Northeastern University

Kiran Vanaja

Assistant Research Professor, Bioengineering

[email protected]

Kiran Vanaja is a research assistant professor in the Life Sciences and Medical Research Group at the Roux Institute. He also holds a research assistant professor position with the Bioengineering department of the Northeastern University, Boston. Vanaja is a systems biologist and his research at the Roux Institute focuses on the building of computational mathematical models of signal transduction networks that are implicated in diseases like cancer and type-2 diabetes. By building these models ground-up on an in-vitro molecular interaction scale, following it up with a model system (animal) in-vivo model, Vanaja plans on ultimately implementing personalized patient specific organismic computational models that could predict the trajectory of diseases and possible outcomes achieved by available therapy. This research focus of Vanaja’s thus complements the personalized computational medicine approach being pioneered here at the Roux Institute.

Prior to coming to the Roux Institute, Vanaja did his post-doctoral training and fellowship in the Systems Biology Institute of Yale University under the mentorship of Andre Levchenko who hold the position of the Director of the Institute. In the Levchenko lab, Vanaja worked on the mechanisms of homeostasis and switch like phenomenon in signaling networks that underly phenotyping transformations like tumor development, initiation of metastasis, survival vs death in cancer cells and renewal vs differentiation in stem cells.

Vanaja holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Biomedical Engineering Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, and an MSc by research from the Electrical And Communication Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Although Vanaja originally comes from the tropical state of Kerala in India, he has made the Northeast, the New England coast, and Maine his home. While he enjoys the perks of living in downtown Portland, he splits his time between Portland and New York City where his wife and collaborator Radha Mukherjee currently lives. Vanaja enjoys working at the Roux  Institute with its sweeping views of Casco Bay.

Research Overview

At the Roux Institute, Vanaja is establishing a Systems Biology Lab focusing on the modeling of the growth factor receptor signaling pathway. In a collaboration with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, Vanaja is building detailed models of the signaling networks that are implicated in cancers and the mechanisms like negative feedback loops that contribute towards homeostasis. Vanaja is researching the mechanisms of these feedback loops that contribute towards the emergence of resistance in cancer to therapeutics and means of disrupting the feedback loop to improve efficacy.

Exploring partnership opportunities, Vanaja is building a multiscale organismic model of insulin driven glucose absorption in whole body models. By training the model on high throughput ‘omics data, Vanaja plans on predicting the trajectory of hyper insulinemia and glycemia in individuals and by using detailed molecular interactions plans on finding possible nodes of intervention to help up with prediabetes and insulin resistance.

Vanaja is also collaborating with the Amal group at the Roux Institute to develop AI based Deep Learning/Machine Learning tools to address fundamental biological problems, beginning with developing a mapping for immuno-phenotypes.  Those who are interested in post-doc and graduate student positions are encouraged to reach out.

Areas of Expertise

  • Systems and Computational Biology
  • Mathematical Modeling of Signaling Networks
  • Cancer and Diabetes Signal Transduction

Publications

  • “Signal amplification in growth cone gradient sensing by a double negative feedback loop among PTEN, PI (3, 4, 5) P3 and actomyosin”, X Li, S Shim, KR Hardin, KG Vanaja, H Song, A Levchenko, G Ming, and James Q Zheng, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Volume 123, December 2022, 103772
  • “Regulation of PTEN translation by PI3K signaling maintains pathway homeostasis”, Kiran G. Vanaja+, Radha Mukherjee+, Jacob A. Boyer, Sarat Chandarlapaty, Andre Levchenko and Neal Rosen, Molecular Cell, 2021. Volume 81, Issue 4, 18 February 2021, P708-723.E5,
  • “A loss of epigenetic control can promote cell death through reversing the balance of pathways in a signaling network”, Kiran Vanaja, Winston Timp, Andrew Feinberg and Andre Levchenko, Molecular Cell, 2018. Volume 72, Issue 1, 4 October 2018, Pages 60-70.
  • “Systems Biology of Cancer Metastasis”, Y. Suhail, M. Cain, Kiran Vanaja, P. Kurywchak, R. Kalluri, A. Levchenko, Kshitiz, Cell Systems, Aug 2019 Aug 28;9(2):109-127.
  • “Two interferon-independent double-stranded RNA-induced host defense strategies suppress the common cold virus at warm temperature”, E. Foxman, J. Storer, Kiran Vanaja, A. Levchenko, A. Iwasaki, PNAS July 16, 2016, 113 (30) 8496-8501.
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