Ramya Ravindranathan

Accomplished Scientist with 12+ years of expertise in DNA Damage Response (DDR) mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and translational cancer research. Proven ability to bridge academia and industry through sponsored research agreements, collaborative drug development, and preclinical validation.

• Translational Leadership: Spearheaded projects from target discovery to biomarker-driven therapies for breast/ovarian cancers, with direct implications for clinical trial design.
• Industry Collaboration: Managed cross-functional partnerships with biotech/pharma to advance DDR inhibitors (POLQ, USP1, PARG) from bench to IND-enabling studies.
• High-Impact Innovation: Developed and published methodologies (e.g., ssDNA gap detection, BrDU-ssDNA assay for meiocytes) now utilized in diagnostic and therapeutic pipelines.
• Team Builder: Led interdisciplinary teams (biologists, clinicians, computational scientists) to align research with unmet clinical needs.

1.  Ramya R, Benjamin L , Alexandre ABAD, Nicholas WA, Sirisha M, , Huy N, Kalindi P, Geoffrey I S and Alan D D. Combined PARG and USP1 Inhibition Potentiates Tumor Cell Death in Breast and Ovarian Cancer Models (Manuscript in preparation).

2. Ramya R Ozge S, Alexandre ABAD, Sirisha M, Benjamin L, Huy N, Yuqing J, Joyce L , Bose K, Kalindi P, Geoffrey I S and Alan D D (2024). PARG inhibitor sensitivity correlates with accumulation of single stranded DNA gaps in preclinical models of ovarian cancer. (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413954121)

3. Alexandre ABAD, Ozge S, Ramya R, Sirisha M, David B M, Huy N, Yuqing J, Benjamin L Lisa M, Joyce Liu, Divya I, Jean-Bernard L, Geoffrey I S, Kalindi P, Alan D D (2024). Single-stranded DNA Gap Accumulation is a Functional Biomarker for USP1 Inhibitor Sensitivity. Cancer Research. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-23-4007

4. Aleem S, Frantisek F, Jefferey PF, Albino B, Ramya R, Jia Zhou, Drew T. McDonald, Mohammed E. Albuhluli, Joseph A. Newman, Miaw-Sheue Tsai, Darin E. Jones, David C. Schriemer, Alan D. D'Andrea and John A. Tainer (2023) Novobiocin blocks nucleic acid binding to Polq and inhibits stimulation of its ATPase activity. Nucleic Acids Research, doi: 10.1093/nar/gkad727.

5. Ramya R, Kavya R,Frantzeskos P, Pedro A S, Attila T (2022). Chromosomal synapsis defects can trigger oocyte apoptosis without elevating numbers of persistent DNA breaks above wild-type levels. Nucleic Acids Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac355

6. Chandler M*, Selin E. Y*, Hanna C**, Ramya R**, Yodhara Wijesekara Hanthi, Juliana C. Levy, Vincenzo S, Detlev S, Alberto C , Vincenzo C, Andrew E. H. Elia (2023). RFWD3 Promotes ZRANB3 Recruitment to Regulate the Remodeling of Stalled Replication Forks . J Cell Biol . https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.202106022

7. Anastasiia Bondarieva , Kavya R, Vladyslav T, H. B. D. Prasada R, Ramya R , Chrysoula Z , Friederike F, Ihsan D, Frantzeskos P, Daniel T, Alexander S, Ji-Feng F, Anna K, Masaru I, Dhananjaya SK, Ingo R, Neil H & Attila T (2020). Proline-rich protein PRR19 functions with cyclin-like CNTD1 to promote meiotic crossing over in mouse.Nature communications ;https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16885-3.

8. Frantzeskos P, Julie AJC, Erika T, Ramya R, Corin G, Ihsan D, Anastasiia B, Sarai VC, Marcello S, Alexender S, Petr J, Diana L, Fei J, Jiri F, Marco B, Bernard de M, Attila T (2019). ANKRD31 regulates spatiotemporal patterning of meiotic recombination initiation and ensures recombination between heterologous sex chromosomes in mice. Molecular Cell74, 1-17.

9. Friederike F, Ramya R, Ihsan D, Marcello S, Daniel T, Attila T (2016). Alignment of Homologous Chromosomes and Effective Repair of Programmed DNA Double-Strand Breaks during Mouse Meiosis Require the Minichromosome Maintenance Domain Containing 2 (MCMDC2) Protein. PloS Genet 12(10); e1006393; p1-26.

Mithila H, Bhagyashree K, Ramya R, Amarendranath S, Ritika G, Vijay BE, Harsha G, Girish SR (2015). SUMO-Enriched Proteome for Drosophila Innate Immune Response. G3 5(

• Student Representative for DIPP-Dresden International PhD Program, 2015-2017
• Active teaching member of ‘Science goes to school’, 2015-2017
• Trained several medical and PhD students in biochemical and molecular biological techniques, 2017
• Administrator and Cultural head of Indian Association Dresden, 2015-Present
• Participated in 'Fame Lab Dresden 2019' as a science communicator, 2019