I have been working on understanding drug resistance mechanisms in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Helicobacter pylori. Next generation sequencing platforms such as Illumina- miseq and Oxford Nanopore technology (ONT) are being currently used to study drug resistance in clinical strains and samples. 

Engineering mycobacteriophages to develop diagnostic assays and tools for phage therapy against mycobacterial infections is another interesting project which i have been working on recently. In addition to that, i am also studying the role type VII secretion systems in Mycobacterial virulence and pathogenesis by making deletion mutants and performing mice studies.

Saranathan R, Asare E, Leung L, de Oliveira AP, Kaugars KE, Mulholland CV, Lukose R, Berney M, Jacobs WR Jr. Capturing Structural Variants of Herpes Simplex Virus Genome in Full Length by Oxford Nanopore Sequencing. Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Aug 30:e0228522. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02285-22. PMID: 36040163.

Wang L, Asare E, Shetty AC, Sanchez-Tumbaco F, Edwards MR, Saranathan R, Weinrick B, Xu J, Chen B, Bénard A, Dougan G, Leung DW, Amarasinghe GK, Chan J, Basler CF, Jacobs WR Jr, Tufariello JM. Multiple genetic paths including massive gene amplification allow Mycobacterium tuberculosis to overcome loss of ESX-3 secretion system substrates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Feb 22;119(8):e2112608119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112608119. PMID: 35193958; PMCID: PMC8872769.

Kaugars K, Dardick J, de Oliveira AP, Weiss KA, Lukose R, Kim J, Leung L, Rajagopalan S, Wolin S, Akabas L, Knipe DM, Bajic G, Jacobs WR Jr. A recombinant herpes virus expressing influenza hemagglutinin confers protection and induces antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Aug 24;118(34):e2110714118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2110714118. PMID: 34417304; PMCID: PMC8403974.

Allué-Guardia A, Saranathan R, Chan J, Torrelles JB. Mycobacteriophages as Potential Therapeutic Agents against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jan 13;22(2):735. doi: 10.3390/ijms22020735. PMID: 33450990; PMCID: PMC7828454.

Jain P, Garing S, Verma D, Saranathan R, Clute-Reinig N, Gadwa J, Peterson C, Hermansky G, Astashkina Fernandez A, Asare E, Weisbrod TR, Spencer E, Mulholland CV, Berney M, Bell D, Nichols KP, Le Ny AM, Ordway D, Jacobs WR Jr, Somoskovi A, Minch KJ. Nanoluciferase Reporter Mycobacteriophage for Sensitive and Rapid Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility. J Bacteriol. 2020 Oct 22;202(22):e00411-20. doi: 10.1128/JB.00411-20. PMID: 32900827; PMCID: PMC7585058.

Vilchèze C, Saranathan R, Weinrick B, Jacobs WR Jr. Characterization of Large Deletion Mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Selected for Isoniazid Resistance. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2020 Aug 20;64(9):e00792-20. doi: 10.1128/AAC.00792-20. PMID: 32631825; PMCID: PMC7449219.

Saranathan R, Levi MH, Wattam AR, Malek A, Asare E, Behin DS, Pan DH, Jacobs WR Jr, Szymczak WA. Helicobacter pylori Infections in the Bronx, New York: Surveying Antibiotic Susceptibility and Strain Lineage by Whole-Genome Sequencing. J Clin Microbiol. 2020 Feb 24;58(3):e01591-19. doi: 10.1128/JCM.01591-19. PMID: 31801839; PMCID: PMC7041580.

Saranathan R, Sathyamurthi P, Thiruvengadam K, Murugesan S, Shivakumar SVBY, Gomathi NS, Kavitha D, Paradkar M, Puvaneshwari R, Kannan M, Madheswaran A, Pradhan N, Kulkarni V, Gupte AN, Gupte N, Mave V, Bollinger RC, Gupta A, Padmapriyadarsini C, Hanna LE; C-TRIUMPh Study Team. MAL adaptor (TIRAP) S180L

polymorphism and severity of disease among tuberculosis patients. Infect Genet Evol. 2020 Jan;77:104093. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2019.104093. Epub 2019 Oct 31. PMID: 31678649.

Saranathan R, Padmapriyadarsini C, Sivaramakrishnan GN, Perumal BK, Kannayan S, Joseph B, Gopalan N, Hanna LE. Pulmonary Mycobacterium kyorinense disease: A case report and review of literature. Indian J Med Microbiol. 2019 Jan-Mar;37(1):127-131. doi: 10.4103/ijmm.IJMM_19_94. PMID: 31424025.

Saranathan R, Pagal S, Sawant AR, Tomar A, Madhangi M, Sah S, Satti A, Arunkumar KP, Prashanth K. Disruption of tetR type regulator adeN by mobile genetic element confers elevated virulence in Acinetobacter baumannii. Virulence. 2017 Oct 3;8(7):1316-1334. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2017.1322240. Epub

2017 Apr 24. PMID: 28436748; PMCID: PMC5711439.

Kumar A, Saranathan R, Prashanth K, Tiwary BK, Krishna R. Inhibition of the MurA enzyme in Fusobacterium nucleatum by potential inhibitors identified through computational and in vitro approaches. Mol Biosyst. 2017 May 2;13(5):939-954. doi: 10.1039/c7mb00074j. PMID: 28358152.

Saranathan R, Kumari R, Kalaivani R, Suresh S, Rani A, Purty S, Prashanth K. Detection of ISAba1 in association with a novel allelic variant of the β-lactamase ADC-82 and class D β-lactamase genes mediating carbapenem resistance among the clinical isolates of MDR A. baumannii. J Med Microbiol. 2017

Mar;66(2):103-111. doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.000395. PMID: 28260590.

John J, Saranathan R, Adigopula LN, Thamodharan V, Singh SP, Lakshmi TP, CharanTej MA, Rao RS, Krishna R, Rao HS, Prashanth K. The quorum sensing molecule N-acyl homoserine lactone produced by Acinetobacter baumannii displays antibacterial and anticancer properties. Biofouling. 2016 Oct;32(9):1029-47. doi: 10.1080/08927014.2016.1221946. PMID: 27643959.

Asir J, Nair S, Devi S, Prashanth K, Saranathan R, Kanungo R. Simultaneous gut colonisation and infection by ESBL-producing Escherichia coli in hospitalised patients. Australas Med J. 2015 Jun 30;8(6):200-7. doi: 10.4066/AMJ.2015.2358. PMID: 26213583; PMCID: PMC4496720.

Saranathan R, Vasanth V, Vasanth T, Shabareesh PR, Shashikala P, Devi CS, Kalaivani R, Asir J, Sudhakar P, Prashanth K. Emergence of carbapenem non- susceptible multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii strains of clonal complexes 103(B) and 92(B) harboring OXA-type carbapenemases and metallo-β- lactamases in Southern India. Microbiol Immunol. 2015 May;59(5):277-84. doi: 10.1111/1348-0421.12252. PMID: 25726848.

Ramakrishnan K, Rajagopalan S, Nair S, Kenchappa P, Chandrakesan SD. Molecular characterization of metallo β-lactamase producing multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa from various clinical samples. Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2014 Oct-Dec;57(4):579-82. doi: 10.4103/0377-4929.142670. PMID: 25308010.

Saranathan R, Sudhakar P, Karthika RU, Singh SK, Shashikala P, Kanungo R, Prashanth K. Multiple drug resistant carbapenemases producing Acinetobacter baumannii isolates harbours multiple R-plasmids. Indian J Med Res. 2014 Aug;140(2):262-70. PMID: 25297360; PMCID: PMC4216501.

Saranathan R, Tomar A, Sudhakar P, Arunkumar KP, Prashanth K. Draft Genome Sequence of a Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii PKAB07 Clinical Strain from India Belonging to Sequence Type 195. Genome Announc. 2014 Mar 20;2(2):e00184-14. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.00184-14. PMID: 24652977; PMCID:

PMC3961724.

Purty S, Saranathan R, Prashanth K, Narayanan K, Asir J, Sheela Devi C, Kumar Amarnath S. The expanding spectrum of human infections caused by Kocuria species: a case report and literature review. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2013 Oct;2(10):e71. doi: 10.1038/emi.2013.71. Epub 2013 Oct 23.