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Professor Mani Ramaswami

Professor of Neurogenetics (Genetics)
Professor of Neurogenetics (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))
 (3531896) 8400
Professor of Neurogenetics (Zoology)
      
Profile Photo

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)


Mani is Professor of Neurogenetics in Trinity College Dublin, Adjunct Professor in the National Centre for Biological Sciences Bangalore, and past Director of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He was an undergraduate in the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, a Ph.D. student in the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a postdoctoral fellow in the University of California in San Francisco. He has held tenured Professorships in the National Centre for Biological Sciences and the University of Arizona, Tucson, as well as recent visiting professorships in U.C. Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. His work has been recognized by a U.S. McKnight Neuroscience Scholar"s award, a Foundation Day Medal from the Indian National Brain Research Foundation and Membership of the Royal Irish Academy. His lab"s recent research has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council. A founding Reviewing Editor for eLife, he currently serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Rohini Nilekani Centre for Brain and Mind in Bangalore, the Royal Society"s Research Panel Bii and Society for Neuroscience Gerard Prize Selection Committee.
Project Title
 Science Foundation of Ireland Investigator
From
2007
To
2011
Summary
Project Title
 Irish Research Council Advanced Laureate Award. Tuning thresholds for neuronal translation and long-term memory.
From
To
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council Advanced Laureate Award.
Project Title
 Wellcome Trust Cellular and genetic analysis of synapse assembly and function (Project Grant)
From
2006
To
2008
Summary
Role PI
Funding Agency
Wellcome Trust
Project Title
 Science Foundation Ireland Frontiers for the Future Awards
From
To
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland Frontiers for the Future Awards: Ataxin-2 and the molecular c
Project Title
 Dept of Biotechnology, Govt of India. Circuit mechanisms of long-term habituation
From
To
Summary
Role: Collaborator (PI: Veronica Rodrigues)

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Details Date From Date To
Royal Society Research Appointment Panel Bii 2025 2027
Ralph W. Gerard Prize Selection Committee Member, Society for Neuroscience, USA. 2024 2026
Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal Life Sciences Award Committee 2024
Senior Facilitator, Scialog: Molecular Basis of Cognition (MBC). Tucson. 2024
Scientific Advisory Board Member, Rohini Nilekani Centre for Brain and Mind, Bangalore, 2023
Advisory Panel, Infosys-TIFR Leading Edge Research Grants. India. 2022
Associate Editor, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics 2020 present
Consultant, Faze Therapeutics, Third Rock Ventures, Boston USA. 2019
Scientific Advisory Board (Co-Chair) Accelerator program for Discovery in Brain Disorders A public-private collaboration on genomics and mechanisms of psychiatric/ neurodevelopmental disorders, Bangalore. India. 2016 2022
Member, eLife Editor-in-Chief Search Committee 2018
Founding Member, Board of Reviewing Editors, eLife. 2012 present
Associate Editor, Journal of Neurogenetics 2006 present
External Advisor to the Management Board, NCBS, Bangalore, India. 2007 present
Governing Board, Bangalore-NER Program on Chemical Ecology. NCBS. 2013 2018
Camilla Roselli, Jens Hillebrand, Jenifer Kaldun, Vernon Leander Monteiro, Thomas Hurd, Simon G. Sprecher, Tamara Boto, Mani Ramaswami, The Ataxin-2 protein is required in Kenyon cells for RNP-granule assembly and appetitive long-term memory formation, Journal of Neurogenetics, 39, (2-3), 2025, p54 - 64, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
Roselli C, Hillebrand J, Kaldun J, Monteiro VL, Hurd T, Sprecher SG, Boto T, Ramaswami M., The ataxin-2 protein is required in kenyon cells for RNP-granule assembly and appetitive long-term memory formation., Journal of neurogenetics, 39, (2-3), 2025, p54-64 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
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
  

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. Petrauskas, A, Fortunati, D., Pothapragada, S.S., Kandi, A.R, Agrawal, K., Huelsmeier, J., Hillebrand, J., Brown, G., Chaturvedi, D. Lee, J., Lim, C., G. Auburger, VijayRaghavan, K., Singh, A., Ramaswami, M". and Bakthavachalu, B"., Structured and disordered regions of Ataxin-2 contribute differently to the specificity and efficiency of mRNP granule formation, PLoS Genet., 20, (5), 2024, Notes: [PLoS Genet. 20(5):e1011251. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011251.], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Roselli, C., Ramaswami, M, and Aranha, M., "Assessing long-term olfactory habituation in Drosophila melanogaster with the olfactory arena", Bioprotocols., 2024, Notes: [Bioprotocols. In Press], Journal Article, IN_PRESS
Bisht, A., Pippadpally, S., Majumder, S, Gopi, A.T., Das, A., Sahi, C., Ramaswami, M., and Kumar, V., Prefoldin 5 is a microtubule-associated protein that suppresses tau-aggregation and neurotoxicity, eLife, 2024, Notes: [(Version of Record being prepared for eLife).doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.14.618171], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Trisal. S., VijayRaghavan, K and Ramaswami, M, Using the proboscis-extension reflex to study gustatory habituation and yeast-induced habituation override in Drosophila melanogaster., BioProtocols., 3, (23), 2023, Notes: [BioProtocols.3(23):e4891. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4891.], Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Boto T, Ramaswami M, Learning and memory: Clashing engrams in the fly brain, Current Biology, 31, (16), 2021, pR1009 - R1011, Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Visiting Advanced Joint Faculty Researcher Award (VAJRA Govt. of India) 2025
M.R. Bauer Colloquium, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. 2022
Wiersma Lecture, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. 2022
Wellcome Trust Investigator. 2018
Visiting Advanced Joint Faculty Researcher Award (VAJRA Govt. of India) 2018
Enhancing the Trinity Experience Award Trinity (Undergrad Nomination) 2016
Member Royal Irish Academy (MRIA). 2014
Foundation Day Medal, National Brain Research Centre, New Delhi. 2014
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
The laboratory"s research has contributed to cellular, behavioral and systems neuroscience. Early work identified conserved mechanisms of synaptic transmission and pioneered strategies for studying synaptic-vesicle trafficking in the fruit fly. Subsequent analyses of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity mechanisms in behaving animals performed in collaboration with the late Veronica Rodrigues, led to a series of behavioral genetic experiments in Drosophila that uncovered a circuit mechanism of "habituation," the universal ability of organisms to ignore familiar inconsequential stimuli. The observations suggest the creation of negative images or inhibitory masks for neural representations encoding familiar stimuli, serves as the canonical mechanism of habituation across brain systems and species; and notably that flexible re-engagement with familiar stimuli is enabled by disinhibition-mediated lifting of inhibitory masks. Subsequent theoretical arguments developed with Helen Barron and Tim Behrens, indicate that inhibitory engrams created by the same plasticity mechanisms additionally allow memories to be stored in latent, quiescent states that remain accessible for recall. This has additional, testable implications for functions of sleep and memory replay as well as for mechanisms of memory classification and generalization A major focus of the lab"scurrent work is on "biological condensates," a term that refers to a variety of cellular membrane-less organelles. An unusual assembly mechanism makes condensates particularly suited to support rapid and reversible biological processes underlie a variety of critical biological functions. In addition, they allow condensates to accumulate and concentrate misfolded cellular proteins, thereby sometimes inadvertently supporting protein aggregation characteristic of neurodegenerative disease such as ALS, Huntingtons and the Taupathies. The work initiated and continued in collaboration with Roy Parker identified molecular components of neuronal mRNP granules/ condensates and demonstrated their compositional similarity to other classes of cytoplasmic condensates. It provided early evidence for the participation of these condensates in neurodegeneration as well as in long-term memory consolidation. Ongoing work in the lab seeks to understand how different classes of intracellular condensates are regulated and function in molecular processes that support cognition, as well as in pathogenic processes that lead to neurodegeneration.