Office:
LSUHSC School of Medicine
533 Bolivar Street, Room 601D
New Orleans, LA 70112
504-568-4072
Bio
Dr. Aiyar obtained his PhD in 1994 from Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Leis. His dissertation was focused on processes of reverse transcription and integration in retroviruses. Following his PhD, Dr. Aiyar was a post-doctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Bill Sugden at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison), where he worked on Epstein-Barr virus, an oncogenic human herpesvirus. Dr. Aiyar was a Special Fellow of the Lymphoma & Leukemia Society during his post-doctoral fellowship.
After joining LSUHSC in 2004, Dr. Aiyar continued his studies on Epstein-Barr virus in research supported by a Howard Temin Extended Service Award from the National Cancer Institute (NIH). Since 2009, research in his laboratory worked on molecular and metabolic processes involving three human pathogens: Epstein-Barr virus, the protozoan parasite Leishmania, and the bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis. Dr. Aiyar’s research has been supported by multiple research awards from the NIH.
Dr. Aiyar is currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Experimental Therapeutics.
Education
BSc (Hons), Life Sciences & Biochemistry - 1987
St. Xavier's College, Bombay, India
PhD, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology - 1994
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Post-doctoral fellowship, Viral Oncology - 1995-1999
McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Teaching
Medical Microbiology
Graduate Virology
Molecular Biology of Eukaryotic Pathogens
Special Topics in Cancer Biology
Former Trainees
John Sears, PhD (awarded in 2003) (Senior Director, CSL Behring)
Yong Chen, PhD (awarded in 2004) (Director: Roche Shanghai)
Lisa Abston, PhD (awarded in 2004) (Assistant Dean, Graduate School, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Siddhesh Aras, PhD (awarded in 2009) (Assistant Professor, Wayne State University)
Amber Washington, PhD (awarded in 2014) (current position: Scientist, Xavier University)
Shardulendra Sherchand, PhD (awarded in 2017) (current position: Senior Scientist, AbVacc)
Former post-doctoral fellows)
Arun Balasubramanian (current position: Associate Professor, Benares Hindu University)
Venkatesh Sridharan (current position: Associate Director, Immunology and Cardiovascular Biology, Bristol-Myers Squibb)
Patrick Hindmarsh (current position: Associate Professor (retd), Louisiana Tech University)
Gyanendra Singh (current position: Senior Scientist, National Institute of Occupational Health, Indian Council of Medical Research)
Shardulendra Sherchand (current position: Senior Scientist, AbVacc)
Patricia Mott (current position: Freelance consultant)
Publications
For a list of publications, click here.
Research
We are interested in molecular and metabolic interactions between intracellular human pathogens and their host cells. Our research focused on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), an oncogenic human herpesvirus that causes lymphomas and other human cancers. We studied the process by which EBV genomes attached to human chromosomes, permitting these genomes to be transmitted to daughter cells when EBV-transformed cancer cells undergo cell-division. We demonstrated that EBV makes a protein with a DNA binding motif called an AT-hook. This protein, EBNA1, acts as a tether between viral genomes and human chromosomes. Our research on EBNA1 also revealed that it functions as a transcription activator that is regulated by oxidative stress and the availability of zinc.
While searching databases for other proteins related to EBNA1, we discovered the human protozoan parasite, Leishmania, encodes a protein with multiple AT-hooks that we termed LmATH. Leishmania is the causative agent of the human parasitic disease leishmaniasis, which can occur is visceral and cutaneous forms. Both forms begin by infection of the humans with a form of Leishmania called a promastigote. We showed that like EBNA1, LmATH is a nuclear protein. Further the AT-hook function of LmATH was necessary for the survival and replication of Leishmania promastigotes, providing a novel target for molecular interventions against leishmaniasis. In this regard, inhibiting the AT-hooks of LmATH also blocks its capacity to infect human macrophages.
Chlamydia trachomatis is a sexually transmitted, obligate intracellular bacterium that can cause infertility, and impacts infant mortality. Chlamydia is also the leading cause of infectious blindness. Our interest in the bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis began by the fortuitous discovery that a fragment of EBNA1 could be used to deliver small molecules into Chlamydia. We are interested in metabolic interactions between Chlamydia and the human epithelial cells they infect. We have demonstrated that both bacterial enzymes and human enzymes that participate in amino-acid biosynthesis can be subverted to generate anti-bacterial molecules that limit chlamydial growth and replication, thus providing a novel anti-bacterial therapeutic approach. We are also interested in how modulation of human cell nucleotide metabolism impacts the replication of Chlamydia and other intracellular pathogens.