Short CV
- 1996 - present
Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biophysics, University of Michigan - 1993 - 1996
Research Associate, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania - 1992 - 1993
Scientist, Biometrology Laboratory, JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan - 1989 - 1992
Fellow Scientist, Central Leather Research Institute, India - 1990
Ph.D. Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
Selected Awards
- 2013, Robert W. Parry Collegiate Professor, University of Michigan
- 2012, Faculty Recognition Award, University of Michigan
- 2009, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- 2009, Willsmore Fellow, University of Melbourne
- 2009, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow
- 1999-2004, CAREER Development Award, National Science Foundation
Research Interests
Development of medicine to cure aging-related diseases (like Alzheimer's disease, type-2 diabetes, Parkinson disease etc) is severely limited by the challenges in fully understanding the misfolding, aggregation, and toxicity of amyloid proteins. Understanding high-resolution structures formed in the misfolding pathway and mechanisms of their toxicity can provide valuable insights into the factors that control amyloid diseases.
Our research group is primarily focused on solving the high-resolution structures of oligomeric intermediates of amyloid proteins (such as amyloid-beta and amylin (or IAPP)) and investigating their membrane interactions that are linked to cell toxicity by using a combination of solution and solid-state NMR and other biophysical techniques. Some of the specific topics include:
1. Misfolding, aggregation, and cell toxicity of human islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP).
2. Mechanisms of membrane disruption by amyloid-beta (related to Alzheimer's Disease) and IAPP (implicated in type-2 diabetes).
3. Atomic-level resolution structures and dynamics of amyloid protein intermediates by NMR.
4. Effects of amyloid inhibitors on the structure and toxicity of abeta and IAPP.
Selected Publications
- Huang, Rui; Yamamoto, Kazutoshi; Zhang, Meng; Popovych, Nataliya; Hung, Ivan; Im, Sang-Choul; Gan, Zhehong; Waskell, Lucy; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: Probing the transmembrane structure and dynamics of microsomal NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase by solid-state NMR. Biophysical journal 106 (10), 2014, 2126-2133.
- Kotler, Samuel A.; Walsh, Patrick; Brender, Jeffrey R.; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: Differences between amyloid-\textgreek{b} aggregation in solution and on the membrane: insights into elucidation of the mechanistic details of Alzheimer's disease. Chemical Society reviews 43 (19), 2014, 6692-6700.
- Hyung, Suk-Joon; DeToma, Alaina S.; Brender, Jeffrey R.; Lee, Sanghyun; Vivekanandan, Subramanian; Kochi, Akiko; Choi, Jung-Suk; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy; Ruotolo, Brandon T.; Lim, Mi Hee: Insights into antiamyloidogenic properties of the green tea extract (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate toward metal-associated amyloid-\textgreek{b} species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (10), 2013, 3743-3748.
- Yamamoto, Kazutoshi; Dürr, Ulrich H N; Xu, Jiadi; Im, Sang-Choul; Waskell, Lucy; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: Dynamic interaction between membrane-bound full-length cytochrome P450 and cytochrome b5 observed by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Scientific reports 3, 2013, 2538.
- Ahuja, Shivani; Jahr, Nicole; Im, Sang-Choul; Vivekanandan, Subramanian; Popovych, Nataliya; Le Clair, Stéphanie V; Huang, Rui; Soong, Ronald; Xu, Jiadi; Yamamoto, Kazutoshi; Nanga, Ravi P.; Bridges, Angela; Waskell, Lucy; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: A model of the membrane-bound cytochrome b5-cytochrome P450 complex from NMR and mutagenesis data. The Journal of biological chemistry 288 (30), 2013, 22080-22095.
- Brender, Jeffrey R.; Salamekh, Samer; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: Membrane disruption and early events in the aggregation of the diabetes related peptide IAPP from a molecular perspective. Accounts of chemical research 45 (3), 2012, 454-462.
- Sciacca, Michele F M; Kotler, Samuel A.; Brender, Jeffrey R.; Chen, Jennifer; Lee, Dong-Kuk; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: Two-step mechanism of membrane disruption by A\textgreek{b} through membrane fragmentation and pore formation. Biophysical journal 103 (4), 2012, 702-710.
- Dürr, Ulrich H N; Gildenberg, Melissa; Ramamoorthy, Ayyalusamy: The magic of bicelles lights up membrane protein structure. Chemical reviews 112 (11), 2012, 6054-6074.
Publications as TUM-IAS-Fellow