Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

M.V.Sc; PhD

Personal Statement

I am a veterinarian with over 20 years of research experience in molecular biology and immunology of infectious diseases. As a Scientist at ICMR–NIRT, Chennai, I lead a team in the Department of Immunology. My early work focused on assessing Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence in animal models and evaluating recombinant BCG vaccine candidates. I led India’s first study confirming M. tuberculosis and M. orygis in cattle and have conducted multiple collaborative projects on zoonotic TB. Currently

Research Focus

· Molecular Biology

· Zoonotic tuberculosis

· One Health

· Immunology

· Animal models

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1

Significant Publications

1. Kannan P, Kumar N, Veerasamy M, Refaya AK, ChandrakumarD, SubramaniamS ,Dhanraj B, Rajendran A, Narayanan S, Raj D, Swaminathan S, Peacock S. Isolation and comparative genomics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from cattle and their attendants in South India. Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 29;9(1):17892. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54268-x..
2. Abigail L. Manson, Thomas Abeel, James E. Galagan, Jagadish Chandrabose Sundaramurthi, Alex Salazar, Thies Gehrmann, Siva Kumar Shanmugam, Kannan Palaniyandi, Sujatha Narayanan, Soumya Swaminathan, Ashlee M. Earl; Mycobacterium tuberculosis Whole Genome Sequences from Southern India Suggest Novel Resistance Mechanisms and the Need for Region-Specific Diagnostics. Clin Infect Dis 2017; 64 (11): 1494-1501
3. Refaya AK, Kumar N, Raj D, Veerasamy M, Balaji S, Shanmugam S, Rajendran A, Tripathy SP, Swaminathan S, Peacock SJ, Kannan P. Whole-Genome Sequencing of a Mycobacterium orygis Strain Isolated from Cattle in Chennai, India. Microbiol Resour Announc. 2019 Oct 3;8(40). pii: e01080-19. doi: 10.1128/MRA.01080-19.
4. Refaya AK, Ramanujam H, Ramalingam M, Rao GVS, Ravikumar D, Sangamithrai D, Shanmugam S, Kannan P. Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium orygis in wild ungulates in Chennai, South India. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 Jun 9. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14613.
5. Ramanujam H, Thiruvengadam K, Singaraj R, Kannan P. Role of abattoir monitoring in determining the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 May; 69(3):958-973. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14118
6. Bhargavi G, Hassan S, Balaji S, Tripathy SP, Kannan P. Protein-protein interaction of Rv0148 with Htdy and its predicted role towards drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. BMC Microbiol. 2020 Apr 15;20(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s12866-020-01763-1. PMID: 32295519; PMCID: PMC7161113.
7. Venkatesan A, Kannan P, Sharma D, Bisht D and Narayanan S (2016) Functional Characterization of PknI-Rv2159c Interaction in Redox Homeostasis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Front. Microbiol. 7:1654. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01654
8. Bhargavi G, Singh AK, Deenadayalan A, Ponnuraja C, Patil SA, Kannan P. Role of a Putative Alkylhydroperoxidase Rv2159c in the Oxidative Stress Response and Virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Pathogens. 2022 Jun 14;11(6):684. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11060684
9. Bhargavi G, Singh AK, Patil SA, Kannan P. A putative short-chain dehydrogenase Rv0148 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis affects bacterial survival and virulence. Curr Res Microb Sci. 2022 Feb 12;3:100113.
10. Ramanujam H, Refaya AK, Thiruvengadam K, Pazhanivel N, Kandasamy D, Shanmugavel A, Radhakrishnan A, Radhika G, Ravi R, Ravi N, Palanisamy M, Shanmugam S, Stuber TP, Kapur V, Kannan P. Recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Isolates Including Pre-Extensively Drug-Resistant Strains From Cattle at a Slaughterhouse in Chennai, India. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Dec 19;12(1):ofae733. doi:

Awards and Honours

1. Awarded Indian council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Junior Research Fellow for M.V.Sc degree programme (1998)

2. Awarded Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) Senior Research Fellow for PhD degree programme (2000).

3. Recipient of NIH R01 (USA) grant as Principal Investigator (MPI) for the study “Estimation of Risk Associated with Zoonotic Tuberculosis in South India (ERAzTB),” .

Research Profiles