Ayyappan K. Rajasekaran, Ph.D.

Director, Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research

Contact

Rajasekaran

Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research
Rockland Center I-242
Department of Biomedical Research
A.I. duPont Hospital for Children
1600 Rockland Road
Wilmington, DE 19803

Phone: (302) 651-6593
Fax: (302) 651-6897
E-mail: araj@medsci.udel.edu

Education

B.S., M.S.: University of Madras, India
Ph.D.: Indian Institute of Science, India

Research Interests

• Role of Na,K-ATPase in epithelial cell development and cancer
• Biogenesis of tight junctions and desmosomes
• Role of Na,K-ATPase in cell signaling
• Biology of prostate specific membrane antigen

Current Projects

• Understanding the role or Na,K-ATPase in epithelial morphogenesis and cancer
• Investigations on the intracellular trafficking and the function of prostate specific membrane antigen

Research Group

• Sonali Barwe, Ph.D. - Assistant Research Scientist. Studying the mechanism of cell-cell adhesion function of Na,K-ATPase.
• Thu Huynh - Graduate Student. Studying the role and regulation of Na,K-ATPase Beta-subunit in Cancer Cells.

Selected Publications

Olson W.C., W.D. Heston and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Clinical trials of cancer therapies targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen. Reviews on Recent Clinical Trials (in press).

Rajasekaran S.A. and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition. Cancer Encyclopedia (in press).

Goodman, Jr O.B., S.P. Barwe, P. McPherson, J.H. Keen, A. Vasko, D.M. Nanus, N.H. Bander, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Interaction of prostate specific membrane antigen with clathrin and the adaptor protein complex-2. Int J Oncol. (in press).

Cui X., L. Zhang, A.K. Rajasekaran, S. Hazra, N. Cacalano, S.M. Dubinett (2007). Unphosphorylated STAT6 contributes to constitutive cyclooxygenase-2 expression in human non-small cell lung cancer. Oncogene 26:4253-4260.

Barwe S.P., R.S. Maul, J.J. Christiansen, G. Anilkumar, C.R. Cooper, D.B. Kohn, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Preferential association of prostate cancer cells expressing prostate specific membrane antigen to bone marrow matrix. Int J Oncol. 30:899-904.

Barwe S.P., S. Kim, S.A. Rajasekaran, J. Bowie, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Janus model of the Na,K-ATPase β-subunit transmembrane domain and its implications in α/β assembly and β-β homo-oligomerization. J Mol Biol. 365:706-714.

Rajasekaran S.A., S.P. Barwe, J. Gopal, S. Ryazantsev, E.E. Schneeberger, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2007). Na,K-ATPase regulates tight junction permeability through occludin phosphorylation in pancreatic epithelial cells. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 292:G124-G133.

Barwe, S.P., S.A. Rajasekaran, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2006). Identification of protein kinase C (PKC) as an intermediate in lamellipodia formation and suppression of cell motility in Na,K-ATPase β-subunit expressing cells. Cell Mol Biol. 52:41-47.

Christiansen, J.J., T. Weimbs, N. Bander and A.K. Rajasekaran (2006). Differing effects of microtubule depolymerizing and stabilizing chemotherapeutic agents in t-SNARE mediated apical targeting of Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen. Mol Cancer Ther. 5:2468-2473.

Christiansen, J.J. and A.K. Rajasekaran (2006). Reassessing epithelial to mesenchymal transition as a prerequisite for carcinoma invasion and metastasis. Cancer Res. 66:8319-8326.

Anilkumar G., S.P. Barwe, J.J. Christiansen, S.A. Rajasekaran, D.B. Kohn, and A.K. Rajasekaran (2006). Association of prostate specific membrane antigen with caveolin-1 and its caveolae-dependent internalization in microvascular endothelial cells: implications for targeting to tumor vasculature. Microvasc Res. 72:54-61.

Liu W., S.D. Konduri, B.K. Nayak, S. Bansal, S.A. Rajasekaran, P. Srivastava, B.K. Abraham, H. Brauch, P. Fritz, M. Karuppayil, A.K. Rajasekaran, and G.M. Das (2006). Repression of p53 function by direct interaction with oestrogen receptor-α. J Biol Chem. 281:9837-9840.