Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Personal Statement

My area of research is focusing on translational research that bridges laboratory science with public health relevance. As a Scientist ‘C’ at the ICMR–National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), I lead research initiatives that span molecular diagnostics, host-pathogen interactions, biomarker discovery of Tuberculosis, HIV, COVID-19 and surveillance of emerging zoonotic respiratory viruses. I trained in molecular biosciences, and my academic training includes an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology, an M.Phil. in Biochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Molecular Oncology from (Cancer Institute, Chennai) University of Madras. These early experiences, including a post-doctoral stint at the National Cancer Institute (USA), nurtured my interest in gene expression patterns and molecular signatures in cancer and infectious diseases.

Research Focus

• Molecular biology and Molecular virology including

• Genomics and Transcriptomics of host biomarkers in Tuberculosis and HIV

• Advancing Molecular diagnostics of Tuberculosis

• Surveillance of emerging zoonotic viral infections and One Health approach

• Public Health implementation and Outbreak investigation

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1

Significant Publications

1. Krishnan V, Sivakumar C, Babu KA, Vigneswari S, Lakshminarayanan R, Natarajan S, Veerapandian M. Electrochemically grafted gallic acid-chitosan: a metal-free in situ redox platform for regiospecific oligopeptide-viral spike protein interaction. Chem Commun (Camb). 2024 Oct 22;60(85):12405-12408. doi: 10.1039/d4cc04954c.
2. Balasubramanian P, Vijayarangam V, Deviparasakthi MKG, Palaniyandi T, Ravi M, Natarajan S, Viswanathan S, Baskar G, Wahab MRA, Surendran H. Implications and progression of peroxiredoxin 2 (PRDX2) in various human diseases. Pathol Res Pract. 2024 Feb;254:155080. doi: 10.1016/j.prp.2023.155080. Epub 2024 Jan 3. PMID: 38219498. [Citations – 13]
3. Surendran H, Palaniyandi T, Natarajan S, Hari R, Viwanathan S, Baskar G, Abdul Wahab MR, Ravi M, Rajendran BK. Role of homeobox d10 gene targeted signaling pathways in cancers. Pathol Res Pract. 2023 Jun 22;248:154643. doi: 10.1016/j.prp.2023.154643. [Citations – 9]
4. Chandrasekar SA, Palaniyandi T, Parthasarathy U, Surendran H, Viswanathan S, Wahab MRA, Baskar G, Natarajan S, Ranjan K. Implications of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and their signaling mechanisms in human cancers. Pathol Res Pract. 2023 Jul 4;248:154673. doi: 10.1016/j.prp.2023.154673. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37453359. [Citations – 18]
5. Natarajan S, Ranganathan M, Natarajan PL, Nesakumar M, Anbalagan S, Lucia Precilla K, Hemalatha H, Kannan M, Narendran G, Mahalakshmi S, Karmegam G, Prakash L, Narayanasamy K, Hanna LE. Comparison of Real-time RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values with clinical features and severity of COVID-19 disease among hospitalized patients in the first and second waves of COVID-19 pandemic in Chennai, India. J Clin Virol Plus. 2023 Jun;3(2):100146. doi: 10.1016/j.jcvp.2023.100146. [Citations – 7]
6. Sandhiya Viswanathan, Thirunavukkarsu Palaniyandi, Dhayan Chand Chellam, Mohammed Fahad Ahmed, Nithin Shoban, M. Pushpakumar, Mugip Rahaman Abdul Wahab, Gomathy Baskar, Maddaly Ravi, Asha Sivaji, Sudhakar Natarajan, Senthil Kumar Sankareswaran. Anti-cancer activity of Hypnea valentiae seaweed loaded gold nanoparticles through EMT signaling pathway in A549 cells. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 2023; 107: 104606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bse.2023.104606 [Citations -17]
7. Palaniyandi T, B K, Prabhakaran P, Viswanathan S, Rahaman Abdul Wahab M, Natarajan S, Kumar Kaliya Moorthy S, Kumarasamy S. Nanosensors for the diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative disorders and inflammatory bowel disease. Acta Histochem. 2023 Feb;125(2):151997. doi: 10.1016/j.acthis.2023.151997. [Citations -18] Kumar THV, Srinivasan S, Krishnan V, Vaidyanathan R, Babu KA, Natarajan S, Veerapandian M. Peptide-based direct electrochemical detection of receptor binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in pristine samples. Sens Actuators B Chem. 2023 Feb 15; 377:133052. doi: 10.1016/j.snb.2022.133052. [Citations –27]
8. Sudhakar Natarajan, Mohan Ranganathan, Luke Elizabeth Hanna, Srikanth Tripathy. Transcriptional Profiling and Deriving a Seven-Gene Signature That Discriminates Active and Latent Tuberculosis: An Integrative Bioinformatics Approach. Genes 2022, 13(4), 616; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13040616[Citations – 34]
9. Daniel EA, Esakialraj L BH, S A, Muthuramalingam K, Karunaianantham R, Karunakaran LP, Nesakumar M, Selvachithiram M, Pattabiraman S, Natarajan S, Tripathy SP, Hanna LE. Pooled Testing Strategies for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis: A comprehensive review. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2021 May 17;101(2):115432. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115432. [Citations – 38]
10. Natarajan S, Ranganathan M. Toll-like receptor (TLR) gene expression and immunostimulatory effect of CpG oligonucleotides in hormone receptor positive cell line T47D and triple negative breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-468. Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol. 2020 Oct;42(5):408-415. doi: 10.1080/08923973.2020.1797779. [Citations – 11]

Awards and Honours

Delivered a talk (online) for IAVI’s ADVANCE Leadership Development

Program on "Systems Immunology: How to better understand immunology and

how to make better vaccines" held on July 25, 2024.

Completed the ADVANCE Leadership Development Programme (LDP)

organized by International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) during the period

February to September 2023 (Weekly meeting through Online mode), and

participated in the IAVI’s LDP in-person meeting held at Entebbe, Uganda during

11th to 13th October 2023.

Awarded the Best Oral Presentation in “International Conference on Public

Health (DPHICON 2022)” organized by Government of Tamil Nadu, during 6th -8th

December 2022 at Mahabalipuram.

Expert Committee Member for evaluation of PhD thesis and Member of the

Doctoral Committee in the School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University,

Vellore (2014 - till date).

3b. Invited Talks

Delivered an invited talk on “In vitro assays and Techniques used in anticancer

drug discovery” in National Conference on “Current Scenario in Traditional

Medicine” organized by K.M.G. College of Arts and Science on 31-08-2023.

Delivered an invited talk on ‘Molecular diagnostics of HPV infection in Cervical

cancer’ in “International Conference on Innovations in Medical

Technologies” at Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan University, Trichy during 6-7 Jan

2023.

Invited and gave a webinar on “Real-time PCR in Molecular diagnostics of viral

infections” organized by the Department of Biochemistry, Ethiraj College,

Chennai held on 27th July 2020 (around 100 students participated in the

webinar).

Delivered an Invited Talk in ‘World Congress on Reproductive health with

Emphasis on Reproductive Cancers, Infertility and Assisted Reproduction’ at

30th Annual Meeting of the Indian Society for the Study of Reproduction and

Fertility (ISSRF 2020) held at Katra, Jammu on 14-16 February 2020.

Research Profiles