Dr Nagaraja Ganachari-Mallappa
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Division of Investigative Pathology
Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic and
The Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
Phone: 254-743-1212
Fax: 254-743-0247
Email: Ganachari-Mallappa@medicine.tamhsc.edu
nganacharimallappa@swmail.sw.org

Education
1985 - B.Sc., Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics from University of Mysore, India
1987 - M.Sc., Biochemistry from University of Mysore, India
1990 - M.Phil., Biosciences from Mangalore University, India
2000 - Ph.D., Biotechnology from University of Mysore, India

Summary of Research Interests
My research interests are to characterize genes and pathophysiological mechanisms that initiate and progression of breast and pancreatic cancers to define new approaches for therapy to treat these cancers.

A number of genes involved in the processes of growth, proliferation, apoptosis and DNA repair have aberrant expression in tumor cells. Cancer cells are known to spread preferentially to various distant organs and ultimately develop metastasis. Metastasis is major cause of the decline in the quality of life of many cancer patients. However, to date, the exact cause of cancer is unknown. Lack of this knowledge is an important problem, because without it we will not be able to capitalize on the strategy of harnessing this cost effective therapy in the cure of many devastating cancers including breast and pancreatic cancers. The major goal of my cancer research program is to characterize genes and pathophysiological mechanisms that initiate and progression of this malignancy is critical to define new approaches for therapy. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a group of physiologically-essential, highly-conserved, proteins that are induced by heat shock as well as by other environmental and pathophysiological stresses. Hsp27 is highly expressed in tumor tissues of patients diagnosed with breast and pancreatic cancer, and overexpression also confirmed in varieties of cancers. My research program investigates the detailed mechanism(s) by which Hsp27 contributes to tumor cell survival in vivo and also understanding the role of Hsp27 in drug resistance mechanism in breast and pancreatic cancer. Once such mechanism is available to understand how Hsp25/27 regulates tumorigenesis, in order to develop new therapeutic approaches to prevent cancer.

Publications

• Nagaraja GM, Kaur P, Neumann W, Asea EE, Bausero MA, Multhoff G, Asea A. 2012. Silencing hsp25/hsp27 gene expression augments proteasome activity and increases CD8+ T cell-mediated tumor killing and memory responses. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 5:122-137 (Figure featured on journal cover).
• Kaur P, Nagaraja GM, Asea, A. 2011. Combined lentiviral and RNAi technologies for the delivery and permanent silencing of the hsp25 gene. Meth Mol Biol 787:121-36.
• Nagaraja GM, Kaur P, Zheng H, Bausero MA, Multhoff G, Asea A. 2011. Hsp25 is a repressor of PA28α and prohibitin: role in tumor growth and antigen presentation. Can. Preven. Res.
• Hurwitz MD, Kaur P, Nagaraja GM, Bausero MA, Manola J, and Asea A. 2010. Radiation Therapy Induces Circulating Serum Hsp72 in Patients with Prostate Cancer. Radiother Oncol. 95(3):350-8.
• Zheng H, Nagaraja GM, Kaur P, Asea EE, and Asea A. 2009.Chaperokine Function of Recombinant Hsp72 Produced in Insect Cells using a Baculovirus Expression System is Intact. J. Biol. Chem. 285(1): 349-56.
• Nagaraja GM and Asea A. 2010.Heat Shock Proteins and Cancer. In Heat Shock Proteins and Whole Body Physiology, A Asea, BK Pedersen, eds. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, Volume 5, pp 121-134.
• Gross C, Holler E, Stangl S, Dickinson A, Pockley AG, Asea AA, Mallappa N, and Multhoff G. 2008. An Hsp70 Peptide Initiates NK Cell Killing of Leukemic Blasts after Stem Cell Transplantation. Leuk. Res. 32: 527-3.
• Nagaraja GM, Othman M, Fox BP, Alsaber R, Pellegrino CM, Zeng Y, Khanna R, Tamburini P, Swaroop A, and Kandpal RP. 2006. Gene Expression Signatures and Biomarkers of Noninvasive and Invasive Breast Cancer Cells: Comprehensive Profiles by Representational Difference Analysis, Microarrays, and Proteomics. Oncogene 25: 2328-38.
• Nagaraja GM and Asea A. 2006. Heat Shock Proteins, Function, and Immunobiology. In: Heat Shock Proteins in Biology and Medicine. Vol 1. G.Multhoff and J.Radons, eds. Research Signpost Press, Kerala, India: 1-16.
• Nagaraja GM, Mahesh G, Satish V, Madhu M, Muthulakshmi M, and Nagaraju J. 2005.  Genetic Mapping of Z Chromosome and Identification of W Chromosome-specific Markers in the Silkworm, Bombyx mori. Heredity 95: 148-57.
• Nagaraja GM and Kandpal RP. 2004. Chromosome 13q12-encoded Rho GTPase Activating Protein Suppresses Growth of Breast Carcinoma Cells and Yeast Two-hybrid Screen Shows its Interaction with Several Proteins. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 313: 654-65.