Dr. Viswanathan Natarajan is a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He is a basic/translational research scientist and the overall goal of his research is to understand molecular mechanisms, signaling pathways mediating lung inflammation and injury, and lung cancer.
Dr. Natarajan is focusing on developing novel therapeutic agents to ameliorate or block lung tumor growth and metastasis and pulmonary leak/lung edema, and restore barrier integrity. His lab has identified lysocardiolipin acyltransferase (LYCAT), a cardiolipin remodeling enzyme in the mitochondria, as a key regulator of NSCLC migration and invasion in vivo and in vitro. They have developed peptide inhibitors to block LYCAT activity and arrest NSCLC motility and invasion in animal models of lung cancer.
Dr. Natarajan has been continuously funded by NIH/HLBI since 1993 to work on mechanisms of lung pathologies including lung inflammation, sepsis and pulmonary hypertension. He has trained more than 25 post-doctoral and pulmonary fellows in his laboratory in the past 25 years.
His research is focused on lung cancer, molecular mechanisms, signaling pathways and therapeutic agents.