Recognizing Plant Direct authors: Nitya Subrahmanian
Nitya Subrahmanian, first author of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a plant model system to study mitochondrial complex I dysfunction
Current Position: Post-doctoral researcher at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Education: Ph.D. in Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; B.Tech in Biotechnology at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
Non-scientific Interests: reading books of the fiction / fantasy genre, listening to music, audiobooks, watching movies, travelling
Brief bio: A newly introduced high school curriculum in biotechnology presented me to the world of genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, and protein engineering, inspiring me to pursue an undergraduate major in biotechnology. After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology in 2008, I joined the Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate program at The Ohio State University. A graduate course on “Organellar Biogenesis” kindled my interest in mitochondrial biology and led me to join Dr. Patrice Hamel’s lab for my graduate research. As part of my doctoral research, I studied mitochondrial complex I biogenesis using the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model system. We conducted a forward genetic screen to isolate complex I mutants and identified a novel factor required for complex I biogenesis. After earning my Ph.D. in December 2015, I continued post-doctoral research with Chlamydomonas, studying both mitochondrial and chloroplast biogenesis. I look forward to continuing research in the field of mitochondrial biology and delineating the molecular bases of mitochondrial diseases.
