Vidhya Ramachandran, Ph.D.

Post-doctoral Fellow
 
Research
 I completed my Ph.D. in Dr. Paul K. Herman’s lab at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In my graduate work, I utilized the budding yeast, S. cerevisiae to study regulation of growth and quiescence by the Ras/PKA signaling pathway. I examined interactions between PKA and TORC1 signaling pathways and additionally described a novel role of PKA signaling in the formation of RNP complexes called Processing bodies (P-bodies), implicated in mRNA processing and translation.
 
In the Dillin lab, my focus is on understanding the relationship between internal cellular stress and aging of the organism. I am currently investigating the mechanism of cell non-autonomous ER-Unfolded Protein Response in the neurons of the nematode C. elegans, that can communicate to distal tissues and promote longevity of the entire organism. We are developing new tools in the lab for large scale, tissue-specific analysis in worms such as fluorescent sorting of worms and tissue-specific ribosome profiling, which will aid in the identification and characterization of regulatory networks involved in this response.
 
Publications
 
  • Shah KH, Zhang B, Ramachandran V, Herman PK (2013) Processing body and stress granule assembly occur by independent and differentially regulated pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics, 193 (1).
  • Ramachandran V, Shah KH, Herman PK (2011) The cAMP-dependent protein kinase signaling pathway is a key regulator of P body foci formation. Mol. Cell 43(6): 973-81.
  • Ramachandran V and Herman PK (2011) Antagonistic interactions between the cAMP-dependent protein kinase and Tor signaling pathways modulate cell growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiaeGenetics 187(2): 441-54.
  • Stephan JS, Yeh Y-Y, Ramachandran V, Deminoff SJ, Herman PK (2010) The Tor and cAMP-dependent protein kinase signaling pathways coordinately control autophagy in S. cerevisiae. Autophagy 6(2): 294 – 295.
  • Stephan JS, Yeh Y-Y, Ramachandran V, Deminoff SJ, Herman PK (2009) The TOR and PKA signaling pathways independently target the Atg13 protein to control autophagy. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA106(40):17049-54.
  • Deminoff SJ, Ramachandran V, Herman PK (2009) Distal recognition sites in substrates are required for efficient phosphorylation by the cAMP-dependent protein kinase.  Genetics, 182(2): 529-39.