EDUCATION
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Intein Biology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Bacterial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
- PhD in Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
COURSES TAUGHT AT ACPHS
- General Biology I & II Laboratory
- Microbiology Laboratory
- Advanced Topics in Microbiology
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to human, animals and the environment. My primary research interest is understanding the genetic basis of antibiotic resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a gram positive pathogen that causes nearly 11,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. My research focuses on the role of SOS and stress (ROS, antibiotic) response in acquisition of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. Bacterial DNA damage stress response, also known as SOS response, includes a conserved set of genes that are induced under DNA damaging conditions. Among these are genes involved in DNA repair pathway and error-prone polymerases. The increased expression of error-prone polymerase result in increased rate of mutations, which contribute to antibiotic resistance. RecA and LexA are the main modulators of this SOS response. Two main projects in the lab are: 1) Studying the effect of RecA inhibitors on the emergence of antibiotic resistance; 2) Identifying genes that play a role in SOS and stress response using a transposon mutant library. These studies will help us understand the pathogenicity and the mechanism of antibiotic resistance in MRSA and provide insights for the development of new therapeutics.
PUBLICATIONS
- Brown S*, Jayachandran P*, Negesse M, Olmo V, Vital E and Brewster R., Rgma-induced proteolysis promotes neural tube morphogenesis, The Journal of Neuroscience, 2019 (* Co-authors)
- Ruecker N, Jansen R, Trujillo C, Puckett S, Jayachandran P, Piroli G, Frizzel N, Molina H, Rhee K and Ehrt S., Fumarase deficiency causes protein and metabolite succination and intoxicates Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cell Chemical Biology, 2017
- Jayachandran P, Olmo V, Sanchez S, McFarland R, Vidal E, Werner J, Hong E, Sanchez-Alberola N, Molodstov M, and Brewster R., Microtubule-associated protein 1b is required for shaping the neural tube, Neural Development. 2016
- Topilina N*, Green C*, Jayachandran P*, Kelley D, Stanger M, Piazza C, Nayak S, and Belfort M., The SufB intein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a sensor for oxidative and nitrosative stress. PNAS, 2015 (* Co-authors)
- Novikova O, Jayachandran P, Morton Z, Merwin S, Topilina N and Belfort M., DNA metabolizing enzymes as sinks for inteins. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2015
- Jayachandran P, Hong E, Brewster R., Labeling and imaging cells in zebrafish hindbrain. J Vis Exp. 2010
- Hong E, Jayachandran P, Brewster R., The polarity protein Pard3 is required for centrosome positioning during neurulation. Dev Biol. 2010