Institute of Molecular Medicine

Institute of Molecular Medicine
254 Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III
New Delhi: 110020, India
Phone: 011-41028710
Fax: 011-41028709
Email: selvapandiyan@immindia.org

M.Sc. University of Madras, Chennai, India (1983).
Ph.D. Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India (1988).
PDF (Diagnostics and Vaccine Development for Leishmaniasis), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Bethesda, MD, USA (1999-2002).

Career History:
Feb 2009 – present, Team Lead; Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi, India.
2003-2009, Staff Scientist, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, FDA/CBER, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
1999-2003, Visiting Scientist, (DETTD), FDA/CBER, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
1998-1999, Senior Research Scientist, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India.
1988-1997, Support Scientist, (ICGEB), New Delhi, India.

Centre Director’s Award of Scientific Achievement2009; FDA/CBER, USA
‘Group Recognition Award’ presented to Chagas Disease Donor Screening Biological License Application Review Group by Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research/FDA -2007
‘NIH FARE 2002’ award for Research Excellence’
Reward and Recognition Awards from 2003-2008 from CBER/FDA/Department of Health and Human Services (USA).
Development of Live Attenuated Vaccines for Intracellular Pathogenic Diseases:
Protozoan parasites like Plasmodium and Leishmania are some of the intracellular pathogens causing a variety of diseases in mammals world wide. Some of these diseases are fatal. Until now there is no single licensed vaccine against any of the parasitic infections. Attempts to develop vaccines for such parasitic agents such as heat killed, long term cultured, irradiated, chemically mutated, subunit or DNA vaccines did not result in a successful vaccine candidate which could be tested in humans. However, there is an increasing consensus among parasite vaccine researchers that parasite persistence may be important for effective protective response and can be achieved by live attenuated parasite immunization.

Many successful vaccines are live attenuated pathogens that do not cause disease but retain replication and immunogenic properties and protect host from reinfection. Examples for live viral vaccines: measles, mumps, rubella, polio and influenza; live bacterial vaccines: Mycobacteria (BCG) and oral typhoid and cholera vaccines. Hence, the current research focus of my team is to develop live attenuated vaccine candidates against intracellular parasites.

My work on developing live vaccines against parasitic infections, started at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, USA, where I was involved in developing an attenuated vaccine candidate against Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL). VL causes significant morbidity and mortality and is a very serious public health problem. In India alone, about 100,000 cases of VL are estimated to occur annually, of which the State of Bihar accounts for more than 90% of the cases. We have developed a centrin gene deleted L. donovani (LdCen1-/-) that has a defect in amastigote (macrophage intracellular stage) replication both in vitro and ex-vivo in human macrophages (Selvapandiyan et al 2004). Mice and hamsters immunized with LdCen1-/- showed attenuated parasite does not survive beyond 5 weeks in the host and induces a protective immune response against virulent challenge. The protection was long lasting signifying a sustained immunity (Selvapandiyan et al 2009). These studies indicate that LdCen1-/- can be a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine candidate against VL. Further efforts to confirm its efficacy as a vaccine in nonhuman primates are underway. Meanwhile we at IMM, New Delhi will focus on generating more such attenuated vaccine lines for the Leishmania infection and extend similar conceptual strategies to diseases due to other intracellular pathogens.

Live attenuated Leishmania vaccines. US patent number: WO 2005/021030
Detection and Discrimination of Hepatitis C virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 and Hepatitis B Virus. US patent number: WO 2007/084567
Selvapandiyan, A., R. Dey, S. Nylen, R. Duncan, D. Sacks and H. L. Nakhasi 2009. Intracellular replication deficient Leishmania donovani induces long lasting protective immunity against visceral leishmaniasis.
J Immunol 183:1813-1820.

Selvapandiyan, A*., R. Duncan, J. Mendez, R. Kumar, P. Salotra, L. J. Cardo, H. L, Nakhasi. 2008. A Leishmania minicircle DNA footprint assay for sensitive detection and rapid sepciation of clinical isolates: Transfusion 48:1787-1798. (*Corresponding author)

Mahajan B., A. Selvapandiyan, N. J. Gerald, V. Majam, H. Zheng, J. Tiwari, H. Fujioka, K. Moch, N. Kumar, H. L. Nakhasi and S. Kumar. 2008. Centrins, Cell Cycle Regulation Proteins in Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum. J Biol Chem 283:31871-31883.

Kanswal S., N. Katsenelson, A. Selvapandiyan, R. J. Bram and M. Akkoyunlu. 2008. Deficient TACI expression on B lymphocytes of newborn mice leads to defective immunoglobulin secretion in response to BAFF or APRIL J Immunol 181:976-990.

Lee, N., G. Sreenivas, A. Selvapandiyan and A. Debrabant. 2007. Characterization of metacaspases with trypsin-like activity and their role in programmed cell death in the protozoan parasite Leishmania. Eukaryotic Cell 6:1745-1757.

Selvapandiyan, A*., P. Kumar, James. C. Morris, C. C. Wang and H. L. Nakhasi. 2007. Centrin1 controls organelle segregation and cytokinesis in Trypanosoma brucei. Mol Bio Cell 18:3290-3321. (*Corresponding author)

Selvapandiyan, A*., K. Stabler, A. A. Ansari, S. Kerby, J. Riemenschneider, P. Salotra, R. Duncan, H. L. Nakhasi. 2005. Fluorescence-based multiplex PCR assay for rapid simultaneous detection of bacterial and parasitic pathogens. J Mol Diagn 7(2):268-275. (*Corresponding author)

Selvapandiyan, A., A. Debrabant, R. Duncan, J. Muller, P. Salotra, G. Sreenivas, J. L. Salisbury, H. L. Nakhasi. 2004. Centrin gene disruption impairs stage-specific basal body duplication and cell cycle progression in Leishmania. J Biol Chem 2004 279(24):25703-10.

Rajagopal, R., N. Agrawal, A. Selvapandiyan, S. Sivakumar, S. Ahmad and R. K. Bhatnagar. 2002. Recombinantly expressed isozymic aminopeptidases from Helicoverpa armigera midgut display differential interaction with closely related cry proteins. Biochem J 370: 971-978.

Selvapandiyan, A., R. Duncan, A. Debrabant, S. Bertholet, G. Sreenivas, N. Negi, P. Salotra and H. L. Nakhasi. 2001. Expression of a mutant centrin of Leishmania donovani reduces the growth of the parasite. J Biol Chem 276 (16): 43253-43261.

Selvapandiyan, A., N. Arora, R. Rajagopal. S. K. Jalali. T. Venkatesan. S. P. Singh and R.K. Bhatnagar. 2001. Toxicity analysis of N- and C-terminal deleted vagetative insecticidal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis. Appl Environ Microbiol 2001 67(12): 5855-8.

Selvapandiyan, A., V. S. Reddy, P. A. Kumar, K. K. Tewari, and R. K. Bhatnagar. 1998. Transformation of Nicotiana tobacum with a native cry 1Ia5 gene confers complete protection against Heliothis armigera. Mol Breed 4: 473-478.

Selvapandiyan A., S. Ahmad, K. Majumder and R. K. Bhatnagar. 1996. Evidence for the shikimate-3-phosphate interacting site in the N-terminal domain of 5-enolpyruvyl shikimate-3-phosphate synthase of Bacillus subtilis. Biochem Mol Biol Intl 40:603-610

Selvapandiyan A., K. Majumder, F. A. Fattah, S. Ahmed, N. Arora & R. K. Bhatnagar. 1995. Point mutation of a conserved arginine (104) to lysine introduces hypersensitivity to inhibition by glyphosate in the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3- phosphate synthase of Bacillus subtilis. FEBS letters 374:253- 256.

Majunder, K., A. Selvapandiyan, F. A. Fattah, N. Arora and R. K. Bhatnagar. 1995. 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase of Bacillus subtilis is an allosteric enzyme. Eur J Biochem 229:99-106.

Selvapandiyan, A. and R. K. Bhatnagar. 1994. Cloning of Genes Encoding for C-P Lyase from Pseudomonas Isolates PG 2982 and GLCII: Identification of a Cryptic Allele on the Chromosome of P. aeroginosa. Curr Microbiol 29:255-261

Selvapandiyan A. and R.K. Bhatnagar. 1994. Isolation of a glyphosate metabolizing Pseudomonas: Detection, partial purification and localization of C-P lyase. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol 40:876-882.

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