- Medical Professor, CUNY School of Medicine
- Affiliate Faculty, Nanoscience Initiative
Prabodhika Mallikaratchy, Ph.D.
Affiliation
Research Interests
Our research focuses on nucleic acid aptamers and the in vitro evolution of artificial ligands (SELEX) to probe and modulate receptor–ligand interactions in cancer and other biological systems. We develop technologies to identify aptamers that target cell surface receptors in their native conformations, enabling physiologically relevant biochemical investigations. In parallel, we design and synthesize expanded nucleic acid alphabets beyond the natural bases (A, C, G, T) to create nucleic acid materials with enhanced chemical and functional properties. These efforts support applications in biomedicine and the development of adaptive nucleic acid–based systems. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, integrating approaches across chemistry and biology, including organic synthesis, molecular engineering, biochemistry, spectroscopy, molecular biology, as well as artificial intelligence and computational algorithms.
Job History
- 2022-Current: Medical Professor, CUNY School of Medicine & The Graduate Center, CUNY, NY
- 2019-2022: Associate Professor, Lehman College & The Graduate Center, CUNY, NY.
- 2012-2019: Assistant Professor, Lehman College & The Graduate Center, CUNY, NY
- 2008-2012: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY.
- 2008: PhD, University of Florida, FL.
Publications
| Title |
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Ng Cen, Y., Williams, N. B., Di Siervi, N., Mohanrao, R., Lexi Chen, Cerchietti, L., Mallikaratchy, P.; The biochemical function of bivalent aptamer assemblies against B cell markers CD19 and CD20 Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids: 36(4): 102712: 2025 |
Lingala, A. Fisiuk, M. Stephen, R. Mohanrao, J. Klingsberg, S. Vecchioni; Volvovitz, E., Rozhkov, S., and Mallikaratchy, P. Modification of Deoxyribonucleic Acid with Indole-Linked Nucleotides Induces BZ- and Z-Conformation and Alters Its Sensitivity to Enzymatic Cleavage ACS Omega: 10 (39): 45113: 2025 |
DeRosa, M.C., Lin, A., Mallikaratchy, P. et al. In vitro selection of aptamers and their applications. Nat Rev Methods Primers: 3: 54: 2023. |
Williams, N. B., Batool, S., Zumrut H.E., Patel, R.,Sosa, German, Jamal, M., Mallikaratchy, P.R. A selection platform to identify multiple aptamers against multiple cell-surface markers using ligand-guided selection Biochemistry: 61(15):1600: 2022 |
Boykoff, N., Freage, L., Lenn, J., Mallikaratchy, P.R.: A bispecific aptamer sensor towards T-cell leukemia detection in the tumor microenvironment ACS Omega: 6:48: 32563: 2021 |
H. Zumrut, Z. Yang, N. Williams, J.D.R. Arizala, S. Batool, S. Benner, and P.R. Mallikaratchy, Ligand Guided Selection (LIGS) with Artificially Expanded Genetic Information Systems against TCR-CD3ε, Biochemistry, 2020, 59, 4, 552-562. |
Zumrut, H., Yang, Z.; Williams, N., Arizala, J. D. R., Batool, S., Benner, S., Mallikaratchy, P. R., Ligand Guided Selection (LIGS) with Artificially Expanded Genetic Information Systems against TCR-CD3ε Biochemistry: 59(4): 552: 2020 |
H. Zumrut and P.R. Mallikaratchy, Discovery of artificial nucleic acid ligands against cell surface targets, ACS Applied Biomaterials, 2020, 2545–2552. |
Zumrut, H., Batool, S., Argyropoulos, K.; Williams, N. Azad R. Mallikaratchy, P.R. Integrating Ligand-receptor Interactions and In Vitro Evolution for Streamlined Discovery of Artificial Nucleic Acid Ligands Therapy Nucleic Acids: 6: 17:150-163: 2019 |
Lingala, S.; Nordstrøm L.U.; Mallikaratchy, P.R. Synthesis of stable azide and alkyne functionalized phosphoramidite nucleosides Tetrahedron Lett: 17: 60(3): 211-213: 2019 |
