MEEX Speaker
GANAPATHY Vadivel, PhD
Grover Murray Professor & the Chair, & the Welch Endowed Chair in Biochemistry in the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX
Biography
Dr. Vadivel Ganapathy received his Ph. D. in biochemistry from the University of Madras, India in 1978. He joined the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA in the United States in 1979 for his post-doctoral training. He has cloned and characterized more than 40 mammalian transporters; these transporters mediate the cellular uptake of amino acids, vitamins, monocarboxylates, citric acid cycle intermediates, carnitine, and drugs. He has published 485 full-length papers and 30 reviews/book chapters. His Google Scholar citation h-index is 96. In recognition of his contributions to the field of nutrient transporters, he was awarded the Rank Prize for Nutrition in 2004, which he shared with two other scientists. To date, he has trained 13 Ph. D. students and mentored more than 15 post-doctoral fellows. His current lab consists of 5 graduate students (2 PhD. and 3 MD/PhD) and 4 post-doctoral fellows. Presently, he is a Grover Murray Professor and the Chair and also the Welch Endowed Chair in Biochemistry in the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA. His research areas include colitis, colon cancer, breast cancer, host-microbiome interaction, iron homeostasis, G-protein-coupled receptors for metabolites, obesity, and Alzheimer’s disease. He holds several patents related to therapeutic strategies for inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. He also teaches medical students various aspects of biochemistry and physiology, and has received numerous awards and recognition for outstanding teaching and innovation in education.
