Biochemist, specialized in microbiology and molecular biology

KULOTHUNGAN GANAPATHY, PhD

Call me: "Kuloth"

****, *** ******, ***. *** Mobile #: 806-***-****

Lubbock, Texas 79415 Email: ********@*****.***

Profile

Biochemist, specialized in microbiology and molecular biology with expertise in enzymology, protein purification, PCR, site-directed mutagenesis, recombinant DNA technology, molecular biomarkers, mass spectrometry and drug efficacy testing in human pathogens (prokaryotes and eukaryotes),. Ability to do multitasking and work independently. Strong motivations towards research and development. Excellent Interpersonal and analytical skills.

Education

May 2010 : PhD, Biochemistry (Assistantships from TTU and NSF)

Texas Tech University, Dept of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Biochemistry Division

May 2002 : Masters of Science, Industrial Microbiology

University of Madras, India

May 2000 : Bachelor of Science, Biochemistry,

University of Madras, India

Research Experiences

2010 - 2011 – Postdoctoral Research Associate & Safety officer - BSL2 Lab

Texas Tech University, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bio-Analytical Chemistry Division, Mass Spectrometry Research Lab

In gel digestion of proteins to identify peptides and proteins using LTQ Orbitrap Velos (LC-MS/MS)

Identification of toxins using mass spec(LC-MS/MS from Microbes grown in rich media and stress media

Characterizations of compounds from plant extracts by comparing the LC traces and isotopic patterns with experimental and theoretical data

Identification and confirmation of molecular weight and post translational modifications of proteins (in-gel trypsin digestion , LC-MS/MS and subject to database search)

Identification of proteins, peptides and Glycopeptides in cancer samples from patients having Barrett’s Disease, High Grade Dysplasia (HGD) and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.(for diagnosis)

Identification of serum protein enriched by metal columns (LC-MS/MS)

May2010 - Nov2010 – Postdoctoral Research Associate,

Texas Tech University, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biochemistry Division

Properties, substrate specificity and effect of mutagenesis of active site tyrosine in Trypanosoma cruzi sterol 24C-methyltransferase (SMT)

SMT enzyme purification and characterization of Sterol Metabolic Network of Trypanosoma brucei

2004 – 2010 – Doctoral Study

Texas Tech University, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biochemistry Division

Molecular probing of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae sterol 24-C-methyltransferase (membrane protein) reveals multiple amino acid residues involved with C2-transfer activity and interruption of ergosterol biosynthesis

Sterol 24-C-methyltransferase: An enzymatic target for the disruption of ergosterol biosynthesis and homeostasis in Cryptococcus neoformans

Site-directed mutagenesis and mechanistic analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei sterol 24C-methyltransferase (SMT)

Purification, characterization and inhibition study of sterol methyltransferase from Candida albicans

Sterol profiling, isolation and inhibition studies on Yeast mutant strain GL7

Protein expression and maintenance of various recombinant SMT strains across Kingdoms

Research Proposal “Edible vaccine for H1N1 influenza virus in Spinach” was submitted and was accepted by my PhD committee members (2009).

February 2003 - June 2004: Research Associate

Bio-products laboratory, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai (Madras), India.

Drug efficacy (burn wound healing properties) testing in a rat model

April 2002 - January 2003: Research Associate

Center for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Chennai (Madras), India.

Salinity tolerance by two Ectomycorrhizal fungi, Laccari laccata and Laccaria ohiensis

December 2001 - March 2002: Research Assistant (Master’s Thesis)

Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India.

Analysis of genetic relatedness in some Gossipium species by RAPD under the guidance of Dr. Susan Eapen. (Result: Dendrogram of 11 Gossypium genotypes generated by RAPD data using the UPGMA method indicated that Gossypium species belonging to same genome were grouped together).

June 2001 - July 2001: Research Assistant

Department of Biotechnology, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai (Madras), India.

“Peptide Synthesis, Purification and Enzyme Assays of Tannase and Lipase”

May 1998 - June 1998: Research Assistant

Bio-products laboratory, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai (Madras), India.

Extraction and Purification of Type I Collagen from Calf skin and tendon

Publications

1. Craigen R Nes, Ujjal K Singha, Jialin Liu, Kulothungan Ganapathy, Fernando Villalta, Michael R Waterman, Galina I Lepesheva, Minu Chaudhuri, W David Nes*. Novel Sterol Metabolic Network of Trypanosoma brucei Procyclic and Bloodstream Forms, Biochemical journal 443 (2012): 267-277 (Impact factor: 5.016)

2. Jialin Liu1, Kulothungan Ganapathy1, Chizaram A. Nwogwugwu and W. David Nes. Effect of substrate features and mutagenesis of active site tyrosine residues on the reaction course catalyzed by Trypanosoma brucei sterol C24-methyltransferase, Biochemical journal 439 (2011): 413-422 Citations: 2 (Impact factor: 5.016)

3. Kulothungan Ganapathy1, Ragu Kanagasabai1, Thuy Thi Minh Nguyen and W. David Nes*. Purification, Characterization and Inhibition of Sterol C24-Methyltransferase from Candida albicans, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 505 (2011): 194-201 Citations: 1 (Impact factor: 3.022)

4. Maristela Pereira, Zhiong Song, Ludier Kesser Santos-Silva, Mathew H. Richards, Thi Thuy Nguyen, Jialin Liu, Kulothungan Ganapathy and W.David Nes*. Cloning, Mechanistic and Functional Analysis of a Fungal Sterol 24C-Methyltransferase Implicated in Brassicasterol Biosynthesis, Biochemica et Biophysica Acta 1801(10) (2010): 1163-74 Citations: 5 (Impact factor: 5.084)

5. W.David Nes*, Wenxu Zhou, Kulothungan Ganapathy , Jialin Liu, Rit Vatsyayan, Swetha Chamala, Keven Hernandez, Mayra Miranda. Sterol 24-C-methyltransferase: An enzymatic target for the disruption of ergosterol biosynthesis and homeostasis in Cryptococcus neoformans, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 481 (2009): 210-218 Citations: 11 (Impact factor: 3.022)

6. Kulothungan Ganapathy, Christopher W. Jones, Camille M. Stephens, Rit Vatsyayan, Julie A. Marshall and W. David Nes*. Molecular Probing of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sterol 24-C-Methyltransferase Reveals Multiple Amino Acid Residues Involved with C2-transfer Activity, Biochemica et Biophysica Acta 1781 (2008): 344-351 Citations: 7 (Impact factor: 5.084)

7. M Gomes, G Kulothungan, S S Mehetre and S Eapen*. Analysis of genetic relatedness in some Gossipium species by RAPD, Indian Journal of Biotechnology 3 (2004): 41-46 Citations: 7 (Impact factor: 0.385)

1These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Experiences

January 2010 - May 2010, January 2008 - May 2008: Teaching Assistant for biochemistry labs for undergraduates and graduates.

September 2008 - December 2009: Graduate Assistant for instrumentation in biochemistry department (technical maintenance and teaching).

September 2004 – December 2007: Teaching Assistant for general chemistry labs for undergraduates.

Technical Expertise

Molecular Biology Site-directed mutagenesis, Protein expression, Cloning, DNA/RNA extraction (Plant, microbes and tissues), PCR, RFLP, RAPD, RT-PCR, Site-directed mutagenesis and protoplast fusion

Enzymology Protein (collagen from cow, goat skin, snail and fish) and enzyme (Membrane proteins) purification (Ion exchange chromatography, Size exclusion chromatography, HPLC, FPLC), characterization, kinetics, biochemical & radioactive assays, Western blot, SDS-PAGE and 2D gel electrophoresis

Microbiology Isolation, Identification, Characterization and maintenance of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes, Microbial screening for various bio-products, IC50 determination, sterol isolation and identification from various organisms (Lab Safety officer for a BL2 lab)

Immunology ELISA, Immunoblotting and Immunoelectrophoresis

Bio-Analytical Isolation, identification and purification of sterols from plants and microbes using various chromatographic techniques (TLC, HPLC, GC and GC-MS)

Animal Studies Rat and Rabbit handling; Dissection, drug testing, and antibody production

Bioinformatics Phylogenetic analysis, tree drawing, Primers designing, BLAST, Clustal W, Sequence Database search(EMBL Pubmed, Swiss prot etc., Sequence alignment, protein property and secondary structure identification

Scientific Software Vector NTI, Sigma Plot Enzyme kinetic module, ChemBio Office, Chromeleon, ChemStation, Xcalibur, Mascot, Proteome Discoverer, PinPoint

Instrumentations Gas chromatography (GC) (manual and automated), HPLC[manual(HP) and automated(Dionex & Agilent)], GC-MS, LC-MS/MS (Nano & RS- LC, LTQ Orbitrap Velos, TSQ Vantage, Exactive), FPLC, French Press, Ultra Sonicator, Thermo Cycler, Gel Documentation System, Ultra Centrifuge etc.,

See Appendix I for Presentations (page-5)

See Appendix II for Awards and Affiliations (page-5)

See Appendix III for Workshops, Symposiums, and Trainings Attended (page-6)

Appendix I

Presentations

1. Presented a poster in 101st AOCS Annual Meeting & EXPO titled as “Candida Sterol Methyltransferase: Properties and Inhibition” May 16-19, 2010, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

2. Presented a poster in 238th ACS National Meeting, titled as "Site-directed Mutagenesis and Mechanistic analysis of the Trypanosoma brucei sterol 24-C-methyltransferase" August 16-20, 2009, Washington DC, USA

3. Presented a poster in 99th AOCS Annual Meeting & EXPO titled as “Mutational Studies of Sterol Methyltransferase to Identify Amino Acids Involved with Catalytic Activity and Product Determination” May 18-21, 2008, Seattle, Washington, USA

4. Presented in 63rd Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) as oral presentation “Mutational Studies of Sterol Methyltransferase to Identify Amino Acids Involved with Catalytic Activity and Product Determination” Nov 4-7, 2007, Lubbock, Texas, USA

5. Presented a research paper titled “Analysis of Genetic Relatedness in Some Gossipium Species by Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD)” in an International symposium on “Molecular Approaches for Improved Crop Productivity and Quality” May 22-24, 2002 at Centre for Plant Molecular Biology (CPMB), Tamilnadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

Appendix II

Awards and Affiliations

Received NSF Research Assistantship for all summers during my PhD (2005-2009)

Received travel award for presenting a poster in AOCS meeting 2008 and 2010 from Graduate School, Texas Tech University

Received outstanding paper presentation award for the poster presented in 99th AOCS Annual Meeting & EXPO titled as “Mutational Studies of Sterol Methyltransferase to Identify Amino Acids Involved with Catalytic Activity and Product Determination,” May 18-21, 2008 Seattle, Washington, USA

Received travel award for presenting a poster in ACS meeting 2009 from chemistry graduate students organization (CGSO) affiliated to student government association (SGA) Graduate School, Texas Tech University

American Oils Chemists’ Society (AOCS) Member since 2007

Membership # 509462

American Chemical Society (ACS) member since 2008

Membership # 30020146

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) member since 2008

Membership # 20230537

The American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) member since 2011

Appendix III

Workshops, Symposiums, and Trainings Attended

1. ThermoFisher Scientific-Dionex training for LC-MS/MS (Nano & RS- LC, LTQ Orbitrap Velos, TSQ Vantage (Triple Quad) and Exactive) - 2011

2. International Conference on "Emerging Frontiers at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology" held during April 28-30, 2003 at Regional Research Laboratory, CSIR, Trivandrum, India

3. National Conference on “Biological Control of crop diseases: Present perspectives and Future challenges” held on 5th and 6th March 2003 at Center for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Chennai (Madras), India

4. VI Annual International Conference of Indian Society of Wound management “WOUNDCON 2003” held on 22nd and 23rd February 2003 by Central Leather Research Institute, (CLRI) Chennai (Madras), India

5. National Seminar on “Genomics & Proteomics” held on 19th & 20th February 2003 by the Department of Biotechnology, University of Madras, Chennai (Madras), India

6. National Workshop on, “Biotechnological and Immunological Strategies for Research” held on March 2001 at the Department of Biotechnology, University of Madras and Queen’s University, Belfast, UK at Chennai (Madras), India

7. National Symposium on “Ecofriendly Approaches for Plant Disease Management”, held on January 2001 conducted by the Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany and Indian Phytopathological Society at Chennai (Madras), India

8. Summer Training Program in “Peptide synthesis, Purification Techniques and Enzyme Assays of Tannase and Lipase” from June 14, 2001 to June 29, 2001 at the Department of Biotechnology, Central Leather Research Institute, (CLRI) Chennai (Madras), India

9. Summer Training Program in "Molecular Techniques in Bioscience” held from 2- 8, May 2001 at Center for Advanced studies in Botany, University of Madras, Chennai (Madras), India

10. Summer Training Program in “Extraction and Purification of Type I Collagen” from 30th of May to 30th of June 1998 at Bio-products laboratory, Central Leather Research Institute, (CLRI) Chennai (Madras), India

References available on request

Contact this candidate