Ramani Ramchandran, Ph.D.

Professor
Division of Neonatology
Department of Pediatrics
Children's Research Institute
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wauwatosa, WI

Primary Research:

We are interested in how vessels are formed during embryonic development, and how this process goes awry in disease states, specifically artery-vein malformation and intraventricular hemorrhage. Our focus is on the endothelial cell and how it communicates with surrounding cells that reside in the microenvironment. We are particularly interested in brain vessel patterning, and the role of the cilia, a microtubule-based organelle that projects from the apical surface of an endothelial cell and is thought to be a flow sensor. Our interest is on the role of endothelial cilia on brain vascular stability.

Laboratory Website: https://childrenswi.org/medical-professionals/research/research-centers-and-programs/vascular-biology-and-hematology-research/developmental-vascular-biology

Members of the laboratory: 

Allison Gerk, BS (Rotation Graduate Student), Ankan Gupta, PhD (Post-doctoral Fellow), Shubhangi Prabhudesai, PhD (Research Associate II), Scott Self, BM (Medical Student), Andrew Spearman, MD (Assistant Professor, Faculty), Karthikeyan Thirugnanam, PhD (Post-doctoral Fellow).

Recent Publications:

• Prabhudesai S, Koceja C, Dey A, Eisa-Beygi S, Leigh NR, Bhattacharya R*, Mukherjee P* and Ramchandran R*. Cystathionine b-synthase is necessary for axis development in vivo. Front Cell Dev Biol, 2018, PMID: 29503817, PMCID: PMC5820354.
• Chowdhury T, Koceja C, Eisa-Beygi S, Kleinstiver B, Kumar S, Lin CW, Li K, Prabhudesai S, Joung K, and Ramchandran R. Temporal and spatial post-transcriptional regulation of zebrafish tie1 mRNA by long non-coding RNA during brain vascular assembly. ATVB, 2018, PMID: 29724820, PMCID: PMC6023729.
• Eisa-Beygi S, Benslimane FM, El-Rass S, Prabhudesai S, Khatib Ali Abdelrasool M, Simpson PM, Yalcin HC, Burrows PE and Ramchandran R. Characterization of endothelial cilia distribution during cerebral-vascular development in zebrafish (danio rerio)**. **Inside ATVB editorial: Before the Pump: The Importance of Cilia in Cranial Development. ATVB
• Bongard RD, Lepley M, Gastonguay A, Syrlybaeva RR, Talipov MR, Jones Lipinsky RA, Leigh NR, Brahmbhatt J, Kutty R, Rathore R, Ramchandran R* and Sem DS*. Discovery and characterization of halogenated xanthene inhibitors of DUSP5 as potential photodynamic therapeutics. Journal of Photochem. and Photobiol. A: Chemistry, 2019, 375, 114-131. PMID: 31839699.
• Gupta A, Brahmbhatt J, Syrlybaeva R, Bodnar C, Bodnar N, Bongard R, Pokkuluri PR, Sem D, Ramchandran R*, Rathore R and Talipov MR*. The role of conserved histidine and serine in the HCXXXXXRS motif of human dual-specificity phosphatase 5. J Chem. Inf. Model, 2019, PMID: 30835471.
• Thirugnanam K, Cossette S, Lu Q, Chowdhury SR, Harmann LM, Gupta A, Spearman A, Sonin DM, Bordas M, Kumar SN, Pan AY, Simpson PM, Strande JL, Bishop E, Zou MH and Ramchandran R.  Cardiomyocyte-specific SNRK prevents inflammation in the heart. JAHA, 2019, PMID: 31718444.
• Spearman AD, Gupta A, Pan AY, Gronseth EI, Thirugnanam K, Gudausky TM, Foerster SR, Ramchandran R. Hepatic vein blood increases lung microvascular angiogenesis and survival – towards and understanding of univentricular circulation Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2020. In press. **Commentary titled, “Hepatic vein blood increases lung microvascular angiogenesis and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations: Adding clarity to the confusion or vice-versa? Appeared on this article. PMID: 32387780
• Jamal MH, Nunes Ane CF, Vaziri ND, Ramchandran R, Bacallao RL, Nauli AM, Nauli SM. Rapamycin treatment correlates changes in primary cilia expression with cell cycle regulation in epithelial cells. Biochemical Pharmacology. 2020. PMID: 32470549.
• Gronseth EG, Gupta A, Koceja C, Kumar S, Kutty R, Rarick K, Wang L and Ramchandran R. Astrocytes influence medulloblastoma phenotypes and CD133 surface expression. 2020. PLoS ONE. PMID: 32628717.

*Denotes Joint Last Corresponding Authorship. **Denotes commentary on publications.

Collaborative Relationships:

The collaborations listed below are active and ongoing. We collaborate actively in the Southeastern (SE) Wisconsin region, and beyond. Our SE Wisconsin collaborations include Aurora Health Care, Concordia University and Marquette University. Our national collaborations include Auburn University, Chapman University, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Duke University, Emory University, Mayo Clinic, New Mexico State University, New York University Long Island School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington University in St. Louis. Our international collaborations include Tokyo Women’s Medical University, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran and Qatar University.

Recent Presentations:

2019        Brain vascular hemmorhage: emerging new ideas and concepts. University of Michigan, Frontiers in Science Seminar Series, Anne Arbor, MI.

2020        SNRK: an inflammatory suppressor in heart and other tissues. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX.

2020        Cilia as a biomarker of CNS Vascular Health. Trans-Agency Blood Brain Interface Program Kick-Off meeting, NIH (Web-based presentation).

Laboratory Motto:

Give your best passionate effort each and every day, ask the right question, and do things the right way.