Ph.D.
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
1989

Postdoctoral Research
Post doctoral Fellow, Salk Institute, San Diego, C.A, U.S.A. 1990-92

Research Associate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute, San Diego, C.A, U.S.A.
1992-93

Research Interests
Eukaryotic gene expression & Infectious diseases.

Our laboratory is investigating regulation of gene expression during the metabolism of glucose and methanol in the methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris. Investigations thus far have led to the identification of binding sites for the transcription factor, Mxr1p in the methanol-inducible promoters of Pichia pastoris. Recently we have identified a novel transcription factor whose expression is regulated by methanol and biotin. We are also studying intracellular trafficking of proteins such as cytochrome c and methionine synthase. Our long term goal is to understand the biology of P. pastoris such that the new knowledge generated can lead to novel biotechnological applications.

In the area of infectious diseases, our laboratory has been involved in the development of recombinant vaccines against Hepatitis B and rabies. We have also identified a number of genes whose expression is altered in mouse brain during infection by neurotropic viruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and rabies virus. Recently, one of the JEV-inducible genes was shown to encode a novel nuclear noncoding RNA named VINC/NEAT1/epsilon RNA which is essential for the formation of nuclear paraspeckles.

Research collaboration with Prof. G. Padamanaban over the last decade has led to the identification and characterization of all the enzymes of the heme biosynthetic pathway of the malarial parasite. In addition, we demonstrated that curcumin, a component of turmeric, in combination with artemisinin can be a potent antimalarial.

Research collaborations with biotech industry have led to the development of a recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine (BEVAC and ELOVAC-B) as well a novel combination DNA Rabies vaccine candidate (DINARAB).

1. Sreenivasa Murthy, U.M. & Rangarajan, P. N. (2010). Identification of protein interaction regions of VINC/NEAT1/Men epsilon RNA. FEBS Letters 584, 1531-1535

2. Kranthi, B. V., Vinod Kumar, H. R. & Rangarajan, P. N. (2010). Determination of target gene specificity of Mxr1p, a key regulator of methanol utilization pathway in Pichia pastoris. Yeast DOI: 10.1002/yea.1766.

3. Kranthi, B. V., Kumar, R., Vijay Kumar, N., Rao, D. N. and Rangarajan, P. N. (2009) Identification of key DNA elements involved in promoter recognition by Mxr1p, a master regulator of methanol utilization pathway in Pichia pastoris. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1789, 460-468.

4. Arun Nagaraj, V., Arumugam, R., Gopalakrishnan, B., Jyothsna, Y., Rangarajan, P. N. and Padmanaban, G. (2008). Unique properties of Plasmodium falciparum porphobilinogen deaminase Journal of Biological Chemistry 283, 437-444.

5. Kranthi, B. V., Balasubramanian, N. & Rangarajan, P. N. (2006). Isolation of a single-stranded DNA-binding protein from the methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris and its identification as zeta crystallin. Nucleic Acids Research 34, 4060-4068.

6. Saha, S., Murthy, S. & Rangarajan, P. N. (2006). Identification and characterization of a virus-inducible non-coding RNA in mouse brain. Journal of General Virology 87, 1991-1995.