Sindhi Surname: Wadhwa:
Dr. Shashi Wadhwa received her graduate degree from Jabalpur Medical College (Madhya Pradesh) in 1970 and subsequently joined the Department of Anatomy at AIIMS for postgraduate studies leading to MS and PhD.
She has published extensively on the developing human brain in both national and international journals. Her work on the developing human retina has been well cited.
She is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science, Indian Academy of Neuroscience, National Academy of Medical Science and National Academy of Science as well as member of IBRO, New York Academy of Science and Society for Neuroscience, USA amongst others.
She has the distinction of being honored with awards, the most prestigious amongst them being the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
Prize of CSIR in 1990.
Her major research interests are developmental neurobiology, quantitative morphology and electron microscopy. Her laboratory has mainly focussed on studying the developing human brain. The human spinal cord, visual pathway, cerebellar nuclei and the autonomic innervation of human urinary bladder have been studied to highlight the critical time periods during which these regions are susceptible to alterations in the microenvironment of the fetus that could result in related developmental abnormalities of varying degrees. The studies have provided baseline data for comparison with pathological material and animal experiments as well as helped in better understanding of processes involved in the development of these regions at the molecular level.
Currently, her laboratory is investigating the effects of experience driven neural activity on developing chick auditory nuclei, higher auditory association area – mediorostral neostriatum hyperstriatum ventrale and the hippocampus. Stereological methods for quantitation, immunohistochemistry and Western blot procedures are being carried out to determine the quantitative morphological and neurochemical changes consequent to enhanced prenatal auditory stimulation. These studies are aimed to help understand the basis of better neonatal performance of the chicks in response to prenatal auditory cues. Such a paradigm may also help reduce the deficits in disorders related to language acquisition and learning in children as well as improve the learning capabilities of normal children.
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