Postdoctoral Fellow
Biography:
I was born in India and after completing MSc, moved to Germany where I received a PhD in Physiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Saarland under the mentorship of Prof Dieter Bruns where I worked on SNARE-mediated fusion of vesicles with the plasma membrane.
I joined in the Department of Reconstructive Neurobiology, University of Bonn, Germany as a postdoctoral fellow in May 2008 where I differentiated neurons and glia from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and set up and managed electrophysiology and functional imaging rigs and implemented in vitro functional assays using hiPSC-derived neurons and glia.
In October 2018 I moved to Dublin, Ireland and currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at RCSI in Engel group.
Research Focus:
One of my current projects is aimed at understanding the role of human P2X7 receptors in normal and epilepsy-affected primary human neurons and glia. I am also interested in the differentiation of neurons and glia from human iPSCs and assessing the phenotypic alterations in neurons and glia differentiated from normal and epilepsy-affected individuals using electrophysiology, imaging and molecular biology.
Selected Publications:
Kesavan J*, Borisovska M*, Bruns D.: v-SNARE actions during Ca2+-triggered exocytosis. Cell 131(2), 351–63, Oct 19, 2007. Link to paper here.
Sheng C, Jungverdorben J, Wiethoff H, Lin Q, Flitsch L, Eckert D, Hebisch M, Fischer J, Kesavan J, Weykopf B, Schneider L, Holtkamp D, Beck H, Till A, Wüllner U, Ziller A, Wagner W, Peitz M, Brüstle O.: A stably self-renewing adult blood-derived induced neural stem cell exhibiting patternability and epigenetic rejuvenation. Nature Communications, 9 (1), Oct 2, 2018. Link to paper here.
Münst S, Koch P*, Kesavan J*, Alexander-Mays M, Münst B, Blaess S, Brüstle O.: In vitro segregation and isolation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural crest cells. Methods (133), 65-80, Jan 15, 2018. Link to paper here.
Gorris R*, Fischer J*, Erwes KL, Kesavan J, Peterson DA, Alexander M, Nöthen MM, Peitz M, Quandel T, Karus M, Brüstle O. Pluripotent stem cell-derived radial glia-like cells as stable intermediate for efficient generation of human oligodendrocytes. Glia, 63(12), 2152-67, Dec 2015. Link to paper here.
Ladewig J, Mertens J*, Kesavan J*, Doerr J, Poppe D, Glaue F, Herms S, Wernet P, Kögler G, Müller FJ, Koch P, Brüstle O. Small molecules enable highly efficient neuronal conversion of human fibroblasts. Nature Methods, 9(6), 575-8, Apr 8, 2012. Link to paper here.
Falk A*, Koch P*, Kesavan J, Takashima Y, Ladewig J, Alexander M, Wiskow O, Tailor J, Trotter M, Pollard S, Smith A, Brüstle O. Capture of neuroepithelial-like stem cells from pluripotent stem cells provides a versatile system for in vitro production of human neurons. PLoS One. 7(1), e29597, Jan 17, 2012. Link to paper here.
Koch P*, Breuer P*, Peitz M*, Jungverdorben J*, Kesavan J, Poppe D, Doerr J, Ladewig J, Mertens J, Tüting T, Hoffmann P, Klockgether T, Evert BO, Wüllner U, Brüstle O. Excitation-induced ataxin-3 aggregation in neurons from patients with Machado-Joseph disease. Nature 480(7378), 543-6, Nov 23, 2011. Link to paper here.