practical approach for test integration in regulatory toxicity testing’ in Journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2010. Recently, this work has been cited for “OECD Test Guideline 489: In Vivo Mammalian Alkaline Comet Assay. After completion of Master’s, I gathered experience and skills in regulatory toxicology, pharmacology, molecular biology, carcinogenesis, genotoxicity and in vivo experiments. Luck favored me and I joined Ph. D. in NIPER only, my Ph. D. work was focused on deciphering different targets and molecular pathways to understand the mechanisms of selected anti-hypertensive drugs in diabetic rat testes and exacerbation by toxic insults, such as nicotine. My research work has led to several interesting findings and most of these have been published in the peer reviewed journals such as Mutation research, Journal of applied toxicology, Human and Experimental Toxicology. After thesis submission, I was offered a post of Senior Project Fellow in CDRI, India. Serving few months as senior project fellow, I was awarded India’s prestigious CSIR-Nehru Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from Indian Government funding agency, CSIR that I am continuing.

Dr. Sapana Research interest are Skeletal muscle atrophy, diabetes, fibrosis, germ cell toxicity, drug development.