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Professor Mani Ramaswami

Professor of Neurogenetics (Genetics)

 Mani.Ramaswami@tcd.ie

 3531896 8400/8400

Professor of Neurogenetics (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))

 (3531896) 8400

Professor of Neurogenetics (Zoology)


Research Projects

 Science Foundation of Ireland Investigator
 Wellcome Trust Cellular and genetic analysis of synapse assembly and function (Project Grant)
 Dept of Biotechnology, Govt of India. Circuit mechanisms of long-term habituation
  Deep sequencing of venom duct cDNAs from Indian cone snails
 Science Foundation of Ireland Research Professor.

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Aranha M.M., Ramaswami M., Emotional states: Sweet relief for depressed flies, Current Biology, 32, (18), 2022, pR954 - R957, pR954-R957 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Chen N., Zhang Y., Adel M., Kuklin E.A., Reed M.L., Mardovin J.D., Bakthavachalu B., VijayRaghavan K., Ramaswami M., Griffith L.C., Local translation provides the asymmetric distribution of CaMKII required for associative memory formation, Current Biology, 32, (12), 2022, p2730 - 2738.e5, p2730-2738.e5 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Trisal S., Aranha M., Chodankar A., VijayRaghavan K., Ramaswami M., A Drosophila Circuit for Habituation Override, Journal of Neuroscience, 42, (14), 2022, p2930 - 2941, p2930-2941 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Singh A., Kandi A.R., Jayaprakashappa D., Thuery G., Purohit D.J., Huelsmeier J., Singh R., Pothapragada S.S., Ramaswami M., Bakthavachalu B., The transcriptional response to oxidative stress is independent of stress-granule formation, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 33, (3), 2022, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Huelsmeier J., Walker E., Bakthavachalu B., Ramaswami M., A C-terminal ataxin-2 disordered region promotes Huntingtin protein aggregation and neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of Huntington"s disease, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 11, (12), 2021, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Heinze K., Barron H.C., Howes E.K., Ramaswami M., Broome M.R., Impaired inhibitory processing: A new therapeutic target for autism and psychosis?, British Journal of Psychiatry, 218, (6), 2021, p295 - 298, p295-298 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Arguello J.R., Abuin L., Armida J., Mika K., Chai P.C., Benton R., Ramaswami M., Targeted molecular profiling of rare olfactory sensory neurons identifies fate, wiring, and functional determinants, eLife, 10, 2021, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Singh A., Hulsmeier J., Kandi A.R., Pothapragada S.S., Hillebrand J., Petrauskas A., Agrawal K., Krishnan R.T., Thiagarajan D., Jayaprakashappa D., Vijayraghavan K., Ramaswami M., Bakthavachalu B., Antagonistic roles for ataxin-2 structured and disordered domains in rnp condensation, eLife, 10, 2021, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Roselli, C., Ramaswami, M., Boto, T., Cervantes-Sandoval, I, The Making of Long-Lasting Memories: A Fruit Fly Perspective, Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 15, 2021, p662129-, Notes: [Corresponding author], Review Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Carew T.J., Ramaswami M., The Neurohumanities: An Emerging Partnership for Exploring the Human Experience, Neuron, 108, (4), 2020, p590 - 593, p590-593 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Boto T, Ramaswami M, Learning and memory: Clashing engrams in the fly brain, Current Biology, 31, (16), 2021, pR1009 - R1011, Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  

Awards and Honours

Award Date
Professorial Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin. 2009
Galileo Circle Fellow, College of Science, University of Arizona. 2005
NIDA K (Career Development/ Research Leave) Award. (declined in 2008) 2004-2010
Cutting Edge Brain Research Award (CEBRA) from the NIDA. 2002
Early Tenure, University of Arizona 2000
HFSPO Research Grant Award 1999
NIH Research Career Development Award 1997-2002
McKnight Scholar's Award in Neuroscience 1995
Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Neuroscience 1995
HFSPO Research Grant Award 1995
Life Science Research Foundation Fellowship 1994
HFSPO Long-Term Fellowship 1992 -1993
Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences 1991
Proctor and Gamble Research Fellowship 1990
Markey Charitable Trust Fellowship 1985-1988
Evelyn Sharp Graduate Fellowship 1985-1988
Arthur McCallum Graduate Fellowship 1984
The Institute Silver Medal (for the best student of Chemistry) Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 1984

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

Research interests 
 My laboratory is interested in understanding molecular and circuit mechanisms of simple learned behaviors. We use the genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster to study fundamental synaptic mechanisms as well as mechanisms of simple olfactory memory. An obvious extension of these studies to ask how these mechanisms are affected in disease and we currently study disease models for fragile-X mental retardation and spinocerebellar ataxia. Five post-doctoral researchers and three postgraduate students in my lab use many in vivo approaches including Drosophila genetics, two-photon microscopy based live-brain imaging, electrophysiology, and a range of cell biological, behavioral & molecular techniques. Several collaborations, particularly with top research groups in India and the US, expand our work into other fields such as natural products and peptide neurotoxins. Recent advances in the lab include the following. 1. Primarily in collaboration with Veronica Rodrigues' group in the NCBS, Bangalore, we have discovered that gene expression- and synaptic growth dependent potentiation of GABAergic neurons drives specific forms of learned olfactory behavior. 2. In collaboration with Roy Parker at the University of Arizona, we have found that that proteins and mechanisms that control translation of mRNAs in yeast, also regulate the translation of mRNAs stored in synapses. Some of these regulatory mechanisms, required for proper neuronal homeostasis/plasticity are required for miRNA function and altered in human neurological disease.