Faculty
Dr. Navin Varadarajan
M.D. Anderson Professor
Office Location S228
Phone 713-743-1691
Fax 713-743-4323
Email nvaradarajan [at] uh.edu
Website http://singlecell.chee.uh.edu
Education
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin (2006)
M.S. Organic Chemistry, India Institute of Science (2001)
B.S. Chemistry, University of Madras (1998)
Courses
Biological and Physical Chemistry (CHEE 3466)
Biomolecular Engineering Fundamentals (CHEE 4366/6360)
Select Topics (CHEE 6397)
Research Interests
Our lab is developing high-throughput screens designed to characterize a wide range of biological functions ranging from the properties of proteins in single cells to antigen mediated cellular cytotoxicity. The development of these assays should serve as versatile platforms for the systemic investigation of B cells and antibodies in autoimmune diseases; characterizing T cell responses in cancer and engineering therapeutic enzymes/antibodies.
Awards & Honors
2017 CDMRP Peer-reviewed Cancer Career Award
2017 MRA Established Investigator Award
2009-Present Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
2006-Present Member, American Chemical Society
1998-2001 Indian Institute of Science, Integrated PhD Fellowship
Selected Publications
- K. L. Wu, M. Martinez-Paniagua, K. Reichel, P. Menon, S. Deo, B. Roysam, and N. Varadarajan, “Automated detection of apoptotic bodies and cells in label-free time-lapse high-throughput video microscopy using deep convolutional neural networks.” Bioinformatics. 39, btad584 [doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btad584], 2023
- M. Fathi, M. Martinez-Paniagua, A. Rezvan, M. J. Montalvo, V. Mohanty, K. Chen, S. A. Mani, and N. Varadarajan, “Identifying signatures of EV secretion in metastatic breast cancer through functional single-cell profiling.” iScience. 26, 106482. [doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106482], 2023
- A. Doshi, I. N. Bandey, D. Nevozhay, N. Varadarajan, and P.C. Cirino, “Design and characterization of a salicylic acid-inducible gene expression system for Jurkat cells.” J Biotechnol. 346, 11-14. [doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2022.01.003], 2022
- F. Sadeghi, M. Kumar, I. N. Bandey, X. Li, B. Roysam, and N. Varadarajan, “Salicylic acid inducible nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of NPR1 fusion proteins in human cells.” Biotechnol Bioeng. 119, 199-210. [doi:10.1002/bit.27966], 2022
- G. Romain, P. Strati, A. Rezvan, M. Fathi, I. N. Bandey, J. R. T. Adolacion, D. Heeke, I. Liadi, M. L. Marques-Piubelli, L. M. Solis, A. Mahendra, F. Vega, L. J. N. Cooper, H. Singh, M. Mattie, A. Bot, S. S. Neelapu, and N. Varadarajan, “Multidimensional single-cell analysis identifies a role for CD2-CD58 interactions in clinical antitumor T cell responses.” J Clin Invest. 132, e159402. [doi:10.1172/JCI159402], 2022
- Y. Li, R. Basar, G. Wang, E. Liu, J. S. Moyes, L. Li, L. N. Kerbauy, N. Uprety, M. Fathi, A. Rezvan, P. P. Banerjee, L. Muniz-Feliciano, T. J. Laskowski, E. Ensley, M. Daher, M. Shanley, M. Mendt, S. Acharya, B. Liu, A. Biederstädt, H. Rafei, X. Guo, L. M. Garcia, P. Lin, S. Ang, D. Marin, K. Chen, L. Bover, R. E. Champlin, N. Varadarajan, E. J. Shpall, and K. Rezvani, “KIR-based inhibitory CARs overcome CAR-NK cell trogocytosis-mediated fratricide and tumor escape.” Nature Med. 28, 2133-2144. [doi:10.1038/s41591-022-02003-x], 2022
- D. S. Yang, A. Saeedi, A. Davtyan, M. Fathi, M. B. Sherman, M. S. Safari, A. Klindziuk, M. C. Barton, N. Varadarajan, A. B. Kolomeisky, and P. G. Vekilov, “Mesoscopic protein-rich clusters host the nucleation of mutant p53 amyloid fibrils.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 118, e2015618118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2015618118, 2021
- I. N. Bandey, J. R. T. Adolacion, G. Romain, M. Martinez-Paniagua, X. An, A. Saeedi, I. Liadi, Z. You, R. B. Rajanayake, P. Hwu, H. Singh, L. J. N. Cooper, and N. Varadarajan, “Designed improvement to T-cell immunotherapy by multidimensional single cell profiling.” J Immunother Cancer. 9, e001877. [doi:10.1136/jitc-2020-001877], 2021
- K. Fousek, J. Watanabe, S. K. Joseph, A. George, X. An, T. T. Byrd, J. S. Morris, A. Luong, M. A. Martínez-Paniagua, K. Sanber, S. A. Navai, A. Z. Gad, V. S. Salsman, P. R. Mathew, H. N. Kim, D. L. Wagner, L. Brunetti, A. Jang, M. L. Baker, N. Varadarajan, M. Hegde, Y. Kim, N. Heisterkamp, H. Abdel-Azim, and N. Ahmed, “CAR T-cells that target acute B-lineage leukemia irrespective of CD19 expression.” Leukemia. 35, 75-89. [doi:10.1038/s41375-020-0792-2], 2021
- X. An, M. Martinez-Paniagua, A. Rezvan, S. R. Sefat, M. Fathi, S. Singh, S. Biswas, M. Pourpak, C. Yee, X. Liu, and N. Varadarajan, “Single-dose intranasal vaccination elicits systemic and mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2.” iScience. 24, 103037. [doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103037], 2021
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Varadarajan N, Cantor J, Georgiou G and Iverson BL, “Construction and flow-cytometric screening of targeted enzyme libraries,” Nature Protocols, 4(6):893-901, 2009
- Varadarajan N, Pogson M, Georgiou G and Iverson BL, “A three color multi-substrate flow-cytometric assay to engineer protease specificity for nitro-tyrosine,” J. Am. Chem. Soc.,131(50):18186-18190. DOI: 10.1021/ja907803k, 2009
- Varadarajan N, Georgiou G, Iverson BL, “Engineered Proteases that Cleave Specifically after Sulfalted Tyrosine for the Detection of Post-Translationally Modified Peptides,” Angew Chem Intl Ed, 47(41):7861, 2008
- Varadarajan N, Rodriguez S, Hwang BY, Georgiou G, Iverson BL, “Engineering a Family of Highly Active and Selective Endopeptidases with Programmed Substrate Specificities,”Nature Chemical Biology, 4(5):290-4, 2008
- Hwang BY, Varadarajan N, Li H, Rodriguez S, Iverson BL, Georgiou G, “Substrate Specificity of the Escherichia coli Outer Membrane Protease OmpP,” J. Bacteriology, 189: 522-30, 2007
- Varadarajan N, Gam J, Olsen MJ, Georgiou G, Iverson BL, “Engineering of protease variants exhibiting high catalytic activity and exquisite substrate selectivity,” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 102:6855-60, 2005