Gunawan:LakshmiNarayanan Lakshmanan

LakshmiNarayanan Lakshmanan
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering  4 Engineering Drive 4 Block E5 #B-05  National University of Singapore  Singapore 117576  Tel:+65 6516 7859

I work in the Gunawan lab at National University of Singapore.

Education

 * 2008, M.Tech(Biotechnology), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
 * 2006, B.Tech(Biotechnology), MEPCO, Sivakasi, TamilNadu, India.

Research Interests

 * Stochastic Modeling of Mitochondrial Mutagenesis
 *  Mitochondrial DNA deletions involve a loss of a particular fragment of mitochondrial DNA and consequently results in impaired protein synthesis. There are two factors which characterize the mitochondrial DNA deletions; a) the deletion spectrum, referring to the scenario where cells can harbor more than one type of deletions. The spectrum characterizes the breakpoints of different deleted molecules present in the cell; b) the mutation load represents the percentage of different deleted molecules compared to the wild-type mtDNA. A complete measurement of the total mutation load is necessary to study the physiological impact of mtDNA deletions on aging and age related pathologies.
 * Currently due to experimental limitations it is not possible to characterize the full deletion spectrum experimentally. Also the mechanism of formation and accumulation of deletions is not well understood. Our group’s interest is in understanding of the basic mechanism and dynamics of deletion (spectrum) formation using stochastic models. Different factors hypothesized (in literature) to play a role in formation of deletions are systematically analyzed and used to characterize the deletion spectrum in different model organisms. Based on these factors, the in silico spectrum will be simulated using stochastic models and compared with experimental observations of different model organisms. This comprehensive model will then be further used to test different hypothesis suggested in the field of mitochondrial mutagenesis and also will be used to study the mutagenesis process under different physiological conditions such as skeletal muscle exercise  adaptation, mitochondrial myopathies  and age related processes such as Sarcopenia.

Peer reviewed Conference Proceedings

 * Lakshmanan L.N, Suresh P, Gruber J, Halliwell B, Gunawan R. (2010) Elucidating Mechanisms of Age-dependent Accumulation of Mitochondrial DNA Deletions – An in silico Approach, In Gordon Research Conference on Biology of Aging, Switzerland, Aug 22-27. (poster).

Useful links

 * Our Lab webpage