About Us >> Faculty >>Palaniappan

Ravi Palaniappan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Contact Information
3001 Mercer University Drive, DV-113
Atlanta, GA 30341
(678) 547-6239
Fax: (678) 547-6364
palaniappa_r@mercer.edu

Educational Background

B.S., Pharmacy, University of Madras
M.S., Pharmaceutics, The Tamilnadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University
Ph.D., Pharmaceutics, University of Madras

Research Interest

Dr. Ravi is currently manages Mucosal proteomics lab with special emphasis on Vaccine formulations for Prostate cancer vaccine and Pneumonia protein vaccines in collaboration with CDC, Emory and UAB.

Pneumonia vaccine formulation:
PsaA and PspC protein vaccines which are developed by CDC and UAB (Under Phase I clinical trial now) are formulated using microspheres for oral vaccines. Dr. Ravi is been funded by NIH to formulate this oral vaccines and to study the mucosal immune response and adjuvant effect of microspheres.

Antherax antibody formulation Development : The major goals of this project are to develop methods of generating passive mucosal and systemic immunity to Bacillus anthracis exotoxins (lethal toxin (LeTx) and edema toxin (EdTx)) by administering monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to protective antigen (PA). Particular emphasis will be directed to the use of novel microspheres (and nanospheres) for oral delivery of anti-PA mAbs for anthrax exotoxin prophylactic and therapeutic treatments.

Prostae cancer Vaccine Targetted delivery Using Natural Polymeric Nano particles. Tumors modified by transfecting genes for immunostimulatory molecules such as B7 and cytokines are now considered as a potential therapeutic tumor vaccine. However, transfection is not always efficient and can be difficult with many cell types, especially freshly isolated tumor cells from patients. Moreover, transfection of genes requires the introduction of vectors of viral origin which is not desirable for human therapeutic purposes. Studies have shown that purified GPI-anchored cell surface proteins can be spontaneously incorporated into membranes by incubating the proteins with the cells or cell membranes (Protein Transfer). This unique property can be used to reconstitute cell surface expression receptors on cell membranes without the use of gene transfection. Using recombinant techniques, our colooborater has developed many immunostimulatory molecules including B7-1, IL-2, GM-CSF and IL-12 as GPI-anchored form. Currently we are using protein transfer to express these molecules to develop cancer vaccines for prostate cancer and melanoma. These vaccines will be formulated into nano particle for targeting to prostate cancer sites.

Selected Publications

R. Palaniappan, S. Singh, U. P. Singh, R. Singh, E.W. Ades, D.E. Briles, S.K. Hollingshead, W. Royal, III, J.S. Sampson, J.K. Stiles, D.D. Taub, and J.W. Lillard, Jr. “CCL5 Modulates Pneumococcal Immunity and Carriage1.” The Journal of Immunology, 176, (2006) 2346-2356.

Courses

PHA 325 Principles of Pharmaceutical Sciences
PHA 807 Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
PHA 836 Advanced Physical Pharmacy II
PHA 899 Doctoral Research