Our Faculty > Girija Ramakrishnan

Girija Ramakrishnan

Girija Ramakrishnan

Education

  • PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Primary Appointment

  • Assistant Professor, Medicine- Infectious Diseases and International Health

Contact

Research Interest(s)

Iron-uptake mechanisms and Virulence Factors of Francisella tularensis; Microbial Pathogenesis

Research Description



Tularemia is a plague-like disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis.  This organism is highly infectious as an aerosol and an effective vaccine for the agent does not currently exist.  My major research interest is in mechanisms governing pathogenicity of this intracellular pathogen.  Acquisition of iron in the host environment is a challenge for the pathogen, and we are studying the mechanisms for acquisition of iron using a combination of bioinformatics, genetic and proteomic methods.  Defining iron uptake and utilization mechanisms could lead to development of  vaccine and therapeutic strategies.  We are characterizing a siderophore-mediated uptake mechanism, and are also looking at transcriptional regulation of bacterial genes in response to iron.

A second research interest is the histone deacetylases of the protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica.  I am interested in studying these enzymes with the goal of therapeutic intervention using specific inhibitors.

Girija Ramakrishnan is an affiliated faculty member of the Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases program.

Selected Publications

  • Srivats S, Ramakrishnan G, Paddikkala J, Kurian G. An in vivo and in vitro analysis of free radical scavenging potential possessed by Desmodium gangeticum chloroform root extract: interpretation by gsms. Pakistan journal of pharmaceutical sciences. 2011;25(1): 27-34. PMID: 22186306
  • Ramakrishnan G, Planken P. Percolation-enhanced generation of terahertz pulses by optical rectification on ultrathin gold films. Optics letters. 2011;36(13): 2572-4. PMID: 21725483
  • Tzivion G, Dobson M, Ramakrishnan G. FoxO transcription factors; Regulation by AKT and 14-3-3 proteins. Biochimica et biophysica acta. 2011;1813(11): 1938-45. PMID: 21708191
  • Dobson M, Ramakrishnan G, Ma S, Kaplun L, Balan V, Fridman R, Tzivion G. Bimodal regulation of FoxO3 by AKT and 14-3-3. Biochimica et biophysica acta. 2011;1813(8): 1453-64. PMID: 21621563 | PMCID: PMC3237389
  • Lim F, Phua K, Lee B, Quak S, Teoh Y, Ramakrishnan G, Han H, Van Der Meeren O, Jacquets J, Bock H. Safety and reactogenicity of DTPa-HBV-IPV/Hib and DTPa-IPV/I-Hib vaccines in a post-marketing surveillance setting. The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health. 2011;42(1): 138-47. PMID: 21323176
  • Anandakumar P, Kamaraj S, Jagan S, Ramakrishnan G, Asokkumar S, Naveenkumar C, Raghunandhakumar S, Devaki T. Capsaicin inhibits benzo(a)pyrene-induced lung carcinogenesis in an in vivo mouse model. Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.]. 2012;61(11): 1169-75. PMID: 22735861
  • Ramakrishnan G, Sen B, Johnson R. Paralogous outer membrane proteins mediate uptake of different forms of iron and synergistically govern virulence in Francisella tularensis tularensis. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2012;287(30): 25191-202. PMID: 22661710 | PMCID: PMC3408188
  • Saravana Babu C, Sathiya S, Anbarasi C, Prathyusha N, Ramakrishnan G, Kalaivani P, Jyothi Priya R, Selvarajan Kesavanarayanan K, Verammal Mahadevan M, Thanikachalam S. Polyphenols in madhumega chooranam, a Siddha medicine, ameliorates carbohydrate metabolism and oxidative stress in type II diabetic rats. Journal of ethnopharmacology. 2012;142(2): 331-6. PMID: 22633981
  • Ramakrishnan G, Kumar N, Planken P, Tanaka D, Kajikawa K. Surface plasmon-enhanced terahertz emission from a hemicyanine self-assembled monolayer. Optics express. 2012;20(4): 4067-73. PMID: 22418165
  • Ramakrishnan G, Arjuman A, Suneja S, Das C, Chandra N. The association between insulin and low-density lipoprotein receptors. Diabetes & vascular disease research : official journal of the International Society of Diabetes and Vascular Disease. 2012;9(3): 196-204. PMID: 22278734