top of page
Prof. Dr. Krishnaraj Rajalingam

Group leader

 

Krishnaraj Rajalingam was born and brought up in a small village called Sitharkadu near Mayiladuthurai, a temple city in the state of TamilNadu, Southern India. After receiving his Masters in Life sciences (M.Sc) from Bharathidasan University, Thiruchirapalli, India he moved to Germany to work with Profs. Thomas Rudel and Thomas Meyer at the Max Planck Institute for Infections Biology (MPIIB) in Berlin. After obtaining his PhD, he continued at MPIIB as a scientist before moving to MSZ at the University of Würzburg to start with his own group. He subsequently moved to Frankfurt and was heading an Emmy Noether Group of the DFG at the Institute of Biochemistry II (IBCII), Goethe University. In 2013, he became a Senior group Leader and a PLUS3-Fellow of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation at the IBCII, Frankfurt. He is currently a Heisenberg professor in Cell biology (W3) and head of the Molecular signaling unit at the Research Center for Immune therapy at the Universitymedical center, Mainz.  Krishna's scientific interests are in understanding the molecular signalling machinery controlling fundamental cellular processes like cell death/survival, migration and cellular differentiation.

 

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

  

2014 -                                   Heisenberg professor in Cell Biology (W3)

 

2013 - 2014                         BIF-PLUS3 fellow, Senior Group leader, Cell death signalling group,

                                              Institute of Biochemistry II

                                              Goethe University Medical School, Frankfurt

​

2008- 2013                          Head, Emmy Noether Group of the DFG

                                              Institute of Biochemistry II

                                              Goethe University Medical School, Frankfurt

​

2006 - 2008                         C1, Wissenschaflicher Oberassistent

                                              Institute of Medical Radiation and Cell Research (MSZ)

                                              University of Wuerzburg, Germany

​

2005 - 2006                         Scientist          

                                              Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology,

                                              Berlin

 

2004 - 2005                         Postdoctoral Fellow 

                                              Max Planck Institute for Infections Biology, Berlin

 

EDUCATION

 

2000 - 2004  PhD Student Max Planck Institute for Infections Biology, Berlin

1995 - 2000  Masters in Life Sciences Bharathidasan University, Thiruchirapalli, India

 

MAJOR AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS 

 

  • Gutenberg Forschungskolleg (GFK)-fellowship from JGU, Mainz

  • Selected for the Heisenberg Professorship of the DFG

  • Selected to be a PLUS3 fellow of Boehringer Ingelheim foundation

  • Selected for the EMMY-NOETHER PROGRAMME* of the German Research Foundation (DFG)  (*First indian/southasian ever to be selected under any discipline)

  • BOGS Stipend of the German Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina

  • AACR-AFLAC Scholar-in-Training Award 2005

  • PhD and Scientist fellowships from the Max Planck Society (2000-2006)

  • Travel grants from EMBO/FEBS/UNESCO

  • Rated as a top lecturer for consecutive years (2010-2013) by medical students of Goethe University attending „Leben und leiden“ seminars

 

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITES

 

Editorial board member of Cell death & Disease and FEBS Journal and adhoc reviewer of several major scientific journals and reviewer of grant proposals from international research granting agencies

 

INTERNATIONAL PATENTS

 

Prohibitin as a target for cancer therapy (PCT/EP2005/010339) (WO/2006/032528)

 

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

​

​
​
​

  • Juliane Mooz, Tripat Kaur Oberoi-Khanuja, Gregory S Harms, Weiru Wang,  Bijay S Jaiswal, Somasekar Seshagiri, Ritva Tikkanen, Krishnaraj Rajalingam (2014) Dimerization of ARAF promotes MAPK activation and cell migration.  Sci Signal. 5;7(337):ra73. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.2005484.

 

  • Armelle-Natsuo Takeda, Tripat Kaur Oberoi-Khanuja, Gabor Glatz, Katharina Schulenburg, Rolf Peter-Scholz, Alejandro Carpy, Boris Macek, Attila Remenyi, Krishnaraj Rajalingam (2014) Ubiquitin dependent regulation of MEKK2/3-MEK5-ERK5 signaling module by XIAP and cIAP1. EMBO J. 18;33(16):1784-801. doi: 10.15252/embj.201487808. Epub 2014 Jun 28.

    • HYS highlight – Klein AM and Cobb MH (2014) ERK5 signaling gets XIAPed: a role for ubiquitin in the disassembly of a MAPK cascade. EMBOJ 18;33(16):1735-6.

 

  • Bijay S. Jaiswal, Noelyn M. Kljavin, Eric Stawiski, Emily Chan, Chaitali Parikh, Steffen Durinck, Subhra Chaudhuri, Kanan Pujara, Joseph Guillory, Kyle A. Edgar, Vasantharajan Janakiraman, Rolf-Peter Scholz, Krista K Bowman, Maria Lorenzo, Hong Li, Jiansheng Wu, Wenlin Yuan, Brock A. Peters, Zhengyan Kan, Jeremy Stinson, Michelle Mak, Zora Modrusan, Charles Eigenbrot, Ron Firestein, Howard M. Stern, Krishnaraj Rajalingam, Gabriele Schaefer, Mark A. Merchant, Mark X. Sliwkowski, Frederic J. de Sauvage and Somasekar Seshagiri (2013) Novel oncogenic ERBB3 mutations in human cancers. Cancer Cell 23(5):603-17.

 

  • Tripat Kaur Oberoi-Khanuja, Christiaan Karreman, Sarit Larisch, Ulf Rapp, Krishnaraj Rajalingam (2012) Role of melanoma inhibitor of apoptosis (ML-IAP), a member of baculoviral IAP repeat (BIR) domain family in the regulation of C-RAF kinase and cell migration J Biol Chem. 2012 Jun 18.

 

  • Gergely Imre, Jan Heering, Armelle-Natsuo Takeda, Matthias Husmann, Bernd Thiede, Dagmar Meyer  zuHeringdorf, Douglas R Green, F.Gisou van der Goot, Bhanu Sinha, Volker Dötsch, Krishnaraj Rajalingam (2012) Caspase-2 is an initiator caspase responsible for pore forming toxin-mediated apoptosis EMBOJ. 31(11):2615-28.

 

  • Tripat Kaur Oberoi* Taner Dogan*, Jennifer C.Hocking, Rolf-Peter Scholz, Juliane Mooz, Carrie L Anderson, Christiaan Karreman, Dagmar Meyer zu Heringdorf, Gudula Schmidt, Mika Ruonala, Kazuhiko Namikawa, Gregory S Harms, Alejandro Carpy, Boris Macek, Reinhard W Koester and Krishnaraj Rajalingam (2011) Inhibitor of Apoptosis proteins regulate the plasticity cell migration by directly targeting Rac1 for degradation EMBO J.  31(1):14-28

    • HYS highlight – “Ubiquitin-mediated regulation of RhoGTPase signalling: IAPs and HACE1 enter the fray” The EMBO J (2012) 31, 1 doi:10.1038/emboj.2011.452

    • IAPs target Rac1- Highlight in Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2011 Dec 22;13(1):5. doi: 10.1038/nrm3261

    • Evaluated by Faculty of 1000 Cell biology (must read) Manser E: 2011. F1000.com/13414958

 

  • Taner Dogan, Gregory S.Harms, Mirko Hekman, Christiaan Karremann, Tripat kaur Oberoi, Emad S.Alnemri, Ulf R Rapp, Krishnaraj Rajalingam. (2008) X linked and cellular IAPs modulate the stability of C-RAF kinase and cell motility. Nature Cell Biology 10(12): 1447-55.

 

  • Oliver Kepp§, Krishnaraj Rajalingam§, Sonja Kimmig, and Thomas Rudel. (§Equal contribution) (2007) Bax and Bak are functionally non redundant during Neisseria gonorrhoea and DNA damage- induced apoptosis. EMBO journal 26(3): 825-34.

 

  • Krishnaraj Rajalingam, Manu Sharma, Nicole Paland, Oliver Thieck, Monique Oswald, Nikolaus Machuy and Thomas Rudel. (2006) IAP-IAP complexes required for apoptosis resistance of C.trachomatis infected cells. PloS Pathogens 2(10): e114

 

  • Krishnaraj Rajalingam, Christian Wunder, Volker Brinkmann, Yuri Churin, Mirko Hekman, Claudia Sievers, Ulf R. Rapp, Thomas Rudel.  (2005) Prohibitin is required for Ras induced Raf-MEK-ERK activation and epithelial cell migration. Nature Cell Biology 7(8): 837-43.

    • Cover feature (image) for August 2005 issue of NCB

    • What is in a name? (2005) Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 6, 674-675 doi: 10.1038/nrc1731. (Evaluated by faculty of 1000 biology & medicine, highlighted in EMBO encounters)

© Cell Biology Unit Mainz. All rights reserved.

bottom of page