Download Dr. R. Bharathiraja

R. Bharathi Raja, PhD.,
Teaching Fellow
Centre for Biotechnology
Anna University, Chennai, India - 600025
Email: [email protected]
Mobile Number: +91-9655574787
Educational Qualification
2008 – 2013 (March)
Ph.D (Biotechnology)
Centre for Biotechnology
Anna University, Chennai, India
2006 – 2007
M.Phil (Biotechnology)
Periyar University, India
2001 – 2003
M.Sc (Biochemistry)
Bharathidasan University, India
1998 – 2001
B.Sc (Biochemistry)
Bharathidasan University, India
Research and Professional experience
Designation
Affiliation
Period
Principal Scientist
Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University,
Chennai, India
Techsicon Biotech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India
American Urological
Association Research
Scholar
Department of Urology, Oakland University William
Beaumont School of Medicine, Beaumont Health
2014 - 2015
System Research Institute, Michigan, USA
Postdoctoral Research
Scientist
Department of Urology, Oakland University William
Beaumont School of Medicine, Beaumont Health
System Research Institute, Michigan, USA
CSIR, Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University,
Chennai, India
Department of AYUSH, National Medicinal Plants
Board (NMPB), Centre for Biotechnology, Anna
University, Chennai, India
Department of Biochemistry, Vinayaka Mission’s
Medical College, Karaikal, Pudhucherry State, India
SICA Breweries, Dept. of Microbiology,
Pondicherry, India
Teaching fellow
Senior Research Fellow
Junior Research Fellow
Demonstrator
Project Trainee
2016 - Till date
2015 – 2016
2013 – 2015
2011 – 2013
2009 - 2011
2003 - 2008
2003
Specialization and Research Interests
 Cancer Biology/Cell Signaling
 Radiation Oncology
 Urological Disorders
 Drug Discovery and Delivery
Awards and Honors
 Received best poster award in American Urological Association (AUA) Annual meet.
“ Intravesical Liposomal Tacrolimus Protects Against Radiation Cystitis Induced by 3Beam Targeted Bladder Radiation” – USA, 2015.
 Invited talk on “Advancing cancer survivorship research through multilevel collaborations”
at SASTRA University, School of Chemical and Biotechnology, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India 2015.
 Awarded American
Urological
Association
Research
Scholars
Fellowship,
from
American Urological Association (AUA) ($80,000 for 2 years, 2014-2016), USA – 2014.
 Outstanding Contribution Award from the Congress of Urological Research and
Education on Aging Underactive Bladder (CURE-UAB), Washington DC, USA-2014.
 Got selected for the “AUA Early Career Investigator Workshop 2014-January” organized by
American Urological Association (AUA) held at the AUA Headquarters, Linthicum, Baltimore,
USA-2014.
 Travel award from AUA to attend “AUA Early Career Investigator Workshop 2014 January” held at the AUA Headquarters, Linthicum, Baltimore, USA-2014.
 Travel award from AUA to present poster in the AUA annual meeting at Orlando,
Florida, USA, 2014.
st
 Organizing member of the 1 International Congress of Urological Research and Education
on Aging Underactive Bladder (CURE-UAB)”. Conference Grant by the National Institute of
Aging in Bethesda, Washington DC, USA-2014.
 Senior Research Fellowship, from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
India (2011-2013).
 Junior Research Fellowship, from the Department of AYUSH, National Medicinal Plants
Board (NMPB), India (2009-2011).
 Organizing committee member of symposium entitled “Molecular Methods in Oncology”,
Dept. of Biochemistry, Vinayaka Mission’s Medical College, karaikal, India – 2007.
 Interactive member of VINPHARMACON – 07, CME programme in Pharmacology, Vinayaka
Mission’s Medical College, karaikal, India – 2007.
 Student Secretary for “Bioclone Association” in the Dept. of Biochemistry, EGS Pillay Arts
and Science College, Nagappatinam, India – 2003.
 Won first prizes for the highest scores in Biochemistry major papers during Master’s
program in the Dept. of Biochemistry, EGS Pillay Arts and Science College, Nagappatinam,
India – 2003.
Professional Training
 Underwent training on Mice/Rat Intravesical instillation technique for drug delivery at
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA (2014).
 Underwent job specific training and testing in the transport, packaging and shipping on
infectious substances and diagnosis specimens at Beaumont Research Institute, USA (2014).
 Underwent training on primary cell culture technique in the Department of Pharmacology
and Chemical Biology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA (2013).
 Underwent training for Stem cell culture technique in Wayne State University, Michigan, USA
(2013).
 Underwent training on rat Intravesical instillation (for drug delivery) at Dept. of Urology,
Research Institute, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, USA (2013).
 Attended Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training (Animal handling),
Confocal microscopy and Flow cytometry at Oakland University William Beaumont School of
Medicine, USA (2013).
 Underwent training for Category II radiolabeled substance user status at Oakland
University William Beaumont School of Medicine, USA (2013).
 Underwent training on Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP), in the Dept. of
Radiation Oncology at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, USA (2013).
 Attended symposium/workshop on Hands-on Neuromodulation: Sacral, Pudendal, Tibial,
Botulinum Toxin, Pelvic Pain, organized by Oakland University William Beaumont School of
Medicine, USA (2013).
 Underwent training on radioactive substances based assays in Rajiv Gandhi Centre
for Biotechnology (RGCB), Trivandrum, Kerala, India (2010).
 Attended State level symposium/ workshop on Genetic Engineering and Bioinformatics
organized by Dept. of Biochemistry and Applied Microbilogy, RVS Arts and Science College,
(demonstrated western blot analysis and qPCR to M.Sc Biochemistry students) (2008).
Positions and Membership in Professional Organizations








Editor – Austin Biochemistry (Austin publishing group), New Jersey, USA
Guest Editor and Reviewer for International Urology and Nephrology
Reviewer for Hindawi publications (BioMed Research International)
Reviewer for SCIENCEDOMAIN International (British Journal of Medicine and Medical
Research)
Authorized Category II radiolabeled substance user
Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB)
Society for Industrial Biologists
Molecular and Cell Biology (Biopharmaceutical and Biotechnology R&D)
Conferences/Symposia attended
 Poster presentation and talk on “Use of a small animal image-guided irradiator in the
development of a rat model of Radiation Cystitis” Sarah A. Krueger, Bharathi Rajaganapathy,
Michael B. Chancellor and Brian Marples at (SMART) conference, held at Vancouver,
Canada, 2014.
 Presented poster in American Urological Association (AUA) Annual meet. “3-Beam
Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) model of Radiation Cystitis: An
investigation of functional changes in the bladder”, held at Florida, USA, 2014.
 Presented poster in American Urological Association (AUA) Annual meet. “Agrin- a
novel protein in pathophysiology of LUTS and potential novel urine biomarker, held at
Florida, USA, 2014.
 Visited University of Georgia, to learn Nano particles formulations for drug design and
delivery, Athens, USA – 2013.
 Attended “Biotechnology: UK and Indian perspectives” seminar on Biotechnology organized
by British Council and Anna University – Chennai, 2011.
 Attended international “Chemistry conference” organized by the Dept. of Chemistry IIT,
Madras, India (on structure elucidation of small molecules) – 2011.
 Presented a paper in an National Cancer Biology and development of new chemical
entities conference “Anti-proliferative effect of Alpinia officinarum extracts on MDA
MB- 231 cells and their role in modulating key oncogenes” organized by PSG College of
pharmacy, Coimbatore, India - 2009.
 Participated in CME (VINSTREZ), organized by the Dept. of Physiology, Vinayaka Mission’s
Medical College, karaikal, India – 2007.
Research summary
I completed my PhD in the broad field of biotechnology with special emphasis on drug
discovery. I developed drug screen methods based on cell signaling pathways for the
development of anti-cancer drug. Diaryheptanoid, a bioactive molecule isolated from a
medicinal plant Alpinia Officinarum through bioactivity based column chromatography was
observed to exhibit anti-proliferative, anti-estrogenic and anti-inflammatory activity. Further,
inhibits NF-кB transcriptional activity and induced cell cycle arrest in breast cancer cells and
concluded DAH can act as a therapeutic modality for breast cancer treatment. During my PhD, I
was awarded Junior Research Fellowship from the Dept. of AYUSH (NMPB) and Senior Research
Fellowship from CSIR, India. Both the research was based on screening of medicinal plants for
its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory bioactivity against cancer cell lines and RAW264.7 cells
and a part of the results were published in international journals.
My postdoctoral research is on drug development and delivery for Cancer Survivorship issues
especially on Radiation Cystitis (RC). The research proposal emphases new drug development
(Tacrolimus) testing with Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) focused RC rat
model to demonstrate the treatment efficacy. We developed Tacrolimus as a potential drug
candidate for RC without local tissue toxicity and other systemic toxicity and studied the
inflammatory response of radiation exposed rat model. The research strategy is translational
and designed to facilitate the transition from bench-top to bedside. We successfully developed
a RC rat model and explored intravesical instillation of the drug directly to the bladder and
found Tacrolimus as a potent drug for the treatment of RC. I was awarded an individual
fellowship grant for 80,000 USD for 2 years from the American Urological Association (AUA) to
carry out the research. The results were published in The Journal of Urology and awarded for
best poster in the American Urological Association annual meet 2015.
Selected Peer-reviewed Publications
1. Bharathi Raja R, Tyagi P, Nirmal J, Loan BS, Chancellor MB. “Bladder Uptake of
Liposomes after Intravesical Administration Occurs by Endocytosis”. PLOS ONE,
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122766, 2015. (Impact Factor: 3.0, citation: 5)
2. Bharathi Raja R, Joseph J. Janicki, Peter Levanovich, Pradeep Tyagi, Jason Hafron, Michael B.
Chancellor, Sarah Krueger, Brian Marples, “Intravesical Liposomal Tacrolimus Protects
Against Radiation Cystitis Induced by 3-Beam Targeted Bladder Radiation”, The Journal of
Urology, Vol. 194, 578-584, 2015. (Impact Factor: 4.4, citation: 7)
3. Singaravelu Anand, Bharathi Raja R, Baddireddi Subadra Lakshmi, “Enhancement of glucose
uptake by Ficus hispida methanolic extract through Phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase and
inhibiting aldose reductase–an in vitro analysis”. European Journal of Integrative Medicine,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2014.12.004, 2015. (Impact Factor: 0.7, citation: )
4. Jayabalan Nirmal, Pradeep Tyagi, Yao-Chi Chuang, Wei-Chia Lee, Naoki Yoshimura,
Chao- Cheng Huang, Bharathi Raja R, Michael B. Chancellor. “Functional and Molecular
Characterization of
Hyposensitive
Underactive Bladder
Tissue
and Urine
in
Streptozotocin- Induced Diabetic Rat”. PLOS ONE, Vol 9, Issue 7, 102644, 2014. (Impact
Factor: 3.0, citation: 6)
5. Michael B.Chancellor, Peter Levanovich, Bharathi Raja R, Andrew J. Vereecke. “Optimum
Management of Over Active Bladder: Medication vs. Botox vs. InterStim vs. Urgent PC”.
Urology practice, Vol 1, pp.7-12, 2014. (Impact Factor: , citation: 01)
6. Bharathi Raja R, Nirmal Jayabalan, Tyagi Pradeep, Jonathan Kaufman, Michael B
Chancellor, “Advances in therapeutic development for radiation cystitis.” Lower urinary
tract symptoms. Vol 6, pp.1–10, 2014. (Impact Factor: 0.3 , citation: 04)
7. Bharathi Raja R, Karthikeyan Thirugnanam, Muthusamy Velusamy Shanmuganathan,
Anand Singaravelu and Lakshmi Baddireddi Subadhra, “Molecular basis of the antiinflammatory potential of a Diarylheptanoid in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages.”
Advances in biological chemistry. Vol 3, pp 541-548, 2013. (Impact Factor: 0.6 , citation: 01)
8. Sathya. S, Sudhagar. S, Vidhya Priya. M, Bharathi Raja. R, Muthusamy. V. S, Niranjali. D,
Lakshmi. B. S., “3β-Hydroxylup-20(29)-ene-27, 28-dioic acid dimethyl ester, a novel natural
product from Plumbago zeylanica inhibits the proliferation and migration of MDA-MB-231
cells”, Chemico-Biological Interactions, Vol.188, pp. 412-420, 2010. (Impact Factor: 2.5 ,
citation: 19)
9. Anand, S., Muthusamy, V.S., Sujatha, S., Sangeetha, K.N.,
S., Poornima Devi, N. and Lakshmi, B.S.
Bharathi Raja, R., Sudhagar,
“Aloe emodin glycosides stimulate glucose
transport and glycogen storage through PI3K dependent mechanism in L6 myotubes
and inhibit adipocyte differentiation in 3T3L1 adipocytes”, FEBS letters, Vol.584,
pp. 3170-3178, 2010. (Impact Factor: 3.0 , citation: 24)
10. Muthusamy, V. S. Saravanababu, C. Ramanathan, M. Bharathi Raja, R. Sudhagar, S.
Anand, S. and Lakshmi, B. S. “Inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B and regulation
of insulin signalling markers by caffeoyl derivatives of chicory (Cichorium intybus) salad
leaves”. British Journal of Nutrition, Vol.104, pp.813-823, 2010. (Impact Factor: 3.3 ,
citation: 29)
11. Thirugnanam karthikeyan Mariappan Pravin, Velusamy shanmuganathan muthusamy,
Bharathi Raja R, Baddireddi Subadra Lakshmi, “In vivo investigation of the
immunomodulatory potential
of
probiotic
lactobacillus
casei”.
Probiotics and
Antimicrobial proteins, Vol 5, pp 51-58, 2013. (Impact Factor: citation: 01)
Total h-Index - 4
Projects worked and Research Support
 Exploring the Molecular Mechanism of Inflammatory Response in a New Rat Model of
Radiation Cystitis.
Title
: American Urological Association Research Scholar
Agency : American Urological Association (AUA), USA
Type
: Sponsored Research, 2014-2015
 Studying the multifunctional bioactivity of medicinal plants and the isolated active molecule
in cancer cell signaling- invitro.
Title
: Senior Research Fellow
Agency : Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India
Type
: Sponsored Research, 2010 -2013
 Bioactivity based screening of medicinal plants in south India for Inflammation associated
Cancer.
Title
: Junior Research Fellow
Agency : Dept. of AYUSH, NMPB, India
Type
: Sponsored Research, 2009 -2011
Worked on NIH grants during postdoctoral training
Title
: Co-Investigator
Type
: Sponsored Research, 2013-2015
Project Titles

Biomarkers Characteristic to Interstitial Cysitis (HIC 2009-218).

MEDTRONIC: Urine Biomarkers for Over Active Bladder (HIC 2012-143).

Genetics and Epigenetics in Patients with Interstitial Cysitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome (HIC
2014-40).

Analysis of urine specimen onabotulinumtoxin A vs oral oxybutynin (HIC 2012-280).

Radiation Hemorrhagic Cystitis.

Intravesical liposome drug delivery to treat interstitial cystitis.