Dr. Teluguakula Narasaraju is an Assistant Professor, Research Department of Physiological Sciences Center for Veterinary Health Sciences Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklhoma USA. He has been working in the field of “respiratory and infectious diseases” for more than 18 years. H developed interest on respiratory diseases right from his early research career, especially on influenza viruses. He obtained postdoctoral training in lung biology laboratory at Oklahoma State University, USA. His work resulted in 12 peer-reviewed publications in 3 years. During this period he developed hyperoxia model, which mimic bronchopulmonary dysplasia in humans, most common chronic respiratory disease that affects preterm infants due to mechanical ventilation, oxygen toxicity and infection. He has shown that insulin-like growth factor-1 helps in alveolar repair by promoting alveolar epithelial differentiation, critical for lung regeneration after injury. He continued his research at National University of Singapore, Singapore on influenza viruses after briefly working on SARS corona virus ion identifying cytotoxic T-cell epitopes for DNA vaccine. For the past 8 years, his research is mainly focused on the role of innate immune cells in influenza virus pathogenesis. Broad research interest in my laboratory is to explore the role of innate immune response in influenza virus pathogenesis. His studies have shown that excessive neutrophils and their released neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) exacerbate lung damage, which ultimately progress into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Most recently, his team have identified that histone proteins present in NETs play key role in tissue injury by promoting microvascular thrombosis and cytotoxicity through toll-like receptor signaling. Investigating the mechanisms of histone-mediated lung injury & ARDS and testing anti-histone antibodies in a “combination therapy” together with antiviral agents, is one of the major focuses of research in his laboratory.
Dr. Teluguakula Narasaraju's research interests includes Influenza, respiratory viruses and lung biology.
