Associate Dean for Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Professor-Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Professor-Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine-Department of Medicine

e-mail: psrao@umn.edu

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 within the 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.

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 hyperresponsiveness during allergic inflammation in murine models and 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.

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.

To evaluate the role of N-deacetylase/N-sulfortransferase-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 airway allergic inflammation including airway remodeling using mice with targeted disruption of NDST-1

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.

Broide D.H. and Sriramarao, P.  Eosinophil trafficking to sites of allergic inflammation. Immunol. Rev. 179: 164-173, 2001.

Sikora, L., Johansson, A., Hughes, G., Rao, S.P., Broide, D.H., and Sriramarao, P. A murine model to study leukocyte rolling and intravascular trafficking in lung microvessels. Am. J. Pathol. 162(6):2019-28,  2003.

Levin, EG., Sikora, L., Ding, L and Sriramarao, P.  Inhibition of tumor cell migration by a truncated form of 24kDa FGF-2 leads to suppression of tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo. Am. J. Pathol. 164(4):1183-90, 2004.

Boehme, S.A., Lio, F.M., Sikora, L., Pandit, T.S., Lavrador, K., Rao, S.P., Sriramarao, P. Cutting Edge: Serotonin is a chemotactic factor for eosinophils and functions additively with eotaxin. J. Immunol. 173: 3599-603, 2004.

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 Allergy Clin Immunol  2006;117(3):597-603.

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

Pandit TS, Sikora L, Muralidhar 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.

NIH R01 HL079304 (PI):  Serotonin (5-HT) and 5-HT2A in allergic inflammation (2005-2009)

NIH U19 AI 70535-01 (PI): “Role of NDST-1 in Airway Remodeling” (2006-2011)

For additional detail, please contact Dr. Srirama Rao at psrao@umn.edu