Srirama Rao, PhD

Associate Dean for Research, College of Veterinary Medicine
Professor, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine (appointment pending)

Dr. Srirama Rao received his Ph.D. in allergy and immunology from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India, in 1989, after which he conducted post-doctoral studies in cell and molecular biology at Pharmacia-Experimental Medicine in La Jolla, California. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 2007, Dr. Rao was Vice President of Research and Professor and Head, Division of Vascular Biology at the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine in San Diego, California a nonprofit academic research institute focused on vascular and cancer biology. With this joint appointment in two departments at the St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses, Dr. Rao seeks to build on the strong interdisciplinary focus and commitment to cutting-edge research, teaching, and training of the two colleges through the promotion of exciting new collaborative research initiatives, reaching out for increased external funding through grants and gifts.

Research Interests:

Dr. Srirama Rao’s overall laboratory research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying leukocyte trafficking, particularly eosinophils, in the context of airway allergic inflammation and asthma in addition to cancer biology. These include eosinophil generation (hematopoiesis); trafficking and recruitment to sites of inflammation using intravital imaging; modulation of Th1/Th2 cytokines; role of adhesion molecules, carbohydrate-binding proteins and carbohydrate-processing enzymes, cytokines and chemokines mediating leukocyte-endothelial trafficking in the lung and lymph node microcirculation; immune modulation and associated signal transduction events in models of airway allergic disease. Dr. Rao has pioneered the use of intravital imaging to understand the role of adhesion molecules, cytokines, and chemokines in promoting cell trafficking in inflammatory and allergic diseases via the systemic and pulmonary microcirculation.

Currently Dr. Rao’s laboratory seeks to understand:

The role of serotonin, a chemoattractant for eosinophils, and serotonin receptors in regulating eosinophil recruitment and airway hyper-responsiveness during allergic inflammation in murine models. Also to determine the role of serotonin and serotonin receptor interactions, including associated signal transduction events leading to eosinophil adhesion and trafficking to sites of inflammation (R01 HL079304).

The role of Galectin-3, a lectin, and Mgat5, an enzyme involved in synthesis of ligands for Galectin-3, in mediating eosinophil trafficking: modulating the allergic immune response in murine models of acute and chronic airway allergic inflammation including airway remodeling and angiogenesis (R01-AI35796).

To evaluate the role of N-deacetylase/N-sulfurtransferase-1 (NDST-1), a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of heparan sulfate chains, in the generation, trafficking and recruitment of inflammatory leukocytes during chronic allergic airway inflammation, including airway remodeling using mice with targeted disruption of NDST-1(U19 AI70535)  

Other areas of research include development of modified viral proteins as adjuvants and/or vaccines for the amelioration of inflammatory/allergic disease, and understanding the role of obesity in the pathogenesis of asthma.

Selected Recent Publications:

Wang L, Fuster MM, Sriramarao P, Esko JD.  Endothelial deficiency of heparan sulfate impairs L-selectin and chemokine-mediated neutrophil trafficking during inflammatory responses.  Nature Immunol 2005;6:902-10.

Lee, SY, Cho JY, Miller M, McElwain K, McElwain S, Sriramarao P, Raz E, Briode DH.  Immunostimulatory DNA inhibits allergen-induced peribronchial angiogenesis in mice.  J Allerg Clin Immunol  2006;117(3):597-603.

DiScipio RG, Schraufstatter IU, Sikora L, Zuraw BL, Sriramarao P.  C3a and c5a mediate secretion and activiation of matrix metalloproteanase 9 from human eosinophils.  Int Immunopharmacol 2006;6(7):1109-18.

Pandit TS, Sikora L, Murilidhar G, Rao SP, Sriramarao P.  Sustained exposure to nicotine leads to extramedullary hematopoiesis in the spleen.  Stem Cells 2006;24(11):2373-81.

Pero RS, Borchers MT, Spicher K, Ochkur SI, Sikora L, Rao SP, Abdala-Valencia H, O'Neill KR, Shen H, McGarry MP, Lee NA, Cook-Mills JM, Sriramarao P, Simon MI, Birnbaumer L, Lee JJ.  Gai2-mediated signaling events in the endothelium are involved in controlling leukocyte extravasation.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007;104(11):4371-6.

Fuster MM, Wang L, Castagnola J, Sikora L, Reddi K, Lee PHA, Radek K, Schuksz M, Bishop JR, Gallo RL, Sriramarao P, Esko JD.  Genetic alteration of endothelial heparan sulfate selectively inhibits tumor angiogenesis.  J Cell Biol 2007;177(3):539-49.

Rao SP, Wang Z, Zuberi RI, Sikora L, Bahaie NS, Zuraw BL, Liu F-T and Sriramarao P. Galectin-3 functions as an adhesion molecule to support eosinophil rolling and adhesion under conditions of flow. J. Immunol. 2007;179(11):7800-7.

 Last updated 4/17/2008