Dr Divya Tiwari, BSc, MSc, PhD

Profile

Divya completed her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Microbiology from Pt Ravishankar Shukla University, India. She pursued her doctoral degree at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi India and subsequently moved to Weill Cornell Medicine, New York NY, USA to pursue her post-doctoral studies. Following this, she moved back to India and had a brief career in research administration where she worked as Grants Adviser for The Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance New Del-hi, India. She returned to research and joined Centre for Global Health, Institute of Population Health Sciences as Barts Charity Lecturer to establish an independent research group focused on host-pathogen interaction in tuberculosis. She now joins the Centre for Immunobiology, Blizard Institute.

Research

Research Interests:

Tuberculosis (TB) is a treatable bacterial infection caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb). Yet, it remains one of the leading causes of death in the developing nations around the world. The disease burden of TB remains high despite global efforts made by World Health organisation and United Nations. The increase in the prevalence of drug resistant TB strains highlights the need of new and effective TB drugs.

My work at QMUL will focus on discovering novel drug targets pathways in Mtb with an aim to identify and evaluate targets that have a potential to alter Mtb host pathogen interaction and enhance host immune response towards Mtb infection.

Publications

Key publications

Beites T, O'Brien K , Tiwari D , Engelhart C, Walters S, Andrews J, Yang H, Sutphen M, Weiner D, Dayao E, Zimmerman M, Prideaux B, Desai P, Masquelin T, Dartois V, Boshoff H, Barry C, Ehrt S, Via L, Schnappinger D. Plasticity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Respiratory Chain and its Impact on tuberculosis Drug Develop-ment. Nature Communications 2019 Oct 31;10(1):4970.

Tiwari D, Park SW, Essawy MM, Dawadi S, Mason A, Nandakumar M, Zimmerman M, Mina M, Ho HP, Engelhart C, Loerger T, Sacchettini J, Rhee K, Ehrt S, Dartois V, Aldrich CC, Schnappinger D. Targeting Protein Biotinylation Enhances Tuberculosis Chemotherapy. Science Translational Medicine 2018 Apr 25;10(438).

Tiwari D, Singh RK, Goswami K, Verma SK, Prakash B, Nandicoori VK. Key Residues in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein Kinase G Play a Role in Regulating Kinase Activity and Survival in the Host. J Biol Chem. 2009 Oct 2;284(40):27467-79.

Bockman MR, Engelhart CA, Dawadi S, Larson P, Tiwari D, Ferguson DM, Schnappinger D, Aldrich CC. Avoiding Antibiotic Inactivation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Rv3406 through Strategic Nucleoside Modification. ACS Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 13;4(7):1102-1113.

Bockman MR, Kalinda AS, Petrelli R, De la Mora-Rey T, Tiwari D, Liu F, Dawadi S, Nandakumar M, Rhee KY, Schnappinger D, Finzel BC, Aldrich CC. Targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis Biotin Protein Ligase (MtBPL) with Nucleoside-Based Bisubstrate Adenylation Inhibitors. J Med Chem. 2015 Sep 24;58(18):7349-69. 3.

Shi C, Tiwari D, Wilson DJ, Seiler CL, Schnappinger D, Aldrich CC. Bisubstrate Inhibitors of Biotin Protein Ligase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Resistant to Cyclonucleoside Formation. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2013 Dec 12;4(12).

Duckworth BP, Geders TW, Tiwari D, Boshoff HI, Sibbald PA, Barry CE 3rd, Schnappinger D, Finzel BC, Aldrich CC. Bisubstrate Adenylation Inhibitors of Biotin Protein Ligase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Chem Biol. 2011;18(11):1432-41.

Vomastek T, Iwanicki MP, Burack WR, Tiwari D, Kumar D, Parsons JT, Weber MJ, Nandicoori VK. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) phosphorylation sites and docking domain on the nuclear pore complex protein Tpr cooperatively regulate ERK2-Tpr interaction. Mol Cell Biol. 2008 Nov;28(22):6954-66.

Sajish M, Tiwari D, Rananaware D, Nandicoori VK, Prakash B. A charge reversal differentiates (p)ppGpp synthesis by monofunctional and bifunctional Rel proteins. J Biol Chem. 2007 Nov 30;282(48):34977-83.

All publications