Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Part-Time Professor
Biography

Research Interests

Dr. Anantharam is primarily employed at PK Biosciences Corporation and Probiome Therapeutics as the Chief Scientific Officer. After recently being recruited, he is currently the Part-Time Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Georgia, Athens.  He has a broad background and over 30 years of research experience in molecular neurobiology, neuropharmacology and neurotoxicology. His research focuses on neurodegenerative diseases and neurotoxicology, specifically, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, protein aggregation, neuroinflammation and apoptosis in neurotoxicity models of Parkinson’s and prion diseases. During his research career, he has published more than 190 peer reviewed research papers. With his primary focus being translational research, he has extensive experience with the science of developing neuroprotective drugs and testing their efficacy in both cell culture and animal models of neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative diseases with the goal of advancing them for further preclinical and clinical evaluations.  

Educational Background

Bangalore University, INDIA B.S. 1980 Chemistry 
Bangalore University, INDIA M.S. 1982 Biochemistry 
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA Ph.D. 1987 Molecular Biophysics  
Johns Hopkins Medical School Post-doc 1990 Membrane-Cell Biology  

Activities

09/21 – Present Part-Time Professor, Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Univ. of Georgia, Athens.

08/20 – Present Chief Scientific Officer, Probiome Therapeutics Inc., Ames, IA.

07/06 – Present Chief Scientific Officer, PK Biosciences Corporation, Ames, IA.

07/06 – 8/21 Associate Professor (Research), Biomedical Sciences, CVM, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.

07/00 – 6/06 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

07/99 – 11/99 Assistant Specialist, Dept. of Community and Environmental Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA.

09/97 – 06/99 Senior Scientist, Drug Discovery Division, Axiom Biotechnologies Inc., San Diego, CA.

08/95 – 08/97 Assistant Professor (Research), Dept. of Physiological Science,

Selected Publications

Huang M, Lou D, Charli A, Kong D, Jin H, Zenitsky G, Anantharam V, Kanthasamy A, Wang Z, Kanthasamy AG. 2021. Mitochondrial dysfunction-induced H3K27 hyperacetylation perturbs enhancers in Parkinson’s disease. JCI Insight. 6(17): e138088. PMCID: PMC8492320. 

Ghaisas S, Harischandra DS, Palanisamy B, Proctor A, Jin H, Dutta S, Sarkar S, Langley M, Zenitsky G, Anantharam V, Kanthasamy A, Phillips GJ, Kanthasamy A. 2021. Chronic Manganese Exposure and the Enteric Nervous System: An in Vitro and Mouse in Vivo Study. Environ Health Perspect. 129(8): 87005. PMCID: PMC8375672. 

Manne S, Kondru N, Jin H, Serrano GE, Anantharam V, Kanthasamy A, Adler CH, Beach TG and Kanthasamy AG, 2020. Blinded RT-QuIC analysis of α-synuclein biomarker in skin tissue from Parkinson’s Disease patients. Movement Disorders, 35(12):2230-2239. PMCID: PMC7749035. 

Sarkar S, Nguyen HM, Malovic E, Luo J, Langley M, Palanisamy BN, Singh N, Manne S, Neal M, Gabrielle M, Abdalla A, Anantharam P, Rokad D, Panicker N, Singh V, Ay M, Charli A, Harischandra D, Jin LW, Jin H, Rangaraju S, Anantharam V, Wulff H, Kanthasamy AG. 2020. Kv1.3 modulates neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. J Clin Invest. 130(8):4195-4212. PMCID: PMC7410064. 

Sarkar, S., Nguyen, H. M., Malovic, E., Luo, J., Langley, M., Palanisamy, B. N., Anantharam V … & Kanthasamy, A. G. (2020). Kv1. 3 modulates neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. The Journal of clinical investigation, 130(8), 4195-4212.  

Ghaisas S, Langley MR, Palanisamy BN, Dutta S, Narayanaswamy K, Plummer PJ, Sarkar S, Ay M, Jin H, Anantharam V, Kanthasamy A, Kanthasamy AG. 2019.  MitoPark transgenic mouse model recapitulates the gastrointestinal dysfunction and gut-microbiome changes of Parkinson’s disease. Neurotoxicology. 75:186-199. PMCID: PCM7048412. 

Panicker N, Sarkar S, Harischandra DS, Neal M, Kam TI, Jin H, Saminathan H, Langley M, Charli A, Samidurai M, Rokad D, Ghaisas S, Pletnikova O, Dawson VL, Dawson TM, Anantharam V, Kanthasamy AG, Kanthasamy A. 2019. Fyn kinase regulates misfolded α-synuclein uptake and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in microglia. J Exp Med. 216(6):1411-1430. PMC6547864. 

Harischandra, D. S., Rokad, D., Neal, M. L., Ghaisas, S., Manne, S., Sarkar, S., Anantharam V … & Kanthasamy, A. G. (2019). Manganese promotes the aggregation and prion-like cell-to-cell exosomal transmission of α-synuclein. Science signaling, 12(572), eaau4543. 

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