Manasi Jain.

Background
Manasi, a native of Montreal, obtained her Bachelors of Science from McGill University with a major in Nutrition and a minor in Psychology; while simultaneously working as a research assistant in the Mike Rosenbloom Laboratory for Cardiovascular Research. In August of 2012, Manasi completed her Ph.D in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University, under the supervision of Dr. Dusica Maysinger. Alongside her graduate studies, Manasi worked briefly as a medical research consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. Manasi is also a trained Indian classical dancer and enjoys baking in her free time.

Research highlight
Manasi’s research focuses on investigating the toxicity induced by cadmium telluride quantum dots (QD), and specifically understanding the role of cadmium ions in mediating both QD-induced cytoxicity and metalloestrogenicity. Her results show that QD toxicity cannot be ascribed to the sum of parts of QD materials. Further, Manasi’s research demonstrates that though cadmium liberated from QDs is not indicative of QD toxicity, it is responsible for eliciting estrogenic signaling via interaction with the estrogen receptors, and subsequent estrogenic effects, in vitro and in vivo. She is the first to demonstrate that cadmium telluride QDs can be metalloestrogens and endocrine disruptors.

Fellowships & awards

  1.   Recipient of Bourse de Doctorat de Formation en Recherche en Santé de Québec
  2.   McGill Principal’s Graduate Fellowships
  3.   Great Award (travel bursary)

Publications

  1. Nanoparticles and toxicoepigenomics, Toxicology and Epigenomics., Laser Words in press (book chapter) Jain MP, Choi AO, Maysinger D.
  2. Metalloestrogenic effects of quantum dots. Jain MP, Vaisheva F, Maysinger D. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2012 Jan;7(1):23-37.
  3. Multi-tasking with single platform dendrimers for targeting sub-cellular microenvironments. Hourani R, Jain M, Maysinger D, Kakkar A. Chemistry. 2010 Jun 1;16(21):6164-8.
  4. Probing and preventing quantum dot-induced cytotoxicity with multimodal alpha-lipoic acid in multiple dimensions of the peripheral nervous system. Jain MP, Choi AO, Neibert KD, Maysinger D. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2009 Apr;4(3):277-90.
  5. Thiolated polyaspartamide is an effective biocompatible coating agent for quantum dots. Zorc B, Lovric J, Jain MP, Moquin A, Cho SJ, Filipovic-Grcic J. Journal of drug delivery science and technology., 2009 19 (2) 139-144.
  6. Long-term exposure to CdTe quantum dots causes functional impairments in live cells. Cho SJ, Maysinger D, Jain M, Röder B, Hackbarth S, Winnik FM. Langmuir. 2007 Feb 13;23(4):1974-80.