Arun Richard Chandrasekaran

Arun Richard Chandrasekaran is a Senior Research Scientist at The RNA Institute at the University at Albany. Prior to his independent position, Dr. Chandrasekaran did his post-doctoral research at The RNA Institute at UAlbany. He later worked in a diagnostics start-up company in Boston for 2 years and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UMass Lowell. Dr. Chandrasekaran’s research lab focusses on using DNA as a material to build nanoscale structures, with applications in drug delivery, data storage and crystallography. Dr. Chandrasekaran is an editorial advisory board member in the journal iScience at Cell Press and is a member of the Nanoscale Horizons journal Community Board.

Research/Specialty Areas

• DNA nanotechnology
• Nucleic acid crystallography
• Drug delivery

Google Scholar Page

Research Philosophy
Doing science can be both fun and useful.
 

Current Projects
Our group focusses on using DNA as a material to design and build synthetic nanostructures and functionalizing them for different applications. We currently work on developing strategies to enhance the biostability of DNA nanostructures so that they can survive in physiological conditions (for example, withstand degradation by nucleases), to attach drug molecules at specific sites of the nanostructure (eg: click chemistry) and to release drugs by external stimuli (eg: biological stimuli such as other nucleic acids or physical stimuli such as light). 

Working with biological and clinical collaborators, we are currently developing DNA nanostructures that can act as drug delivery platforms for different types of drugs, specifically focusing on Alzheimer’s disease and myotonic dystrophy. We are also interested in rationally designing DNA motifs that can assemble into 3D DNA crystals. These crystals will contain cavities that can accommodate other guest molecules, acting as a scaffold for X-ray based structure determination. Some of our other interests are in designing DNA devices that can perform logic operations and act as short-term information storage devices.
 

Recent publications

BR Madhanagopal, H Talbot, A Rodriguez, JM Louis, H Zeghal, S Vangaveti, K Reddy, AR Chandrasekaran,* The unusual structural properties and potential biological relevance of switchback DNA. Nature Communications 15: 6636 (2024).

BR Madhanagopal, A Rodriguez, M Cordones, AR Chandrasekaran,* Barium concentration-dependent anomalous electrophoresis of synthetic DNA motifs. ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 7: 2704 (2023).

AR Chandrasekaran,* A DNA rotary nanodevice operated by enzyme-initiated strand resetting. Chem. Commun. 60: 534 (2023).

H Talbot, BR Madhanagopal, A Hayden, K Halvorsen, AR Chandrasekaran,* Fluorometric determination of DNA nanostructure biostability. ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 6: 3074 (2023). [Cover feature]

A Rodriguez, D Gandavadi, J Mathivanan, T Song, BR Madhanagopal, H Talbot, J Sheng, X Wang, AR Chandrasekaran,* Self-assembly of DNA nanostructures in different cations. Small 19: 2300040 (2023). [Cover feature]

BR Madhanagopal, S Chen, CD Platt, AR Chandrasekaran,* Caffeine-induced release of small molecules from DNA nanostructures. iScience 26: 106564 (2023).

H Talbot, K Halvorsen, AR Chandrasekaran,* Encoding, decoding, and rendering information in DNA nanoswitch libraries. ACS Synth. Biol. 12: 978 (2023). [Cover feature]

H Faheem, J Mathivanan, H Talbot, S Vangaveti, H Zeghal, J Sheng, AA Chen, AR Chandrasekaran,* Toehold clipping: A mechanism for remote control of DNA strand displacement. Nucleic Acids Res. 51: 4055 (2023). [Cover feature]

AR Chandrasekaran,* DNA nanotechnology in the undergraduate laboratory: Electrophoretic analysis of DNA nanostructure biostability. J. Chem. Edu. 100: 316 (2023).