Centre for Stem Cell Research

Our research is an interdisciplinary with an interface of chemistry and biology, emphasizes on lipid-mediated nucleic therapy and genome editing. Primary goal of our research is develop nucleic acid therapies including gene-editing for monogenic liver disorders and developing synthetic vaccines for pandemic viruses including COVID-19, Chikungunya, and Dengue. To this end, we are developing a library of lipids that can deliver nucleic acids such as pDNA, mRNA and siRNA efficiently both in vitro and in vivo. For synthetic vaccines, we are working on chemical modifications on mRNA to increase the stability and translational efficiency.

For gene delivery, we working an intriguing concept called No-End DNA along with Prof. Arun Srivastava, Univ. of Florida, USA.

• Rangasami VK, Lohchania B, Voshavar C, Rachamalla HR, Banerjee R, Dhayani A, Thangavel S, Vemula PK, Marepally S. Exploring membrane permeability of Tomatidine to enhance lipid mediated nucleic acid transfections. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2018 Jun 11. pii: S0005-2736(18)30178-0. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2018.06.006. [Epub ahead of print]
• Priya Dharmalingam, Hari Krishna R. Rachamalla, Brijesh Lohchania, Bhanuprasad Bandlamudi, Saravanabhavan Thangavel, Mohankumar K. Murugesan, Rajkumar Banerjee, Arabinda Chaudhuri, Chandrashekhar Voshavar, and Marepally S. Green Transfection: Cationic Lipid Nanocarrier System Derivatized from Vegetable Fat, Palmstearin Enhances Nucleic Acid Transfections. ACS Omega, 2017, 2 (11), pp 7892–7903.
• Ambika S Kurbet, Samarth Hegde, Oindrila Bhattacharjee, Marepally S, Praveen K Vemula, Srikala Raghavan. Sterile inflammation enhances ECM degradation in integrin β1 KO embryonic skin. Cell Reports Volume 16, Issue 12, p3334–3347, 20 September 2016.
• Andey T#, Marepally S, Patel A, Jackson T, Sarkar S, O'Connell M, et al. Cationic lipid guided short-hairpin RNA interference of annexin A2 attenuates tumor growth and metastasis in a mouse lung cancer stem cell model. J Control Release. 2014; 184:67-78.
• Marepally S#, Boakye CH#, Patel AR, Godugu C, Doddapaneni R, Desai PR, Singh M. Topical administration of dual siRNAs using fusogenic lipid nanoparticles for treating psoriatic-like plaques. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2014; 9(14) 2157-74.
• Desai PR#, Marepally S#, Patel AR, Voshavar C, Chaudhuri A, Singh M. Topical delivery of anti-TNFalpha siRNA and capsaicin via novel lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles efficiently inhibits skin inflammation in vivo. J Control Release. 2013;170(1):51-63. PMCID: 3759511.
• Srujan M, Chandrashekhar V, Reddy RC, Prabhakar R, Sreedhar B, Chaudhuri A. The influence of the structural orientation of amide linkers on the serum compatibility and lung transfection properties of cationic amphiphiles. Biomaterials. 2011;32(22):5231-40.
• Mukthavaram R#, Marepally S#, Venkata MY, Vegi GN, Sistla R, Chaudhuri A. Cationic glycolipids with cyclic and open galactose head groups for the selective targeting of genes to mouse liver. Biomaterials. 2009;30(12):2369-84.
• Rajesh M, Sen J, Srujan M, Mukherjee K, Sreedhar B, Chaudhuri A. Dramatic influence of the orientation of linker between hydrophilic and hydrophobic lipid moiety in liposomal gene delivery. J Am Chem Soc. 2007;129(37):11408-20.

• https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131114101917.html
• http://www.skininc.com/skinscience/physiology/Topical-Treatment-for-Psoriasis-Targets-Deeper-Layers-of-the-Skin-235744561.html
• http://www.aaps.org/News/Press_Room/Press_Releases/2013/Topical_Treatment_for_Psoriasis_Targets_Deeper_Layers_of_the_Skin,_Improves_Healing/