Balaji Sitharaman

Assistant Professor
Director, Multi-Functional Nano- & Supramolecular- Biosystems Laboratory

 
Research Focus

Our laboratory seeks to work at the interface of bionanotechnology, regenerative and molecular medicine and synergize the advancements in each of these distinct fields to develop a dynamic research program that tackles problems related to diagnosis/ treatment of disease and tissue regeneration.

Toward these ends, our research interests involve a multidisciplinary approach focused on the following three themes:

1. Multifunctional nanobiosystems for simultaneous diagnostics and therapeutics (theragnostics).
2. Multidimensional supramolecular biosystems for imaging, drug delivery and tissue   regeneration.
3. Nanobio-interface devices for tissue regeneration.

Current projects capitalize on the unique properties of carbon nanobiomaterials to develop a) advanced contrast agents (CAs) for molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),  b) nanocomposites to improve the physical and biological (osteoconduction and osteoinduction) properties of polymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering and c) non-viral vectors for gene transfection. Our research work involves material synthesis techniques, physico-chemical characterization techniques, tissue culture and in vivo studies.

 
Education

• 2005-2007 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Department of Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA.
• 2005 MA & Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
• 2000 B.S. (Honors), Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
  

 
Professional Experience

• 2007 Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York, Stony Brook Associate Professor (Primary Appointment), Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, SUNY at Stony Brook, 2007 -

 
Awards and Honors

• 2005-2007 J. Evan Attwell-Welch Postdoctoral Fellowship, Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, USA
• 2005 George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology, Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas, USA
• 2005 Harry B. Weiser Award for Research, Rice University, USA
• 2005 Chemistry Graduate Student Association Research Award, Rice University, USA.
• 2000-2005 Robert A. Welch Foundation Graduate Fellowship, USA
• 1999-2000 Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Indian Academy of Sciences, India.

 
Peer Reviewed Publications

Click here to search Balaji Sitharaman's PubMed listings

• B. Sithamaran, T. Y. Zakharian, A. Saraf, P. Misra, J. Ashcroft, S. Pan, Q. Pham, A. G. Mikos, L. J. Wilson & D. A. Engler, Water-Soluble Fullerene (C60) Derivatives as Non-Viral Gene-Delivery Vectors, Carbon Nanostructures as Artificial Vectors for Transfection, Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2007 (In Press).
• X. Shi, B. Sitharaman, Q. Pham, J. L. Hudson, L. J. Wilson, J. M. Tour & A G. Mikos, In Vitro Cytotoxicity of  Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Biodegradable Polymer Nanocomposites, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A 2007 (In Press).
• B. Sitharaman & L. J. Wilson, Gadofullerenes and Gadonanotubes: A New Paradigm for High-Performance MRI Contrast Agent Design, Invited Review in the Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, 2007 (In Press).
• X. Shi, B. Sitharaman, Q. P. Pham, K. Wu, W. E. Billups, L. J. Wilson & A. G. Mikos, Fabrication of Porous Ultra-Short Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, 28, 4078-4090, 2007.
• B.Sitharaman, L. A. Tran, R. D. Bolskar, R. Muthupillai, S. D. Flamm, A. G. Mikos & L.J. Wilson, Gadofullerenes as Nanoscale Magnetic Labels for Cellular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Contrast Media & Molecular Imaging, 2, 139-146, 2007.
• B. Sitharaman, L. A.Tran, P. P. Spicer, I. Rusakova, L. J. Wilson & A. G. Mikos, Injectable In Situ Crosslinkable Nanocomposites of Biodegradable Polymers and Carbon Nanostructures for Bone Tissue Engineering, Journal of Biomaterial Science, Polymer Edition,18, 655–671, 2007.
• S. Laus, B. Sitharaman, É. Tóth, R. D. Bolskar,  L. Helm, L. J. Wilson & A. E. Merbach, Understanding Paramagnetic Relaxation Phenomena for Water-Soluble Gadofullerenes, J. Phys. Chem. C, 111, 5633-5639, 2007.
• B. Sitharaman, S. Asokan, I. Rusakova, M. S. Wong & Lon J. Wilson, Nanoscale Aggregation Properties of Neuroprotective Carboxyfullerene (C3) in Aqueous Solution, Nano Lett., 4(9), 1759 – 1762, 2004.
• L. Husebo, B. Sitharaman, L. J. Wilson, Fullerenols Revisited: Stable Radical Anions, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126(38), 12055 – 12064, 2004.
• Balaji Sitharaman & Lon J. Wilson, Gadonanotubes as New High-Performance MRI Contrast Agents, Invited Review in International Journal of Nanomedicine, 1(3), 291-295, 2006. 
• T. Y. Zakharian, B.Sitharaman, A. Seryshev, B. E. Gilbert, V. Knight & Lon J. Wilson, A Fullerene (C60)-Paclitaxel Chemotherapeutic: Synthesis, Characterization and Study of Biological Activity in Tissue Culture,J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127(36), 12508-12509, 2005.
• B. Sitharaman, K. Kissell, K. Hartman,  L. A. Tran, , A. Baikalov, I. Rusakova, Y. Sun, H. A Khant, S. J Ludtke, W. Chiu, S. Laus, É. Tóth, L. Helm, A. E. Merbach & Lon J. Wilson, Superparamagnetic Gadonanotubes Are High-Performance MRI Contrast Agents, Chem. Commun., 31, 3915 – 3917, 2005.
• S. Laus, B. Sitharaman, É. Tóth, R. D. Bolskar, L. Helm, S. Asokan, M. S. Wong, L. J. Wilson, & A. E. Merbach, Destroying Gadofullerene Aggregates by Salt Addition in Aqueous Solution of Gd@C60(OH)x and Gd@C60[C(COOH2)],  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127(26), 9368 – 9369, 2005.
• É. Tóth, R. D. Bolskar, A. Borel, G. González, L. Helm, A. E. Merbach, B. Sitharaman & Lon J. Wilson, Water soluble Gadofullerenes: Towards High relaxivity, pH-Responsive MRI Contrast Agents, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127(1), 799-805, 2005.
• B. Sitharaman, É. Tóth, R. D. Bolskar, G. González, L. Helm, A. E. Merbach & Lon J. Wilson, Dynamic Light Scattering and Relaxometric Studies of Water-Soluble Gd@C60 Derivatives as pH-Responsive MRI Contrast Agents, Fullerenes and  Nanotubes, 14, 330-338, 2004.
• C. M. Sayes, J. D. Fortner, A. M. Boyd, K. D. Ausman, Y. J. Tao, B. Sitharaman, L. J. Wilson, J. B. Hughes, J. L. West & V. L. Colvin, The Differential Cytotoxicity of Water-Soluble Fullerenes, Nano Lett., 4(10), 1881 – 1887, 2004.
• B. Sitharaman, R. D. Bolskar, I. Rusakova & Lon J. Wilson, Gd@C60[C(COOH)2]10 and Gd@C60(OH)x: Nanoscale Aggregation Studies of Two Metallofullerene MRI Contrast Agents in Aqueous Solution, Nano Lett., 4(12), 2373 – 2378, 2004.