Faculty and Staff

Stephenson Cancer Center 
Stanton L. Young Biomedical Research Center
Suite # 1403
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
975 N.E., 10th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

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Education:

• B.Sc. - Biology, Osmania University
  Hyderabad, India, 1985
• M.Sc - Microbiology
  Osmania University
  Hyderabad, India, 1987
• DBA 
  Annamalai Univeristy
  Tamil Nadu, India, 1992
• Ph.D. - Molecular Biology
  All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
  New Delhi, India, 1994

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Fellowship:

• Post-Doctoral Fellow
  Tulane University Medical Center, 
  New Orleans, LA, 1997

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Memberships:

• Member, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), 1994-present
• Member, American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy (ASCGT), 1995-present
• Member, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), 2007, present
• NCI Career Development study section member, 2006-present
• Co-Chair, Suicide gene therapy and apoptosis section, American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy (ASCGT), 2008

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Clinical/Research Interests:

Studies in my laboratory are mainly focused on novel gene-based therapeutics using viral and non-viral vectors with emphasis on translational cancer research. There are two major research areas that are actively being pursued in the laboratory. The first research area is the development and testing of non-viral and nanoparticle-based gene delivery for cancer treatment, and the second research area is studying the antitumor and anti-angiogenic properties of IL-24. Our findings have lead to Phase I clinical trials for treatment of solid tumors.

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Select Publications:

1. Srivastava A, Filant J, Moxley KM, Sood A, McMeekin S, Ramesh R. Exosomes: A role for naturally occurring nanovesicles in cancer growth, diagnosis and treatment. Curr Gene Ther. Epub ahead of print 2014 Dec 23. doi: 10.2174/1566523214666141224100612. PMID: 25537774. (Print issue: 2015, Vol 15.)  

2. Panneerselvam J, Shanker M, Jin J, Branch CD, Muralidharan R, Zhao DY, Chada S, Munshi A, Ramesh R. Phosphorylation of interleukin (IL)-24 is required for its anticancer activity. Oncotarget. 2015 May 18;6(18):16271-16286. PMID: 26009991.

3. Ha JH, Gomathinayagam R, Yan M, Jayaraman M, Ramesh R, Dhanasekaran DN. Determinant role for the gep oncogenes, Gα12/13, in ovarian cancer cell proliferation and xenograft tumor growth. Genes Cancer. 2015; Advance Publication, 2015 Aug 3.  

4. Al Mubarak ZH, Ramesh R, Liu L, Krishnan S. Surface plasmon resonance imaging of gold-small molecule interactions is influenced by refractive index and chemical structures. J Colloid Interface Sci. Epub ahead of print 25 Aug 2015;460:209-213. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.08.059. PMID: 26321574.  

5. Klionsky DJ, Abdelmoshen K, Abe A, Abdedin MG, Hagai A, Arozena AA, Adachi H, Adams CM, Adams PD, Ramesh R, et al. Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy. (3rd Edition) Autophagy. 12(1):1-222, ePub 21 Jan 2016. doi:10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356. PMID: 26799652

6. Yang J, Hannafon BN, Zhang RR, Fung KM, Ding WQ. Docosahexaenoic acid and disulfiram act in concert to kill cancer cells: a mutual enhancement of their anticancer actions. Oncotarget. 2017 Jan 17. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.14702. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28107189

7. Amreddy N, Babu A, Muralidharan R, Munshi A, Ramesh R. Polymeric nanoparticle-mediated gene delivery for lung cancer treatment. Top Curr Chem (J). 2017 Apr;375(2):35. doi: 10.1007/s41061-017-0128-5 (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 28290155  

8. Babu A, Ramesh R. Multifaceted applications of chitosan in cancer drug delivery and therapy. Mar Drugs. 2017 Mar 27;15(4). pii: E96. doi: 10.3390/md15040096. PMID: 28346381

9. Griffith J, Andrade D, Mehta M, Berry W, Benbrook DM, Aravindan N, Herman TS, Ramesh R, Munshi A. Silencing BMI1 radiosensitizes human breast cancer cells by inducing DNA damage and autophagy. Oncol Rep. 2017 Feb 28. doi: 10.3892/or.2017.5478 (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 28260023

10. Babu A, Munshi A, Ramesh R. Combinatorial therapeutic approaches with RNAi and anticancer drugs using nanodrug delivery systems. Drug Dev Ind Pharm. 2017 May 19:1-11. doi: 10.1080/03639045.2017.1313861. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 28523942