Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah, PhD

Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah received his B.S. degree (with honors) in chemistry and a minor in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000. He obtained a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. For his graduate work on molecular recognition and self-assembly of synthetic nucleic acid bases, he has received the Dorothy Banks Research Fellowship and The College of Natural Sciences Dean's Excellence Award. After completion of a postdoctoral stint at Yale University focusing on protein recognition and DNA self-assembly, he joined the faculty at Tulane (August 2007). Currently, his research focuses on the development of designer molecules that have the unique ability to undergo specific molecular recognition events in a stimulus responsive manner.

Medicine-Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care & Environmental Medicine

Dr. Jayawickramarajah's research in the medicinal realm focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, protein-ligand interactions, DNA synthesis and structure-switching phenomena, with emphasis on developing stimuli-responsive anti-cancer agents with attenuated adverse effects. In particular, he is interested in using oncomeric microRNA biomarkers (e.g., miR-21) to stimulate the activity of tailored molecules that antagonize cancer-associated proteins. Among other proteins, Dr. Jayawickramarajah is particularly interested in developing responsive inhibitors of serine proteases, carbonic anhydrases, and estrogen receptors. Dr. Jayawickramarajah is the recipient of the Doctoral New Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society, and his research is currently funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.