My current research focus is Pharmacogenomics; unraveling the genetic predisposition for drug response in Indian population by applying Next generation sequencing technique leading to development of a diagnostic tool to screen drug responders vs non-responders.

Research Highlights

Ongoing Project

1. Downstream functional analysis and validation of single nucleotide polymorphism associated with Triamcinolone-acetonide and Dexamethasone induced ocular hypertension among Indian subjects.


2. Computational and functional characterization of peptide inhibitors disrupting LIMK2-cofilin interaction as a novel therapeutic target for Glaucoma.

Completed Project

1. Genome-wide association studies for Pharmacogenomics of steroid response in Eye Role: PI. Funding Agency: Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) – Pharmacogenomics Taskforce (2017-present). Summary: Steroid-induced ocular hypertension (SI-OHT) is reported in 30% of the population receiving intravitreal injections. SI-OHT is caused chiefly because of the genetic predisposition of an individual. We identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) associated with SI-OHT using a powerful NGS technology (whole-genome sequencing) and identified 28 variants that influence SI-OHT occurrence. These altered SNPs in the responders may act as biomarkers to screen the patients before steroid administration so that alternative treatment modalities can be adapted by clinicians.


2. Handled DBT Centre of Excellence grant for Retinoblastoma research objective titled “To investigate the cross-talk between oxidative stress and cellular methylation processes and dissect the functional role of epigenetically silenced genes in RB” as Co-Investigator
   Summary: As a co-investigator been part of a center of excellence grant in which differentially expressed genes in invasiveness of cancer were studied, gene knock down studies were performed to identify the changes in lipid profile in cancer cells, found out the methylation pattern of certain genes playing a significant role in tumor suppression, and also been part of the study which designed and validated drug nanoparticle conjugates for targeted drug delivery to tumor cells.


3. Handled Government of India, Department of Science & Technology (DST) funded collaborative project titled “Mining and characterization of therapeutically significant bioactive molecules from unique bacteria associated with novel Entomopathogenic Nematodes”during employment at iLife Discoveries.


4. Worked as a part of EU-FP6 funded project“Fish & Chips” – Towards DNA chip technology as a standard analytical tool for the identification of marine organisms in biodiversity and ecosystem research.) (www.fish-and-chips.uni-bremen.de) (2004-2008)

Google Scholar : Check out this link

1. C Amit, G Sathe, A Shunmugam, PK Athyala, V Ghose, S Chitipothu, et al. Graphitic Carbon Nitride Causes Widespread Global Molecular Changes in Epithelial and Fibroblast Cells., ACS Omega 6 (14), 9368-9380.


2. R Raguraman, S Parameswaran, JR Kanwar, M Vasudevan, S Chitipothu, et al., Gene expression profiling of tumor-stroma interactions in retinoblastoma. Experimental eye research 197, 108067.


3. Lakshmi Badrinarayanan, Srujana Chitipothu, Pukhraj Rishi, Ekta Rishi, BaddireddiSubhadra Lakshmi, Sailaja V. Elchuri. A Pilot study associates Single Nucleotide Polymorphism’s with Glucocorticosteroid induced ocular hypertension in Indian population. Experimental Eye Research,(2018) Under Review


4. Athyala, Prasanna Kumar; Kanwar, Jagat; Chitipothu, Srujana; Subramanian, Krishnakumar, Janakiraman, Narayanan 'Synthesis of Saporin - antibody conjugates for targeting EpCAM positive tumor cells', IET Nanobiotechnology, 2018, DOI: 10.1049/iet-nbt.2018.5222, IET Digital Library


5. Athyala, P. K., Kanwar, J. R., Chitipothu, S., Kanwar, R. K., Krishnakumar, S., Watson, J. P., & Narayanan, J. (2017). Neocarzinostatin, Aptamer Conjugates for Targeting EpCAM-positive Tumor Cells. Anticancer Research, 37(7), 3615–3629


6. Jayashree, B., Srimany, A., Jayaraman, S., Bhutra, A., Janakiraman, N., Chitipothu, S., Pradeep, T. (2016). Monitoring of changes in lipid profiles during PLK1 knockdown in cancer cells using DESI MS. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 408(20), 5623–5632.


7. Beta, M., Chitipothu, S., Khetan, V., Biswas, J., &Krishnakumar, S. (2015). Hypermethylation of Adenomatosis Polyposis Coli-2 and its Tumor Suppressor Role in Retinoblastoma. Current Eye Research, 40(7), 719–728.


8. Srujana Chitipothu, AlessiaCariani, Fabio Bertasi, Marco Stagioni, Marc Kochzius, DietmarBlohm, FaustoTinti and Monica Landi, 2014, ‘Invertebrate DNA Chip: Opportunities and Challenges in the Development and Application of Microarrays for Marine Biodiversity Studies’, in James V. Rogers (ed.), Microarrays: Principles, Applications and Technologies, Nova Science Publishers Inc. NewYork, pp 101-134.


9. Kochzius M, Kappel, K., Doblitz, L., Silkenbaumer, N., Nolte, M., Weber, H., Hjorleifsdottir, S., Marteinsson, V., Hreggvidsson, G., Planes, S., Tinti, F., Magoulas, A., Vazquez, E. G., Turan, C., Medlin, L., Metfies, K., Gescher, C., Cariani, A., Landi, M., Hervet, C., Falgueras, D.C., Antoniou, A., Bertasi, F., Chitipothu, S., Blohm, D. (2007) The "Fish & Chips" project: Microarrays as a tool for the identification of marine organisms in biodiversity and ecosystem research. OCEANS '07 IEEE Aberdeen Conference Proceedings: 1 – 4.

2005 - 2008
Doctorate research fellowship from the European commission under the 6th Framework Programme for research.

Dr Srujana Chitipothu, PhD
Principal Scientist / Research Coordinator
Incharge - Central Research Instrumentation Facility
Incharge Center for Bioinformatics
Vision Research Foundation,
41/18 College Road, Nungambakkam
Chennai – 600 006.
Ph: +91-(044) 28271616 Extn:1325
Email: drsrujana@snmail.org