Ram Prasad Sekar
Assistant Professor
ram.sekar@mahindrauniversity.edu.in
Ram Prasad Sekar is an interdisciplinary researcher in the field of biotechnology and materials science engineering, with a focus on advanced drug delivery systems. He completed his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (India) under the supervision of Prof. A. Jayakrishnan and Prof. T.S. Sampath Kumar. His doctoral thesis mainly focused on the combinational delivery of anticancer drugs, developing bone void substitutes, and multidrug encapsulated ceramic/polymer grafted nanoparticles for bone cancer therapy.
He served as a research associate at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in India, where he investigated polymer drug conjugates for brain-targeted drug delivery. Mainly his research at RGCB focused on investigating the blood-brain barrier permeability and pharmacokinetic properties of polymer drug conjugates. Then Ram moved to Colorado, USA, for his postdoctoral research at Colorado School of Mines (Mines), Colorado, USA. His postdoctoral research at Mines focuses on polymeric nanocarriers for effective nucleic acid delivery and CRISPR Cas9 RNP delivery (focus on gene editing for genetic diseases).
He also had a brief career in the pharmaceutical sector, successfully transferring lab-scale drug formulations to pilot-scale production.
Currently, he has joined as an assistant professor in the Center for Life Science department at Mahindra University. His research group is going to focus on gene therapy, drug delivery, and biomaterials.
Education
- Ph.D. – Biotechnology and Metallurgical & Materials Engineering (2014 – 2020) Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- M.Pharmacy – Pharmaceutics (2011 – 2013) Madras Medical College, The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- B.Pharmacy – Pharmaceutical Sciences (2006 – 2010) Madras Medical College, The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Experience
- Assistant Professor, Centre for Life Sciences (2026- Present)
- Post-Doctoral Fellow (2023 – 2025) Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Research Associate (2020 – 2022) Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB), Trivandrum, Kerala, India
- Formulation R & D Technical Head (May 2020 – Sep 2020) Primas Bioscience Pvt. Ltd. Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Publications
Publications
- Adam P. Humpal, Alexander Dhupar, Ram Prasad Sekar, Nancy S. Muyanja, Anuj Chauhan, Ramya Kumar, “Polymer Microstructure Directs the Solvent-Selective Swelling Response of Polymer Brushes” Macromolecules 2025, 58, 17, 9110–912, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.5c01659.
- Ram Prasad Sekar, Jessica L. Lawson, Caleb McGrath, Grant Wheeler, Gautier Moreau, Chelsea G. Johansen, Nikki L. Farnsworth, and Ramya Kumar, “Tuning DLVO interactions alters polymer-mediated pDNA delivery in a cell type-dependent manner” Langmuir 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5c00089.
- Jessica L. Lawson, Ram Prasad Sekar, Aryelle R. E Wright, Grant Wheeler, Jillian Yanes, Jordan Estridge, Chelsea Johansen Nikki Farnsworth, Praveen Kumar, Jian Wei Tay, Ramya Kumar, “The spatial distribution of lipophilic cations in gradient copolymers regulates pDNA binding interactions, polyplex aggregation, and transgene expression. Biomacromolecules 2024 25 (10), 6855-6870, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.4c01101.
- Aswathy Prasad, Ram Prasad Sekar, Smitha Devi Sudhamani, Jayakrishnan Athipettah, Lightson Ngashangva “Novel Functional Carbon Dots as Nanocarriers for Efficient-Loading and Sustained Release of Doxorubicin for Cancer Therapeutics”, Biomedical Materials, 2024, 19 065018, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-605X/ad7f3a.
- Ram Prasad Sekar, Jessica L. Lawson, Aryelle R.E. Wright, Caleb McGrath, Cesar Schadeck, Praveen Kumar, Jian Tay, Joseph Dragovan, Ramya Kumar “Poly (L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming trade-offs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability” RSC Applied Polymers, 2024, 2, 701-718, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4LP00085D.
- Ram Prasad Sekar, Sruthi Sudheendran Leena, Ani Deepthi, Resmi.A. N, Ramapurath S.Jayasree, K. S. Sandhya, A. Jayakrishnan, “Doxorubicin-Polysorbate 80 Conjugates: Targeting Effective and Sustained Delivery to the Brain” RSC Pharmaceutics, 2024, 1, 412 – 429. https://doi.org/10.1039/D4PM00053F
- Ram Prasad, T. S Sampath Kumar, A. Jayakrishnan, “Nanocarrier based drug delivery systems for bone cancer therapy: a review” Biomedical Materials 2021, 16, 044107. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-605X/abf7d5.
- S. Ram Prasad, A. Jayakrishnan, T. S Sampath Kumar, “Hydroxyapatite-Dextran Methacrylate Core/Shell Hybrid Nanocarriers for Combinatorial Drug Therapy” Journal of Materials Research, 2020, 35, 18, 2451-2465, https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2020.193.
- S. Ram Prasad, A. Jayakrishnan, T. S Sampath Kumar, “Combinational delivery of anticancer drugs for osteosarcoma treatment using electro sprayed core shell nanocarriers” Journal of Material Science: Materials in Medicine, 2020, 31, 44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-020-06379-5.
- S. Ram Prasad, A. Jayakrishnan, T. S Sampath Kumar, “Hydroxyapatite-poly(vinyl alcohol) core-shell nanoparticles for dual delivery of methotrexate and gemcitabine for bone cancer treatment” Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 2019.51:629-638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2019.03.041.
- S. Ram Prasad, T. S Sampath Kumar, A. Jayakrishnan, “Ceramic core with polymer corona hybrid nanocarrier for the treatment of osteosarcoma with co-delivery of protein and anti-cancer drug” Nanotechnology, 2017, 29:015101. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aa9a21.
- Selvapriya Kumaraswamy, Sutharsan R. Thangasundaralingam, Ram Prasad Sekar, A. Jayakrishnan, “A floating-type dosage form of repaglinide in polycarbonate microspheres” Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 2017,41: 99-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2017.07.005.
Our research group focuses on drug delivery, gene delivery, and biomaterials.
Finding a better path towards delivering therapeutic cargos…
My overarching goal (long-term) is to discover an appropriate micro-or nanocarrier for the successful delivery of therapeutic payloads (small molecules, pDNA, mRNA, and CRISPR Cas9-RNP) for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Distinct types of non-viral carriers such as polymers, lipids, metals, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, polymer-conjugates, and hydrogels were employed for the delivery of small molecules, nucleic acids, RNPs. Each carrier has its unique advantages as well as its limitations; an appropriate carrier must be selected considering the disease site, target area, dose, and applications. Meticulous material (carrier) selection plays a pivotal role in successful drug and gene delivery. I would like to implement three major steps towards my research goals.
- The first step is identification/selection and engineering the microstructure of delivery carriers based on the target site (transportation across BBB), disease (spinal muscular atrophy), and biological phenomenon (to overcome endocytosis, immune response and serum interactions).
- Second, pre-screening the microstructure and nanocarrier properties employing computational/in silico or artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) approaches to understand the pharmacokinetics and pharmacological parameters.
- Third, optimizing the nanocarrier design rules and testing the engineered microstructures in suitable in vitro studies will be conducted using relevant cell lines. Therapeutic efficacy of the optimized combinational nano/micro formulations will be evaluated by in vivo animal studies.
Scopus Author ID: 57208089196
