Georgia Institute of TechnologyChemistry & Biochemistry
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Niren Murthy

Niren Murthy

Associate Professor

Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

and the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Office: IBB 3303

Phone: 404-385-5145

Fax: 404-894-4243

E-mail Niren Murthy

Research Group Web site
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Chemistry, 2001-2003; Ph.D. University of Washington, 2001; M.S. University of Illinois, 1996; B.S. University of Redlands, 1992

Selected Awards - 2008, Indus Global Innovators Award; 2006, NSF CAREER AWARD; 2003, Petit Fellowship, Georgia Institute of Technology; 1998, Cygnus Outstanding Graduate Student award, Controlled Release Society

Areas of Research

Polyketals: A new biomaterial for drug delivery

Polyketals: a new family of pH-sensitive

The polyketals are a new class of biomaterials developed in our laboratory by graduate students Michael Heffernan, Stephen Yang and Scott Wilson, along with postdoctoral fellows Sungmun Lee and Siraj Khaja. The polyketals have several advantage existing biodegradable polymers, such as acid sensitivity and neutral degradation products. We are currently using the polyketals to treat a wide range of inflammatory diseases.

 

Nanoconfinement: A new strategy for imaging hydrogen peroxide in vivo

Hydrogen peroxide plays a fundamental role in life, controlling important cellular signaling pathways, such as PDGF growth factor signaling, NF-B activation, and also the redox state of the cell. The overproduction of hydrogen peroxide is implicated in the etiology of numerous chronic diseases such as arthritis, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. However, despite its importance, very little in known about hydrogen peroxide in vivo, because at present it is impossible to image hydrogen peroxide in vivo, due to a lack of contrast agents. We are working on a new family of nanoparticles that can image hydrogen peroxide in vivo.
Nanoconfinement: A new strategy for imaging hydrogen peroxide in vivo

Peroxalate Nanoparticles

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Selected Research Publications

  • Cao W, Manicassamy S, Tang H, Kasturi S, Pirani A, Murthy N, Pulendran B. Toll-like receptor mediated type I interferon induction in plasmacytoid dendritic cells requires the rapamycin-sensitive PI3K-mTOR-p70S6K pathway. Nature Immunology (In Press, Published Online August 4th 2008).
  • Sullivan S, Murthy N, Prausnitz M. Minimally invasive protein delivery with rapidly dissolving polymer microneedles. Advanced Materials 20 (5) 933-938, 2008.
  • Lee D, Khaja S, Velasquez CJ, Dasari M, Sun C, Petros J, Taylor W, Murthy N. In vivo imaging of hydrogen peroxide with chemiluminescent nanoparticles. Nature Materials 6(10), 765-769, 2007.
  • Lee S, Murthy N. Targeted delivery of catalase and superoxide dismutase to macrophages using folate. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 360(1), 275-279, 2007.
  • Khaja S, Lee S, and Murthy N. Acid degradable protein delivery vehicles based on metathesis chemistry. Biomacromolecules 8(5), 1391-1395, 2007.
  • Lee S, Yang SC, Heffernan MJ, Taylor WR, Murthy N. Polyketal microparticles: a new delivery vehicle for superoxide dismutase. Bioconj. Chem. 18(1) 4-7, 2007.
  • Talsma S, Babensee J, Murthy N, Wiliams R. Development and in vitro validation of a targeted delivery vehicle for DNA vaccines. J Control Release 112(2): 271-9, 2006.
  • Hao J, Kwissa M, Pulendran B, Murthy N. Peptide crosslinked micelles: A new strategy for the design and synthesis of peptide vaccines. International Journal of Nanomedicine 1, 97-103, 2006.
  • Heffernan M; Murthy N. Polyketal nanoparticles: A new pH sensitive biodegradable drug delivery vehicle. Bioconj. Chem. 16(6): 1340-1342, 2005.
  • Murthy N, Xu M, Schuck S, Kunisawa J, Shastri N, Frechet J. A new delivery vehicle for protein based vaccines: Acid degradable protein loaded microgels. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 100, 4995-5000, 2003.
  • Murthy N, Campbell J, Fausto N, Hoffman AS, Stayton PS. Bioinspired pH-Responsive Polymers for the Intracellular Delivery of Biomolecular Drugs. Bioconjugate Chemistry 14(2), 412-419, 2003.
  • Murthy N, Campbell J, Fausto N, Hoffman A, Stayton S. pH Responsive Polymeric Carriers That Target Uptake and Enhance The Intracellular Delivery of Oligonucleotides. Journal of Controlled Release 89, 365-374, 2003.
  • Murthy N, Thng YX, Schuck S, Xu MC, Frechet JM. A novel strategy for encapsulation and release of proteins: hydrogels and microgels with acid-labile acetal crosslinkers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 12398-12399, 2002.