Ramaswamy Narayanan Professor, Biological Sciences Department Associate Dean for Research and Industrial relations Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Integrative Biology Ph.D. program Office: SC 216 Tel: (561) 297 2018 Fax: 561 297 2099 E-Mail: rnarayan@fau.edu

Research Program

Molecular aspects of transformation; Oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and transcription factors; Differentiation, cell-cycle and apoptosis; Antisense and gene therapy; Targeted drug delivery and pro-drug development; Bioinformatics and functional genomics.

My laboratory is primarily interested in the molecular biological aspects of cancer. There is a strong genetic element associated with the development of cancer. While in the past cancer treatment was approached by use of drugs that would kill rapidly growing cells, recent advances in the molecular biology of cancer has opened up new avenues .Thus instead of phenomenological approaches, increasingly rational molecular targets are being explored for cancer control.

The efforts of human genome sequences are expected to lead to the discovery of 100,000 new genes within the next few years. In order to translate this massive amount of genetic information (Bioinformatics) into a meaningful reality, it is essential to learn to reduce the number of genes for follow-up study. This involves laboratory validation of the chosen genes from the data base, expression profiling in cell culture models, establishing relevance (functional genomics), understanding diagnostic Vs. therapeutic implications of the target and providing a rational basis for genes to drugs paradigm.

Using cancers of breast, prostate, lung, pancreas and colon as model we use Bioinformatics approaches to target identification and validation to enable drug discovery for cancer treatment.

Education

1980 Ph.D National University of Ireland, Dublin. Thesis - Factors influencing prostaglandin biosynthesis in ovine seminal vesicular membranes

Recent Publications

R. Narayanan, J.F. Klement, S.M. Rubin, K.A. Higgins & C.A. Rosen : Identification of a naturally occurring transforming variant of the p65 subunit of NF-kB : Science: 256: 367-370, 1992 .

R.Narayanan : Antisense therapy of cancer : In Vivo : 8: 787-794, 1994.

J.Y. Maltese, H.W.Sharma & R. Narayanan : Sequence context of antisense Rel A/ NF-kB phosphorothioate determines specificity : Nucleic. Acid Res : 7: 1146-1151, 1995.

H.W.Sharma, J.A.Sokaloski, J.R.Perez, A.C.Sartorelli & R.Narayanan : Differentiation of immortal cells inhibit telomerase activity : proc. natl. Acad. Sci. USA : 92: 12343-12346, 1996.

R.Narayanan : Harnessing the power of antisense for combination chemotherapy : J. of Natl. Cancer Inst. 89: 107-108, 1997 .

S.Ramakrishnan,H.W.Sharma,A.D.Farris,K.M.Kaufman &R.Narayanan: Characterization of human telomerase complex. Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci.USA 94: 10075-10079,1997.

S.Ramakrishnan, U.Eppenberger, H.Mueller,Y.Shinkai & R.Narayanan : Expression profile of the putative catalytic subunit of telomerase gene . Cancer Res. 58: 622-625, 1998 .

J. Elek, K.Park& R.Narayanan: Microarray based expression profiling in prostate tumors. In Vivo, 14: 173-182, 2000

J.Elek, W.Pinzon, K.Park &R.Narayanan: Relevant genomics of neurotensin receptor in cancer. Anticancer Res. 20: 53-58, 2000

D. Scheurle, M. Jahanzeb, R. S. Aronsohn, Laura Watzek, and R. Narayanan: HER-2/neu expression in archival non-small cell lung carcinomas using FDA-approved HercepTest, Anticancer Res. 20: 2091-2096, 2000.

D. Scheurle, M. P. DeYoung, D. M. Binninger, H. Page, M. Jahanzeb and R. Narayanan: Cancer gene discovery using digital differential display. Cancer Res. 60: 4037-4043 2000

DeYoung MP, Damania H, Scheurle D, Zylberberg C and Narayanan R: Bioinformatics based discovery of a novel factor with apparent specificity to colon cancer. In Vivo, 16:239-248,2002

DeYoung MP, Scheurle D, Damania H, Zylberberg C and Narayanan R: Down's Syndrome-Associated Single Minded Gene As A Novel Tumor Marker Anticancer Research, 22: 3149-3158, 2002

DeYoung MP, Tress M, and Narayanan R: Identification of Down’s Syndrome Critical Locus gene SIM2 as a novel drug therapy target for solid tumors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100: 4760-4765, 2003.

DeYoung MP, Tress M, and Narayanan R: Down’s syndrome associated Single Minded gene 2 as a pancreatic cancer drug therapy target. Cancer Letters , 200, 25-31, 2003.

Mining genome databases for therapeutic gold: SIM2 is a novel target for treatment of solid tumors.
Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2003 Oct;24 (10):508-10.

Mouse-to-Mouse Revelation: Genome Yields Cancer Drug Target. Genome News network, April, 03.

Patents:

Methods of detecting a colon cancer cell- US patent approved, Jan 04 ( 6,677,119)