| Assoc Prof Thirumaran s/o Thanabalu
Associate Professor
Division of Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology
School of Biological Sciences
College of Science
Email: THIRUMARAN@ntu.edu.sg
Phone: (+65)63162832
Office: SBS-03n-17 |
| Education |
- PhD National University of Singapore 1992
- MSc National University of Singapore 1990
- BSc(Hons) National University of Singapore 1987
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| Biography |
Asst/P Thirumaran Thanabalu is currently in the School of Biological Sciences which he joined in 2001. He received his BSc(Hon), MSc and Ph.D. degrees from the National University of Singapore. His research interest include Wiskott Aldrich Proteins, WASP, N-WASP and its interacting proteins. He worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at IMCB (Singapore), Dept. of Pathology (University of Cambridge),IMA (Singapore) before assuming his position at NTU.
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| Research Interests |
| The actin cytoskeleton plays an essential role in cell proliferation, migration and differentiation; cellular processes essential for embryogenesis, wound repair, angiogenesis and immune response. The Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASP) and its homologue N-WASP are key downstream components which link multiple signaling pathways to actin cytoskeleton remodeling. The founding member of the WASP family is implicated in the Wiskott Aldrich syndrome, an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by recurrent bacterial infection, eczema and immunodeficiency. WASP and N-WASP N-WASP regulate the actin cytoskeleton by modulating the activity of Arp2/3 complex. |
| Research Grant |
- Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (2011-)
- NRF Competitive Research Program (2010-) [by National Research Foundation (NRF)]
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| Current Projects |
- Engineering biology for valuable fuels- Metabolic engineering for xylose metabolism
- Regulation of WAS protein (Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome Protein) by its interacting proteins
- Role of actin cytoskeleton regulators in Vinculin patch assembly and cell adhesion
- The role of N-WASP in skeletal muscle formation and regeneration
| Selected Publications | - Munn AL, Thanabalu T. (2009). Verprolin: a cool set of actin-binding sites and some very HOT prolines. IUBMB Life, 61(7), 707-712.
- Thanabalu, T. Rajmohan, R. Meng, L. Ren, G. Vajjhala, P. Munn, A. (2007). Verprolin function in endocytosis and actin organisation: roles of the Las17p (yeast WASP)-binding domain and a novel C- terminal actin-binding domain. FEBS Journal, 274(16), 4103-25.
- Misra A, Lim RP, Wu Z, Thanabalu T. (2007). N-WASP plays a critical role in fibroblast adhesion and spreading. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 364(4), 908-12.
- Lim RP, Misra A, Wu Z, Thanabalu T. (2007). Analysis of conformational changes in WASP using a split YFP. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 362(4), 1085-9.
- Thanabalu T. (2007). Functional analysis of Verprolin proteins using S .cerevisiae mutant strain. 23rd International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology.
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