Seminar Topic: Heme-sequestering plant peptide promotes iron uptake in symbiotic bacteria: Significance and potential clinical applications.

Siva Sankari is a Research Scientist in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her work encompasses understanding the mechanism of action of plant peptides that govern host-microbe interactions and translating them to pharmacological, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications. Using a variety of biochemical, bioanalytical, microbiological, and plant genetic techniques, she has unraveled the first detailed molecular mechanism of a heme-binding, symbiotically essential plant peptide that takes control of bacterial iron homeostasis and tricks the symbiotic bacterium into importing excess iron needed for nitrogen-fixation. Leveraging the unique heme-binding properties of the peptide, she has developed many potential therapeutic applications including inhibiting the growth of some heme-requiring pathogens and parasites, preventing the formation of fungal biofilms, preventing the toxic peroxidase activity of Aβ-heme complex associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and removing toxic free heme accumulated in stored blood. During her doctoral studies at the University at Buffalo, NY she discovered important mechanisms of iron import, trafficking, and export in the bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum and elucidated how it adapts to various iron and oxidative stress environments during symbiosis with agriculturally important leguminous host plant-Soybean. She received her Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in Biotechnology in India. She is also the founder and coordinator of the ReAct program and curriculum developer in the Kalpana program both aimed at developing scientific temperament and improving accessibility of STEM education to undergraduate girls hailing from rural India.