Faculty Research Interests
Srinivas Garlapati, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Chemistry and Natural Sciences Bldg. 323
700 University Avenue
Monroe, LA 71209
Phone: 318-342-3304
Fax: 318-342-1790
Email: garlapati@ulm.edu
Education
Ph.D. in Biotechnology
Madurai Kamaraj University, India
Post-doctoral studies in Molecular Parasitology
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
University of California San Francisco, USA
Research Interests
Our lab studies the biology of the protozoan human parasite Giardia lamblia. It is primarily transmitted by contaminated water and causes a diarrheal disease
called giardiasis. Around 2 million people are infected annually and of which most
of them are children who suffer from long lasting illness. Currently available drugs
to treat this debilitating disease have adverse side effects. We are interested in
elucidating the molecular mechanism of translation initiation in the parasite in order
to develop parasite specific drugs. Our current projects in the lab includes a) identification
of translation initiation factors that recruit the protein synthetic machinery to
capped mRNAs with a very short 5’UTRs (funded by Louisiana Board of Regents and LBRN-NIH)
and b) screening for anti-giardial compounds in plant extracts.
Giardia parasite expressing La autoantigen fused to GFP (green).
Two nuclei of the parasite are stained by DAPI (blue).
Garlapati et al., 2011
Teaching activities
Introductory Microbiology
Advanced Microbiology
Pathogenic Bacteria
Immunology
Selected Publications
Srinivas Garlapati, Ashesh Saraiya and Ching C. Wang (2011). La antigen homologue in Giardia lamblia is required for Giardiavirus internal ribosome entry site mediated translation. PLoS One 6(3); e18263
Srinivas Garlapati and Ching C. Wang (2009). Giardiavirus internal ribosome entry site has an apparently unique mechanism of
initiating translation. PLoS One 4(10): e7435
Srinivas Garlapati and Ching C. Wang (2005). Structural elements in the 5’untranslated region of giardiavirus transcript essential
for internal ribosome entry site mediated translation initiation. Eukary. Cell. 4:742-754.
Srinivas Garlapati and Ching C. Wang (2004). Identification of a novel internal ribosome entry site in giardiavirus that extends
to both sides of the initiation codon. J.Biol. Chem. 279:3389-3397.
Srinivas Garlapati and Ching C.Wang (2002). Identification of an essential pseudoknot in the downstream putative internal ribosome
entry site in giardiavirus transcript. RNA8:601-611. (Recommended by Faculty of 1000)
Srinivas Garlapati, Jim Chou†, and Ching C. Wang (2001). Specific secondary structures in the capsid coding region of Giardiavirus transcript
are required for its translation in Giardia lamblia. J. Molecular Biology308: 623-638. (Recommended by Faculty of 1000) († Undergraduate student).
Alon Zilka*, Srinivas Garlapati*, Edit Dahan, Victoria Yoalsky, and Michal Shapira (2001). Developmental regulation of heat shock protein 83 in Leishmania. J. Biological Chemistry 276(51): 47922-47929. (* Equal contributions)
Michal Shapira, Alon Zilka, Srinivas Garlapati, Edit Dahan, Irit Dahan and Victoria Yovesky (2001). Post transcriptional control of gene expression in Leishmania. Med. Microbiol. Immunology. 190:23-26.
Srinivas Garlapati, Edith Dahan, and Michal Shapira (1999). Effect of acidic pH on heat shock gene expression in Leishmania amazonensis. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 100(1): 95-101.
Srinivas Garlapati, Radi Aly, and Michal Shapira (1998). Genus specific expression from the SL RNA promoter of Leishmania amazonensis. J. Experimental Parasitology 89(2): 266-270.
School of Sciences
Biology