Publication

2025

1)     Jyotsna D, Adhikari N, Tripathy MR, Jakhar K, Sonar S, Pati DR, Kanchan V, Prasad VS, Kumar J, Senapati NK, Bharmoria A, Rani N, Lakhanpal M, Patil CS, Singh N, Khan L, Jambu L, Jain NK, Ali SK, Priyadarsiny P, Panda AK, Jain R, Mani S, Samal S, Awasthi A, Rizvi ZA*. 2025. CoviWall, a whole-virion-inactivated B.1.617.2 vaccine candidate, induces potent humoral and Th1 cell response in mice and protects against B.1.617.2 strain challenge in Syrian hamsters. Front Immunol. 15.DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2024.1447962 (ISSN=1664-3224) (Impact factor: 5.7) (*corresponding author).

2)     Joshi G, Verma G, Kaur S, Ramasamy E, Chauhan N, Singh S, Jana P, Rizvi ZA, Kshetrapal P, Bhatnagar S, Pandey AK, Awasthi A, Bhabatosh Das B, Guchhait P*. 2025. Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in diabetes was rescued in mice supplemented with metformin and/or αKG, and patients taking metformin, via HIF1α-IFN axis. Clinical & Translational Medicine. (Impact factor: 10.4).

2024

3)       Gosain TP, Chugh S, Rizvi ZA, Chauhan NK, Kidwai S, Thakur KG, Awasthi A and Singh R*. 2024.Mycobacterium tuberculosisstrain with deletions in MenT3 and MenT4 is attenuated and confers protection in mice and guinea pigs. Nat Commun. 27;15(1):5467. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49246-5.(ISSN 2041-1723) (Impact factor: 14.7). PMID: 38937463

4)       Narayan S, Dalal R, Rizvi ZA, Awasthi A. 2024. Zinc dampens anti-tumour immunity by promoting Foxp3+ regulatory T cells. Front. Immunol.15| https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1389387(ISSN 2399-3642) (Impact factor: 5.7)

5)       Rizvi ZA*, Sadhu S, Dandotiya J, Sharma P, Binayke A, Singh V, Das V, Khatri R, Kumar R, Samal S, Kalia M, Awasthi A. 2024. SARS-CoV-2 infection induces thymic atrophy mediated by IFN-γ in hACE2 transgenic mice. Eur J Immunol. 54(7):e2350624. doi: 10.1002/eji.202350624. (ISSN 0014-2980) (Impact factor: 4.5)PMID: 38655818 (*co-corresponding author)

6)       ZA Rizvi, A Awasthi, M Dikshit. 2024. The potential use of medicinal plant extracts/products in the prevention of SARS-CoV2 infection and associated pathologies in the experimental models. J of Drug Res in Ayurvedic Sci 9(5): 347-352. DOI: 10.4103/jdras.jdras_163_23. (ISSN: 2279-0357) (*corresponding author).

2023

7)       Rizvi ZA*, Dandotiya J, Srikanth S, Khatri R, Singh V, Adhikari N, Sharma K, Das V, Mani S, Samal S, Awasthi A*. 2023. Omicron sub-lineage BA.5 infection causes attenuated pathology and results in robust protection in Omicron recovered hACE2 transgenic mice. Communications Biology. 6, 935 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05263-6(ISSN 2399-3642) (Impact factor: 5.2)(*co-corresponding author) 

8)       Rizvi ZA*^#, Madan U^#, Tripathy MR, Goswami S, Mani S, Awasthi A*, Dikshit M*. 2023. Evaluation of pharmacological potential of Ayush-64 formulation against COVID-19 and T cell differentiation. Pharmaceuticals 16(9), 1333; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph16091333 (ISSN 1424-8247)(Impact factor: 4.9)(*co-corresponding author)

9)       Sadhu S, Dalal R, Danodtiya J, Binayke A, Sekhawat VS, Tripathy MR, Das V, Goswami S, Kumar S, Rizvi ZA, Awasthi A. 2023. IL-9 exacerbates SARS-CoV2 infection and associated airway inflammation.Nature Communications14, 4060. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39815-5 (ISSN 2041-1723) (Impact factor 14.7).

10)   Sadhu S, Danodtiya J, Dalal R, Khatri R, Mykytyn AZ, Batra A, Kaur M, Chandwaskar R, Singh V, Kamboj A, Srivastava M, Mani S, Asthana S, Samal S, Rizvi ZA, Salunke DB, Haagmans BL, Awasthi A. 2023. Fanchinoline inhibits SARS-CoV2 and MERS-CoV entry. Antiviral Research. 8:105743. doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2023.105743 (ISSN 0166-3542) (Impact factor 4.5).

11)   Thiruvengadam R^#, Rizvi ZA^#, Raghavan S, Murugesan DR, Gosain M, Dandotiya J, Ayushi, Samal S, Pandey AK, Wadhwa N, Bhatnagar S, Awasthi A, Garg PK. 2023. Clinical and experimental evidence suggest omicron SARS-CoV-2 is inherently less pathogenic than delta independent of previous immunity. European Journal of Medical research11;28(1):421. doi: 10.1186/s40001-023-01373-3 (ISSN 2047-783X) PMID: 37821945(Impact factor: 2.8) (equal first author)

12)   Roy SS, Sharma S, Rizvi ZA, Sinha D, Gupta D, Rophina M, Sehgal, Sadhu S, Tripathy MR, Samal S, Maiti S, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S, Awasthi A, Harshan KH, Jain S, Choudhury S. 2023. Small molecule mediated targeting of viral RNA G-quadruplex inhibits COVID-19 infection. Frontiers Molecular Biosciences.16;10:1133123doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1133123(ISSN No. 2296-889X) (Impact factor: 3.9)

13)   Rizvi ZA*, Babele P, Madan U, Srikanth S, Tripathy MR, Goswami S, Mani S, Kumar S, Dikshit M, Awasthi A. 2023. Prophylactic intervention of Withania somnifera mitigates both mild and severe COVID-19 pulmonary pathology in hamster and hACE2 transgenic mice by inducing immune-suppressive environment.Frontiers in Immunology 14:2023 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1138215 (ISSN No. 1664-3224) PMID: (Impact factor: 5.7)(*co-corresponding author)

2022

14)   Parray HA^#, Narayanan N^#, Garg S^#, Rizvi ZA^#, Shrivastava T, Kushwaha S, Janmejay S, Murugavelu PK, Anbalagan A, Mehdi F, Raj N, Singh S, Dandotiya J, Lukose A, Jamwal D, Kumar S, Chiranjivi A, Dhyani S, Mishra N, Jakhar K, Sonar S, Panchal AK, Tripathy MR, Ahamad S, Samal S, Mani S, Bhattacharyya S, Das S, Sinha S, Luthra K, Batra G, Sehgal D, Medigeshi G, Sharma C, Awasthi A, Garg PK, Nair DT, Kumar R.2022. A broadly neutralising monoclonal antibody overcomes the mutational landscape of emerging SARS-CoV2 variant of concerns. Plos Pathogen. 12;18(12):e1010994. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010994. eCollection 2022. (ISSN 1553-7374)(Impact factor: 5.5) (equal first author)

15)   Kumar CS, Singh B, Rizvi ZA, Parray HA, Verma JK, Ghosh S, Mukhopadhyay A, Awasthi A, Shrivastava T, Banerjee M. 2022. Virus-like particles of SARS-CoV-2 as virus surrogates: morphology, immunogenicity, and internalization in neuronal cells. ACS infectious diseases. 21; acsinfecdis.2c00217.  DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.2c00217 (ISSN 2373-8227) (Impact factor 4.2).

16)   Rizvi ZA^#, Baballe P^#, Srikanth S, Madan U, Tripathy MR, Goswami S, Mani S, Kumar S, Awasthi A, Dikshit M. 2022. Prophylactic treatment of Glycyrrhiza glabra mitigates COVID-19 pathology through inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines in hamster and NETosis. Frontiers in Immunology, 22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.945583 (ISSN 1664-3224) (Impact factor: 5.7)

17)   Khatri R, Parray HA, Agrahari AK, Rizvi ZA, Kaul R, Raj S, Asthana S, Mani S, Samal S, Awasthi A, Ahmed S. 2022. Designing and characterization of a SARS-CoV-2 immunogen with receptor binding motif grafted on a protein scaffold: An epitope-focused vaccine approach. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 1;209(Pt A):1359-1367. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.04.148 (ISSN 0141-8130) PMID: 35469951 (Impact factor 7.7)

18)   Hingankar N, Deshpande S, Das P, Rizvi ZA, Wibmer CK, Mashilo P, Ansari MY, Burns A, Barman S, Zhao F, Mukherjee S, Torres JL, Chattopadhyay S, Mehdi F, Sutar J, Rathore DK, Pargai K, Singh J, Sonar S, Jakhar K, Dandotiya J, Bhattacharya S, Mani S, Samal S, Singh S, Kshetrapal P, Thiruvengadam R, Batra G, Medigeshi G, Ward AB, Bhatnagar S, Awasthi A, Sok D, Bhattacharya J.2022. A combination of potently neutralizing monoclonal antibodies isolated from an Indian convalescent donor protects against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. Plos Pathogen. 28;18(4):e1010465. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010465 (ISSN 1553-7374) PMID:35482816 (Impact factor: 5.5)

19)   Rizvi ZA*, Dalal R, Sadhu S, Binayke A, Dandotiya J, Kumar Y, Shrivastava T, Gupta SK, Agarwal S, Tripathy MR, Rathore DK, Yadav AK, Medigeshi GR, Pandey AK Samal S, Ashtana S, Awasthi A*. 2022. Golden Syrian hamster as a model to study cardiovascular complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. eLife 11:11 e73522 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.73522.(ISSN 2050-084X) PMID: 35014610 (Impact factor: 6.4)Research was highlighted by Nature-Lab animals. (*co-corresponding author)

2021

20)   Rizvi ZA, Tripathy MR, Sharma N, Goswami S, Srikanth N, Sastry JLN, Mani S, Surjit M, Awasthi A, Dikshit M. 2021. Effect of prophylactic use of intra-nasal oil formulations in the hamster model of Covid- 19. Front Pharmacol 14;12:746729. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.746729. (ISSN 1663-9812) PMID: 34721035 (Impact factor: 4.4)

21)   Rizvi ZA, Dalal R, Sadhu S, Kumar Y, Kumar S, Gupta SK, Tripathy MR, Rathore DK, Awasthi A. 2021. High dietary salt mediates interplay between NK cells and gut microbiota to induce potent tumor immunity. Science Advances. 7 (37): eabg5016. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg5016 (ISSN 2375-2548) PMID: 34516769 (Impact factor: 11.7).  Research was covered by various national and international science media.

22)   Roy S, Rizvi ZA, Clarke AJ, Macdonald F, Pandey A, Zaiss DMW, Simon AK, Awasthi A. 2021. EGFR-HIF1α signalling positively regulates the differentiation of IL-9 producing T helper cells. Nature Communication 12 (1), 3182 doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23042-x (ISSN No. 2041-1723) PMID: 34075041 (Impact factor: 14.7)

23)   Vishwakarma P, Yadav N, Rizvi ZA, Khan NA, Chiranjivi A, Mani S, Bansal M, Dwivedi P, Shrivastava T, Kumar R, Awasthi A, Ahmed S, Samal S.  2021. SARS-CoV2 spike protein based novel epitopes induce potent immune responses in vivo and inhibit viral replication in vitro. Frontiers in Immunology 12:613045 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.613045 (ISSN No. 1664-3224) PMID: 33841395 (Impact factor: 5.7)

24)   Shrivastava T, Singh B*, Rizvi ZA*, Verma R, Goswami S, Vishwakarma P, Jakhar K, Sonar S, Mani S, Bhattacharyya S, Awasthi A, Surjit M. 2021. Comparative immunomodulatory evaluation of the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV2 spike protein: a potential vaccine candidate, imparts potent humoral and Th1 type of immune response in mouse model. Frontiers in Immunology 12:641447 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.641447 (ISSN No. 1664-3224) PMID: 34108961 (Impact factor: 5.7) (*equal contribution)

25)   Sadhu S, Rizvi ZA, Pandey RP, Dalal R, Rathore DK, Kumar B, Pandey M, Kumar Y, Goel R, Maiti TK, Tiwari A, Pandey AK, Awasthi A. 2021. Gefitinib results in robust host-directed immunity against Salmonella infection through proteo-metabolomic reprogramming. Frontiers in Immunology 12:648710 doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020221.648710 (ISSN No. 1664-3224) PMID: 33868285 (Impact factor: 5.7)

2020

26)   Vishwakarma P, Khatri R, Siddiqui G, Yadav N, Rizvi ZA, Awasthi A, Samal S. 2020. Preclinical animal models for COVID-19 research - making a wise choice. ARC Journal of Immunology and Vaccines 5(1): 24-37 (ISSN No. 2455-9806) (Impact factor: 0.4)

27)   Samal S, Shrivastava T, Sonkusre P, Rizvi ZA, Kumar R, Ahmed S, Vishwakarma P, Yadav N, Bansal M, Chauhan K, Pokhrel S, Das S, Tambare P, Awasthi A. 2020. Tetramerizing tGCN4 domain facilitates production of Influenza A H1N1 M2e higher order soluble oligomers that show enhanced immunogenicity in vivo. Journal of Biological Chemistry 295(42):14352-14366 doi:10.1074/jbc.ra120.013233 (ISSN No. 0021-9258) PMID: 32817314 (Impact factor: 4)

2019

28)   Pal S, Medatwal N, Kumar S, Kar A, Komalia V, Yavvari PS, Mishra D, Rizvi ZA, Malakar D, Pillai M, Srivastava A, Sharma RD, Sengupta S, Dasgupta U, Awasthi A, Bajaj A. 2019. A localized chimeric hydrogel therapy combats tumor progression through alteration of sphingolipid metabolism. ACS Central Science 23;5(10):1648-1662 doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b00551 (ISSN No. 2374-7951) PMID: 3166043 (Impact factor: 12.7)

29)   Suhail A, Rizvi ZA, Prabhakar M, Ali SA, Gaur P, Singh M, Ahuja V, Awasti A, Srikanth CV. 2019. DeSUMOylase SENP7 mediated epithelial signalling triggers intestinal inflammation via expansion of Gamma-delta T cell. Cell Reports. 10:29(11) 3522-3538e7. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.11.028. (ISSN no. 2211-1247) PMID: 31825833 (Impact factor: 7.5)

30)   Roy S, Rizvi ZA, Awasthi A. 2019. Metabolic Checkpoints in Differentiation of Helper T Cells in Tissue Inflammation. Frontiers in Immunology. 14;9:3036. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.03036 (ISSN No. 1664-3224) PMID: 30692989 (Impact factor: 5.7)

Till 2018

31)   Rizvi ZA, Puri N, Saxena RK. 2018. Evidence of CD1d pathway of lipid antigen presentation in mouse primary lung epithelial cells and its up-regulation upon Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection. PLoSOne. 31;13(12): e0210116. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210116 (ISSN No. 1932-6203) PMID:30596774 (Impact factor: 2.9)

32)   Rizvi ZA, Puri N, Saxena RK. 2015. Lipid antigen presentation through CD1d pathway in mouse lung epithelial cells, macrophages and dendritic cells and its suppression by poly-dispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes. Toxicology in Vitro. 29, 1275-1282 doi: 10.1016/j.tiv.2014.10.022 (ISSN No. 0887- 2333) PMID: 25448806 (Impact factor: 2.8)

33)   Husain Q, Karim Z, and Rizvi ZA. 2010. Oxidative degradation and polymerization of methyl parathion catalyzed by Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L.) seed peroxidase. AIChE – Environmental Progress and Sustainable energy. 30 (3), 392-398 https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.10496 (ISNN No. 1944- 7450) (Impact factor: 2.1)

Will be soon updated

• Indian Patent Application No. 202111059095, 
• Indian Patent Application No. 201811032275
• PCT application with IA number PCT/IN2019/050718 and reference number PCT0009

International Grants

A Multi-epitope, Nanoparticle-based broadly protective Beta-coronavirus candidate vaccine (CEPI)

Enhancement of pre-clinical facility to support R&D of existing and future pandemics (CEPI) 

National Grants

Understanding the post-acute COVID sequelae (PACS) of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern (VoC)

SARS-CoV2 anti-viral activity testing platform to support the preclinical development of new chemical entities, and natural productsfrom Academia, Start-ups, and Pharma companies (BIRAC)

SARS-CoV-2 animal challenge model for pre-clinical and translational research (BIRAC)

Pre-clinical animal model platform to study disease severity and post-COVID-19 sequelae (BIRAC)

Understanding the immune-pathological changes associated with SARS-CoV2 infection in small animal model (Intramural)

Role of dietary vitamin B complex in the regulation of effector and regulatory T cell development, differentiation, and plasticity and its implication in the experimental colitis model in mice (SERB)

Development of a translational animal model to support Chikungunya vaccine and biotherapeutic study (Intramural)

Understanding the Inflammatory Pathways and Identification of Therapeutic Targets in Chronic Pancreatitis (Intramural)

To evaluate the effect of Erdosteine on the experimental autoimmune myocarditis model of rats (Intramural)

2024:   APA Young Investigator Travel award at American Pancreatic Association conference, Hawaii, USA.

2024:   FV Travel award to attend ECCMID 2024

2023:   SITC 2023 WIC Young Investigator Award by Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer for early career excellence in the field of Cancer Immunotherapy, in San Diego, USA.

2023:   ESCMID-2023 Young scientist Travel award.

2023:   MK Bhan award for the most impactful research collaboration THSTI

2023:   Award for scientist for the overall contribution to the institutional development, THSTI.2022:   Best Oral presentation awardat Immunocon 2022.

              2022:   Best Oral presentation award at Immunocon 2022, 49^th annual conference organized by Indian Immunology Society, PGI-Chandigarh.

              2021:   MK Bhan award for the most impactful research collaboration THSTI.

2020:   Young Scientists award at 6^th Indian International Science Festival.

2019:   Best poster awardat IUIS-IIS-FIMSA international conference.

2019:   Travel Grant by ICMR to attend IUIS 2019 (17^th International Congress of Immunology) held at Beijing (China).

              2017:   National-post doctoral fellowship (N-PDF) by SERB (DST)

2015:   Travel Grant by ICMR to attend Immunology 2015 (AAI) held at New Orleans (USA).

2014:   Travel Grant by DBT to attend Eurotox 2014 (50^th Congress of the European Societies of Toxicology) held at Edinburgh (Scotland, UK).

2014:   Runner up G P Talwar young scientist award by Indian Immunology Society, at 41^st Immunocon, Madurai.

2012: 1^st prize for Oral presentation at 10^th BIOSPARKS, JNU, New Delhi.

2011: 2^nd prizefor poster presentation at 9^th BIOSPARKS, JNU, New Delhi.

2009: Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) by ICMR.

2009: Qualified GATE (IIT/IISc) Exam (Life Science) with All India Rank 369

2009: LS-NET of CSIR Examination with All India Rank 16.

2009: Awarded ‘SIR SYED EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE AWARD’, by SSESA and Aligarh Alumni Association of New England (AAANE).

2007: Awarded “Prof. Afzal Muneer Memorial Merit Scholarship”, by Dept of Biochem, AMU.

2007: Summer research fellowship by Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), National Academy of Sciences (NASI) and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) at Indian institute of Sciences (IISc),Bangalore.

2007: 1^st prize for Science Model presentation at National Science Day, AMU.

2004:  1^st prizefor Chart presentation at National Academy of Science India (NASI) at school level, BHS, Allahabad.

• International Media Coverage
• https://www.popmech.ru/science/781843-5-faktov-o-soli-kotorye-vy-mogli-ne-znat/
• https://www.nkj.ru/news/42142/
• https://naked-science.ru/article/medicine/sol-pomogla-podavit-rost-opuholi
• https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/a-salty-diet-helps-gut-bugs-fight-cancer-in-mice-study-69197
• https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-adding-salt-mouse-diet-suppress.html
• https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/high-salt-diet-helps-the-microbiome-to-suppress-tumors-finds-mouse-study-353549
• https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/could-a-high-salt-diet-be-the-next-treatment-for-cancer

PhD students

1. Adarsh Subramaniam N (2023- continuing)

2. Shalini Bhaumik (2025-continuing)

Dissertation trainee/ Research Internship

1. Mr. Rehan Haider Zaidi, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli (MSc dissertation), 2022.

Currently affiliation: PhD scholar, Institute for Virology and Immunobiology · Berufserfahrung: The Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Germany.

2. Mr. Vishnu Soman, IISER-Mohali (BS-MS. dissertation), 2022

Current affliation: PhD Scholar · Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany.

3. Ms. Yvonne Guithuiliu Pamei, Amity University, Noida (MSc dissertation), 2023

Current affliation: MSc Cancer Therapies, University of Strathclyde, UK

4. Ms. Shweta Sharma, Chandigarh University, Chandigarh (MSc dissertation), 2023

5. Ms. Alarmelumangai, Acharya Narendra Dev College, DU (BSc internship), 2023

6. Mr. Kumar Gaurav, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag (MSc dissertation), 2024

7. Ms. Anagha MP, Acharya Narendra Dev College, DU (BSc internship), 2024

8. Shreya, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag (MSc dissertation), 2025