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Academic Background:

Dr. K. Subramaniam's pre-doctoral studies were at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. After completing his postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (USA), he joined the faculty of BSBE in May 2002.

Research Interests:

Dr. Subramaniam's research interests are focused on two broad areas that take advantage of the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans: The development of germ cells and the biology of parasitic nematodes.

Germ cells: Knowledge of how germ cells maintain the ability to generate all types of cells - including the gametes - is not only essential to understand sexual reproduction, but will aid development of therapies involving tissue regeneration. Dr Subramaniam's group aims at characterizing the key molecular events that take place at the time of germ cell fate determination and during differentiation of gametes.
Parasitic nematodes: Parasitic nematodes cause severe diseases in both animals and plants. Dr Subramaniam believes that the rich molecular genetic knowledge and tools available for the free-living nematode C. elegans will greatly benefit the study of parasitic nematodes. His ongoing work in this area employs the reverse genetic tool RNAi for the functional characterization of parasitism genes of plant-parasitic nematodes. His ultimate aim is to produce genetically engineered crop plants that effectively resist nematode infection.