Muralidharan Anbalagan, PhD

Dr. Anbalagan received his Ph.D. from the University of Madras, Tamilnadu, India in 2005. He conducted his doctoral studies on the pharmacological and toxicological properties of extracts isolated from Ocimum basilicum. He came to the U.S. in 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, working on the molecular biology of prostate cancer and the role of calcitonin and its receptor. In 2007, Dr. Anbalagan joined Tulane University's  Department of Structural and Cellular Biology as a postdoc in Dr. Brian Rowan’s laboratory to investigate the effects of the novel peptidomimetic dual Src and pretubulin inhibitor KX-01 in experimental models of breast cancer. During this period, Dr. Anbalagan gained experience using mouse xenograft and bone metastatic cancer models, imaging small animals (bioluminescent, fluorescent and X-Ray) and various molecular techniques. He is director of the Small Animal Imaging Core (IVIS-XRMS) at Tulane Medical School.  In 2014, Dr. Anbalagan was promoted to instructor and became Histology Lab Director for T1 medical students. Dr. Anbalagan has published over 20 peer-reviewed research articles and review papers. He is a reviewer for a variety of journals, including Cancer Letters, Journal of Pineal Research, Plos one and Scientific Reports. In 2018, Dr. Anbalagan was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Structural and Cellular Biology. In collaboration with the Tulane Circadian Biology Center, Dr. Anbalagan started to work on circadian disruption of melatonin signal by dim light exposure at night and breast cancer metastasis to bone. He gained knowledge in bone biology by visiting Dr. Alexander Robling's bone research laboratory at Indiana University School of Medicine through a LACATS fellowship. Dr. Anbalagan is interested in understanding how estrogen receptor α (ERα) phosphorylation impacts bone development and bone turnover. His research will determine the role of ERα phosphorylation in bone homeostasis at young, adult and old ages.

To review Dr. Anbalagan's publications, please click here.