Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

MSc, M.Phil., Ph.D.

Personal Statement

I have more than 20 years of experience in basic and clinical research activities. Major specializations are drug delivery approaches in tuberculosis, nutrition in health and disease, small animal experimentation, point of care diagnostic tools, anti TB lead molecule identification etc. Near to a decade, I am leading the Department of Biochemistry at ICMR-NIRT, which is playing a vital role in TB research by providing high quality diagnostic and research support to various trials and experimental studies. The major accomplishments are the NABL accreditation to the clinical biochemistry laboratory unit and establishment of metabolomics facility in the department. I have published a number of high impact articles and filed a patent on nanomaterial development.

Research Focus

• Nano delivery approaches in tuberculosis treatment

• Point of care diagnostic tools

• Biomarker identification using metabolomics

• Nutrition and functional foods in tuberculosis treatment

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

Point of care estimation of Vitamin D and C-Reactive Protein for tuberculosis screening in household contacts of active pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Tamil Nadu, India.

Significant Publications

1. Nagarajan U, Naha A, Ashok G, Balasubramanian A, Ramaiah S, V Kanth S, Dusthackeer A, Anbarasu A, Natarajan Saravanan. Biomolecular Interaction of Carnosine and Anti-TB Drug: Preparation of Functional Biopeptide-Based Nanocomposites and Characterization through In Vitro and In Silico Investigations. ACS omega. 2024 Dec 25;10(1):567-87.

2. Silambu Chelvi Kannayan, Basilea Watson, Kannan Thiruvengadam, Ghazala Shamail, Banurekha Velayutham, Rajendran Krishnan, Saravanan Natarajan. Malnutrition in tribal people living with tuberculosis in India: A systematic review & meta-analysis. The Indian Journal of Medical Research. 2024 Sep 30;160(1):23.

3. Nagarajan U, Denise RM, Kanth SV, Natarajan Saravanan. An eco friendly approach for the development of a dipeptide based anti-TB drug nanocomposites: A greener approach in drug delivery system for pulmonary delivery. Sustainable Materials and Technologies. 2024 Jul 3:e01037.

4. Usharani N, Aniket N, Anand A, Sudha R, Swarna V. K, Saravanan N. Green synthesis and characterization of water soluble nanocarnosine: A prospective drug delivery system. Appl. Mater. Today. 2023; 32: 101812.

5. Souparnika Sreelatha, Usharani N, Saravanan Natarajan. Protein targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and their inhibitors for therapeutic implications: a narrative review. Int. J. Biol. Macromol 243:2023, 125022.

6. Usharani N, Kanth SV, Saravanan N. Current nanotechnological strategies using lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and metal conjugates-based carrier systems for diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis-A review. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 2022;S0141-8130.

7. Miryala SK, Basu S, Naha A, Debroy R, Ramaiah S, Anbarasu A, Natarajan Saravanan. Identification of bioactive natural compounds as efficient inhibitors against Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein-targets: a molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation study. Journal of Molecular Liquids. 2021 Nov 1;341:117340.

8. Ahmed NZ, Agibothu Kupparam HK, Akbar S, Hissar S, Anwar N, Thiruvengadam K, Anjum N, Khan AA, Dar S, Natarajan Saravanan. Effects of co-administration of Unani pharmacopoeia formulations Qurs Tabasheer Sartani and Arq Hara Bhara with CAT-I antitubercular drugs in rats. Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine. 2021 Sep 30;18(3):517-25.

9. Rupak Shivakoti, John W Newman, Luke Elizabeth Hanna, Artur TL Queiroz, Kamil Borkowski, Akshay N Gupte, Mandar Paradkar, Pattabiraman Satyamurthi, Vandana Kulkarni, Murugesh Selva, Neeta Pradhan, Shri Vijay Bala Yogendra Shivakumar, Saravanan Natarajan, Ramesh Karunaianantham, Nikhil Gupte, Kannan Thiruvengadam, Oliver Fiehn, Renu Bharadwaj, Anju Kagal, Sanjay Gaikwad, Shashikala Sangle, Jonathan E Golub, Bruno B Andrade, Vidya Mave, Amita Gupta, Chandrasekaran Padmapriyadarsini. Host lipidome and tuberculosis treatment failure. European Respiratory Journal. 2022 Jan 6;59(1).

10. Chandrasekaran P, Saravanan N, Bethunaickan R, Tripathy S. Malnutrition: Modulator of immune responses in tuberculosis. Front.Immunol. 2017;8:1316.

Awards and Honours

AVRS Outstanding Research Scientist Award in Medical Biochemistry at the “AVRS-International Conference on Drug Design, Discovery and Development” on 29/08/2024.

Research Profiles