Good day, Vishnuprabu Durairaj Pandian. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

OK so thank you for your time to taking interview with me and I'm very glad to meet you. My name is Doctor Vishnu Prabhudharaj Pandyan. I'm a biomedical geneticist. I have I'm from Madurai, India. So I have started my undergrad in Thiagaraju College arts of Science into my BSc Microbiology. Then I moved to my masters of science in Biomedical genetics from University of Madras.

Then further, I continued my PhD at the University of Madras.

My biomedical genetics program then I, I was working under the supervision of Professor AK Munirajan and I've done my PhD work in the coronary artery disease specific genome wide association study candidate SNIPS analysis in the South Indian coronary artery disease patients. And I have over 10 years of postdoctoral training, research experience and especially in the field of cardiovascular.

Hypertension and also renal inflammatory diseases.

So I my experiences across the India like the institution, institution like prestigious institutions like in STEM and I have done my research in University of Toledo at Ohio State of the United States. Then I was working at the University of Midland Baltimore in Midland at USA. So all my research was focusing on understanding the genetics and epigenetic mechanisms of the inflammatory diseases and throughout my study like I was also focusing on pharmacogen.

Of cardiovascular diseases and so so my entire entire idea of research is integrating how the genetic variants involve in inflammatory diseases can cause disease and how can be this can be used as a tool for diagnosis and prognosis for understanding the disease early onset and also we can able to use those genetic variants to. Determine the patients how they are going to respond to the therapy.

Interested in research driven biomedical genetics program at the VAT. So that's why I applied for this program and I I'm so glad to attend the interview with you today.

Thank you, Professor Pandian. Let us begin with evaluating your competencies. We’ll start by assessing your expertise in Biomedical Genetics. Can you explain the molecular mechanisms by which a genetic mutation can disrupt a cellular signaling pathway and lead to disease?

Yes. So basically a mutation in the DNA is maybe of different different ways. For example, it may be a single base per mutation. This may be a nonsense mutations or missense mutation which can entirely abruptly like truncate the protein or maybe changing the amino acid and modify the structure of the protein by the way it can. Compromise the function of the protein that can lead to a disease in other way there may be.

A small nucleated deletion, maybe a six PSP deletion or 25 base bit deletion. Those kind of mutations also consider those are in Dells insertion or deletion variations that can also cause the same kind of genetic variation leads to protein truncation or protein aggregation or functional alteration of the protein that can lead to change in the function of the protein which can ultimately ends up in disease.

A disease where the mutation can be.

And some of the mutations may be a dominant which can single point mutation can activate the disease. For example in the APC gene where you have the single point mutation edematosis polymers, polyposis coli which can cause the disease. And in other cases there may be a resistive mutation like in the case of P 53 gene where you have two dominant alleles of both of them should be shut down or mutated to get this cancer. So technically these are the concepts how this mutation in the DNA can cause the disease.

But most importantly, mutations are kind of not in the polygenic diseases. In example like the inflammatory diseases or cardiovascular diseases, these are kind of polygenic. Not a single genetic variant or mutation cannot cause the disease. It may need involvement of multiple genetic variations which can cumulatively cause the disease and additionally there may be other environmental factors which can trigger the activation of the mutation.

Thank you, Professor Pandian, for the detailed explanation. That was well-articulated. Let me move to another foundational competency: Molecular Biology. Could you summarize the role of protein kinases in cellular signaling pathways and how aberrant kinase activity contributes to disease?

That's a great question. So basically protein kinases are very important enzymes. Those are in the signaling cascade which is originating from the cell membrane and usually the protein titers and kinases are kind of interest in cell anchored membranes. They should be having an extracellular domain which are very specifically activated by some of the ligands or stimuli and that can activate the internal structure.

Cytosolic domain of the peptide by activating uh, the conformational change of activating some Gtps is or some other Janus kinases are secondary kinases which can interact with those.

Excuse me?

Cytosolic domains which can activate the further proteins like protein kinase C and subsequently it can activate a cascade of protein activation like kinases are basically phosphate like it's kind of activating the phosphorylate phosphorylation of the protein in other subsequent signaling molecules and ultimately what happens. This can be a final step of activating a nuclear transcription factor which can. Fast get phosphorylated and translocates into the nucleus. And can mine to some of the transcriptional binding to domain of set instead of genes like cell proliferated genes or maybe you know sell cell cellular senescence gene. So it may be some of the genes which can able to activate the cell proliferation and control in the form of in the sense of cancer. So they can able to activate those gene sets transcription which can activate the cell proliferation uncontrollably or division of the cell.

And also maybe some other, uh, pathways like inflammatory signaling, signaling like interference signatures, like activating some cytokines. So these are the mechanisms where the protein kinases can play in activating the cell signaling throughout the cells, which leads to ending inactivating some of the gene expression patterns which can be path pathological to the T cells.

Understood, and thank you for that explanation, Professor Pandian. Let's expand this further: how would you address abnormal kinase activity in a research context, particularly when designing therapeutic interventions?

That's a great question. So when you are wanna.

Understand an abnormal kinase activity. So basically when there is an for example, if I wanna see any activation of kinase in this specific pathway, what I do I need to see the phosphorylation levels of the target of the kinase and we need to measure the phospho form of the protein which is downstream of the kinase. So basically what I do, I need to do an western blot. To just run a protein in their SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and then transfer it. Into a PVDF membrane and I need to probe for a phosphate form of that protein using a phospho specific monoclonal antibody which can able to show how much of the phosphorylation happened in those specific type of cells. If I see there is a active kinase activities is present in that cells or or the tissues, we can able to see more phosphorylated antibodies in the pain in the in the in the in the western blood results basically. The membrane, but if you see there is a low phosphorylated levels form of protein and that means that low kinase activity. So technically we can able to countermeasure the the unfossible unfossiled or total form of the protein. And also we can able to measure the phospholipid form of protein. For example a KT we have different form phospho Akt and normal Akt kinase and also we have for other various phospholipid form of. MAP kinase is a phosphomap kinase and unphosphorylated form of total MAP kinase we can able to counter.

Check the total levels versus the phospholipid levels that can able to show how this kinase activity is suppressed or activated.

Thank you, Professor Pandian, for explaining your approach to studying kinase activity and identifying abnormalities. Let us evaluate another competency critical for the role: teaching theory and laboratory courses. Can you describe your approach to structuring a laboratory session for undergraduate students to ensure they grasp both the theoretical and practical aspects of a given experiment?

That's a wonderful question. So technically I have a great experience in teaching undergrad students and Masters students like also like MD students, even PhD students throughout my curriculum as a PhD student and my Graduate School after my postdoctoral training, even my postdoctoral training, now I had experience to doing that. So in my perspective, how I do the theory and practical, they go in line with each other.

So what I do when I'm explaining, for example, if I'm teaching polymerase change reaction to a student, I don't simply say add this ABC and mix it and put it in the thermal cycler. Instead, I explain what does the DNA template. A DNA template has two strands, which is going to act as the template where the primers are going to bind 5 prime to three prime and then the polymerase is going to bind on the template and primer conjugate it's going to.

Defy So I will explain the theory part simultaneously along with the laboratory experiment. So by the way, P the student can visualize what is really happening in the molecular biology. So that will always keep in mind. So he will never forget this theory and he can implement in in the practicals in the future where he's going to research or industry that will be really useful. And also this will be very wonderful to keep in mind.

They can use this tool to develop future new technologies or techniques. Basically everything relies on understanding the theory and practical in the same line approach and it's kind it's kind of more interesting. So I will always try to teach my students in a better way to understand what is going on. And more importantly, I teach them what are the possible troubleshooting mechanisms, how things can fail. How you can overcome this?

What are the possible methods you may fail in doing experiment and also it will be the part of theory they'll understand so it's easy for them to not only memorizing it, it's also technically they can able to incorporate their thought process into this so they can learn better.

Thank you for laying out your comprehensive approach, Professor Pandian. That method of integrating theory with practical applications, alongside teaching troubleshooting, is certainly effective in fostering student understanding. Next, how do you typically assess student learning and progress during laboratory sessions?

That's a great question. I can remember I had a great experience in doing this because during my Graduate School PhD training, I had a great opportunity to teach students the practical papers for recombinant DNA technology and also molecular genetics. But I had a great experience in evaluating students by myself. So what we do, we technically give them assessment by writing some part of theoretical questions and providing them a challenging.

Troubleshooting options. For example, I give you a task like ask them to set up a PCR and I can allow them to troubleshoot what may be potentially wrong in this experiment. And additionally, I also asked them questions. For example, you have a tube of DNA and you leave it in room temperature and and what will be happening you forgot to put in the freezer. What may be the potential? Way it can get bad in the future.

So technically we put them in a question to understand what are the way science works. For example, they measure the nucleic acids with a nano drop or spectrophotometer and there will be a measurement of absorbent absorbance at 260 represents the measurement of nucleic acid and that is an absorption of 280 which is a representative of the absorption of the protein. So that shows the purity of the DNA. So we give a challenge what will happen if you have more?

So I will give you a technical question of what is what may be the reason behind the a 260 by 280 value is more than two?

Is it because of RNA?

Our protein then follow up if it is more than two.

The new claim it is RNA. That means what can we do to clean up the RNA from the DNA?

So understanding how logically to approach a technique, that's how I asked. So basically it's kind of interviewing the student in a logical way, believing they are in the bench and handling the experiment. So in that way, so they don't feel embarrassed to answer the question. Also, they will feel more confident in attempting this kind of future experiments by themselves with confidence.

That's a wonderful question. So I have multiple examples so I can give you one. One of my students, he did his M Tech student, M Tech student, Miss Doctor Arvind, he's a postdoc at Johns Hopkins now, and he moved to New Mexico as a said scientist recently. So he came to a project to work with me. So our idea was to understand the genetic variant of the APO E4 variant in the cardiovascular diseases, how they are.

Thank you for the detailed response, Professor Pandian. Your methodology of embedding logical and situational challenges into student assessments demonstrates a commitment to both teaching and practical skill-building. Let’s now evaluate your experience in guiding student projects and research. Could you share an example of a project you guided and the strategies you used to ensure its success?

Involved in the genetic predisposition of causing the disease. So technically. So when when when that student came, I took like two or three days to discuss about the concept and his idea of what is research. So basically students come to me with a case like 0. Knowledge of the research they know they don't know how to handle anything. So basically first I teach them to read manuscripts to read research papers to understand what is basically.

Research, So they should know what they're gonna do. Then I will ask them to ask questions what may be the hypothesis, what we can. So first we have to select a a target, for example, a disease, a model. Then we need to put some questions. What is the this model that is a disease, what we can study on it. Then we need to bring some the venue where to study, for example, a pathway or a disease or a gene marker. So then we need to put the question how we are going to study.

What is the starting material? Either we need to work with a a cell culture model in vitro or animal model in vivo or most importantly we can work on the clinical model directly patient samples. So then we need to figure out what is this model system we are going to work on. Then we need to put some methods. What are the techniques we are going to use? So what are the starting material? What are the techniques we need? So we need to have a blueprint of our hypothesis materials, methods. Then we need to bring the.

But this is questioned. Then do this all, then we get the results. So once we get the results, I teach them how to analyze the data.

So and then once we analyze the data, we have the result table with the data points. Then we need to do the discussion part and finally we can able to do the conclusion. So when you do the discussion part, we need to bring more papers supporting or maybe against our data or maybe going along. So there may be some other people who worked on the same field with the different aspects. So we can bring that into the manuscript or the research thesis. So technically we can finally bring a conclusion. So in this concept.

For Armin then he, he worked together to collect 150 DNA samples from various cardiovascular disease patients in Chennai, India. So we could able to do a PCR amplifying a specific segment of the gene targeting. Like there is a unique variation which we wanted to target to see how much polymorphism is present in this population. So what we did, we do PCR, RFLP that is on 2000, I'm talking about in the year 2000. 9/10/11.

So that time, so we could able to do the PCR, RFLP and confirm this variation with the small batch of sequencing, sender sequencing. And once we have the data we had the clinical characteristics of the patients, we could able to tabulate the clinical data correlating with the genotype. And finally, we could be able to get this frequency, allele frequency calculation for those data and we could able to submit this thesis. So by the way, I trained him to get this experience of how how our research works and how to.

Handle this approach. What is the approach, best approach to do the research? And that's what I teach to all my students in the best way. What what is research? Research is not cherry picking. So what is the data you get that's a result. So when you get the results, you don't convince you do replicate yourself. You convince yourself before, before you take it to your mentor or your trainer and then you discuss the data and you have to talk. So research is kind of constant communication. And interaction and brainstorming. That's what I teach my students. And that's. It's kind of a the my approach to deal all the students and technically at the end of the day, they need to do their own research in future. So we need to give a competence to the students confidence how they can handle a research project technically, how to create a hypothesis, how to define a design, a standard and a clean method with a positive and negative control and how to do the analysis part very efficiently with the standard statistical. Methods and how to discuss your results very efficiently so it can.

Give a proper conclusion of the hypothesis.

So I very well understand when you have a classroom, there'll be hundreds of students like some people, some kids will be like students will be like the low level, they may be having a pretty hard knowledge in the subject, but some will be having already a great knowledge about the subject. So always I go for the lower communities who are in the lower background who comes from no knowledge. So I need to train them. So my focus will be. Transferring the knowledge what I have to be delivered to the person who is.

Thank you, Professor Pandian, for providing such a comprehensive account and sharing your structured approach for guiding research projects. Your emphasis on hypothesis generation, methodical planning, data validation, and student independence resonates strongly with the ethos of a research-driven academic program. We will now transition to assessing your expertise in effective communication and structured teaching. How would you ensure inclusivity and engagement during lectures for a diverse group of students with varying levels of prior knowledge?

That's a wonderful question.

Need of that knowledge. Technically, that doesn't mean I'm not going to teach the uh students who have already a great knowledge about it, but they can also learn more in deep. I can able to train them to provide them additional, you know, manuscripts or research papers or, you know, new literatures so they can able to update your knowledge. But technically, my focus is to make every student understand the theoretical knowledge.

What I'm gonna teach them because.

Uh, friendly and open to approach, uh, kind of, uh, teacher who can able to, and I love to teach, you know, so that's the thing. Because all my, uh, students used to tell me that I'm, uh, easy going approach student professor and I'm kind of easy to reach out. And I'm really interested in explaining the hard concepts and the easy way so they can understand very well, so they can able to keep that in mind and they don't forget for their lifetime.

The importance of the knowledge is not to make the bright students brighter. It's the most importantly, it's to make the weak student brighter. So that's what I think and I always focus on them more efficiently and I can able to talk to them one-on-one on in person and I'm ready to provide them a special, you know, training or explanation or so I'll be more.

Thank you for your thoughtful answer, Professor Pandian. Your focus on engaging and supporting students with diverse levels of prior knowledge is admirable, and your dedication to fostering an inclusive and accessible learning environment is commendable. Let me now evaluate your experience in research publications. Could you discuss one of your most impactful research publications and explain its significance to the field of biomedical genetics?

Yeah, so I will say my I have a quite a lot of publications as a first author and co-author of publications in top notch journals. So considerably like in Science advances which is one of my recent publication in my postdoctoral training. And also I have my publication recent publication in Frontiers in genetics addressing the knowledge gap in the genetics diaspora in African American ancestry population. Another paper we worked on the hypertension collaborating with IAT Madras. And also diabetes journal and my BBRC is one of my first other journal. So most of the journals I have worked efficiently as a part, as a team member, as a co-author and a first author. I put all my efforts and I did a wonderful, you know, analysis part and data, data data collection part and working to the heart of the core, engaging with people and bringing that wonderful manuscripts. And in precise an example, my first first other paper I would like to explain, which is the journal called.

A gene which is one of the, uh, genetic testing for KIF 6 polymorphisms, which we have screened 310 coronary artery disease patients in South India, which was my first first other paper, my PhD, which I always remember one of the best publication what I have, which is we found this variation is not a. So it is one of the key genetic variant observed in genome wide association studies from European population and it has been shown to be involved.

In regulating the statin therapy as well as predicting marker for the coronary artery disease. But our paper like we wanted to screen that variation in South Indian coronary artery disease patients. That's why we did in a large scale collecting 310 myocardial infarction coronary artery disease patients of South Indian origin and we tested their genetic variant and controls of another 300 patient clinically healthy control volunteers DNA samples and this data we have done a large scale analysis. We found, did a meta analysis comparing our allelic frequency datasets with other, uh, population data set and we could able to see that it's not so significant in our population and which is kind of consistent with other Asian population. It's most predominantly very significantly associated with the European population. And we published, and this paper was published in 2015 and it was also used because at that point of time, US, the KIV 6 genetic testing was.

What does it, uh, diagnostic marker in the market and it was about to, uh, came into the market and it was there in the market for maybe a couple of years. But later when we published this manuscript and up after me did like be there other couple of populations like from others, other Asian population, they published this, they are not significant in the Asian population and that's the reason they also brought into the picture. These genetic testing may not be efficient in the ADMIX population in the US because. US is not a unique population of European citizen large other populations living so they just withdraw that genetic testing from the you know diagnostic panel. And additionally, like I have also worked on another genetic marker called CAC and B2, which is a calcium channel calcium channel receptor protein and we found the overexpression of this protein can activate the hypertensive pathways. I published in 2019 as my post doctoral.

And, uh, that's one of the, uh, very high impact journal of the Elsevier. And we found this activation of the CSE and B2 can activate the Rasmap kinase pathway. And we used kidney epithelial cells. Also, we found the cardiomyocytes show high expression of this cardiac CAC and B2 protein. And that's another one of the interesting paper. And right now I'm working on another interesting manuscript where the. African American ancestry patients, they develop a significant, you know.

Injury of the kidney when they have a lupus and we are studying the gene called Pol one. And this variant is shown to be very interestingly only present in this population and there is no diagnostic method for this disease. People end up in this disease, they lose their kidney function within two years. So that's kind of more pathetic. And this pathological variation in this Pol 1 gene shows very predominant and dominant. Of this pathology so we are working to find out a diagnostic marker using epigenetic urine epigenetic signature so that can be developed so we are working on that manuscript and also developing a diagnostic tool and to selective epigenetic markers right now which is about to come maybe in another few months. So that's going to be another interesting paper which is coming out once it comes out it's going to be very, very highly useful for the. Healthcare community to diagnose those patients.

And it can be treated more efficiently.

Thank you, Professor Pandian, for elaborating on your impactful publications. Your contributions, ranging from population-specific genetic studies to diagnostic tool development, reflect a strong alignment with advancing research in biomedical genetics and addressing critical health disparities. The breadth and utility of your work are indeed impressive. Let's proceed. Could you now walk me through any consultancy or industry project experience where you applied your expertise to solve a practical biomedical problem?

That's a great question. So technically to speak.

BR I never worked with any consultancy or industry related projects, but most of my projects are focused on healthcare oriented and mostly working with clinicians. And technically we work on the clinical samples addressing how this genetic variations in specific population are targeted. You know specific genes can activate the pathways or can be lead to pathological. Condition of the disease.

And most importantly, like, uh, my entire goal of my research, uh, throughout the PhD and postdoc research was focusing on understanding and developing, uh, novel techniques and tools and also diagnostic panels for cardiovascular inflammatory diseases, which can be potentially used in future, uh, for therapeutic or maybe diagnostic applications, especially the pharmacogenetics testing. So we work, I work my personally worked in my PhD targeting.