Shailaja Allani, Ph.D.

Research Interests

My research aims to understand the role of oxidative stress on aging and age-related diseases. Oxidative stress plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of many age-related diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and retinal diseases. Current research goals are to: 

• Investigate alterations in metabolic pathways in response to oxidative stress 

• Develop therapeutic strategies to modulate oxidative stress response for disease prevention and 

• Understand inter-relationship between mitochondrial function/dysfunction and aging.

Recent Publications

• Gurkar AU, Robinson AR, Li X, Allani SK, Webster A, Muravia M, Fallahi M, Weissbach H, Robbins PD, Croix CM, Niedernhoffer L, Gill MS. (2018) Dysregulation of DAF-16/FOXO3 –mediated stress responses accelerates oxidative DNA damage induced aging. Redox Biol. Sep; 18: 191-199. PMID: 30031267 

• Allani SK, Weissbach H, Lopez Toledano MA (2018) Sulindac induces differentiation of glioblastoma stem cells making them more sensitive to oxidative stress. Neoplasma 65: 376-388. PMID: 29788733. 

• Sur A, Kesaraju S,* Prentice H, Ayyanathan K, Baronas-Lowell D, et al. (2014) Pharmacological protection of retinal pigmented epithelial cells by sulindac involves PPAR-alpha. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111: 16754- 16759. (* equal contribution) PMCID: PMC4250171. 

• Ayyanathan K, Kesaraju S*, Dawson-Scully K, Weissbach H (2012) Combination of sulindac and dichloroacetate kills cancer cells via oxidative damage. PLoS ONE 7: e39949. (*equal contribution). PMCID: PMC3398923.