Dr. Shital Kumar Barman is an early-career researcher in the Mothers and Babies Research program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute.

He accomplished his PhD in the School of Science at Western Sydney University, Australia, with a focus on molecular understanding of zinc homeostasis in breast and prostate cancers.

The intracellular zinc profiles of breast and prostate cancer cells are opposed; breast cancer cells exhibit higher zinc levels than normal epithelial cells. In contrast, prostate cancer cells exhibit lower zinc levels. Using transcriptomic, immunofluorescence, and top-down proteomic (2D gel electrophoresis followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) approaches, his PhD research explores zinc homeostasis at the molecular level in breast and prostate cancer cells by manipulating extracellular zinc levels and producing differential transcriptomic profiles, proteomic landscapes, and determining cellular localisations of zinc homeostasis related proteins.

The goal of Dr Barman’s present research is to comprehend the molecular mechanisms behind human parturition, including stillbirth, term birth, and preterm birth. Complex interactions across genetic, epigenetic, inflammatory, and hormonal mechanisms impact these reproductive outcomes. By clarifying these processes at the molecular level, his research hopes to help prevent and treat unfavourable pregnancy outcomes. He aims to elucidate the regulatory networks in reproductive tissues that are specific to different cell types using high-throughput technologies such as RNA-seq, and ChIP-seq, as well as 3D genome profiling methods like Hi-C (Micro-C). Bioinformatics analysis and validation using specific molecular assays complement these data-driven methods, enabling us to pinpoint critical transcriptional regulators, inflammatory pathways, and signalling molecules that propel the complex biological processes such still birth, preterm birth.