Antony MichealRaj, PhD, joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery in September of 2021.
Dr. MichealRaj graduated from the Madurai Kamaraj University in 2004 with a bachelor of science degree in zoology. He then earned his master of science degree in biotechnology in 2007 from the University of Madras and PhD in genetics in 2014 from the University of Delhi where he functionally characterized the rare and common variants of dopaminergic pathway genes associated with schizophrenia. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral training at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumor Research Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. While at SickKids, Dr. MichealRaj established patient derived disease models and unraveled the underlying disease mechanism, metabolic pathways that rewire the epigenetic landscape of lethal infantile ependymomas.
Dr. Michealraj’s publications can be reviewed through the National Library of Medicine's publication database.
Specialized Areas of Interest
Professional Organization Membership
Education & Training
- BSc, Zoology, Madurai Kamaraj University, 2004
- MSc, Biotechnology, Loyola College, University of Madras, 2007
- PhD, Genetics, University of Delhi, 2014
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, 2021
Research Activities
Dr. MichealRaj’s basic research laboratory is focused on exploring the underlying disease mechanism of pediatric brain tumors, with specific interest in pediatric cancer stem cell, brain tumor metabolism and epigenetics and post transcriptional and translational regulation.
His team is investigating three major themes:
- functional cancer genomics of pediatric ependymomas and gliomas,
- metabolic dependencies and epigenetic regulation in pediatric brain tumors, and
- unraveling the crosstalk between cell signaling and epigenetics.
Dr. MichealRaj’s is using patient derived disease models (cell lines, xenografts) and transgenic mouse models and cutting edge next-generation genomic technologies (bulk and single cell sequencing, ChIP seq, long read sequencing), metabolomics (total and targeted), genetic engineering tools (Genome-wide and focused CRISPR screen) to advance our existing knowledge on pediatric brain tumors and probe novel therapeutic options.