Associate Professor
Dr. Natesan is a Veterinarian graduated from Madras Veterinary College at Chennai. He has completed his masters and doctoral degree from Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly and specialized in the area of Virology. He has worked on several animal viruses during his studies at IVRI and then joined The Johns Hopkin University School of Medicine as a Research Fellow where he started to work on Human Immunodeficiency Virus and its cellular tropism on Macrophages and T cells. Later, he was jointly appointed as Assistant Professor in the Institute of Human Virology and Department of Medicine in University of Maryland School of Medicine at Baltimore. During his tenure at JHU and UMD, he has discovered a novel type of macrophage and its role in the long term persistence of HIV in infected patients. He has also developed humanized animals models for studying HIV infection and testing novel drugs.Dr. Natesan has worked on infectious diseases of both animals and human for long period and he understands the close relationship between human and animals with respect to disease transmission. He is interested in One Health approaches involving both human and animal related factors to understand the risks andidentifying solutions for certain public health issues involving both human and animals. His current research area involves molecular biology, cancer, Immunology and microbiology.
Areas of interest
- Microbiology
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases
- Cancer
- One Health
Awards and Grants
- Best paper published in the Journal Advances in Animal and Veterinary Sciences
- Best scientific poster presentation award in IAAVR conference& Symposium
- Best oral presentation award in Annual Convention of Indian Society for Veterinary Medicine
- Best poster presentation award in the Conference organized by C.M. Singh Endowment Trust
- C.M. Singh Best Research Paper Award-for the best research paper in IJCMI in 2002.
- Recipient of ICAR – Senior Research Fellowship and IVRI – Junior Research Fellowship
- International travel grant award from Houghton trust in United Kingdom
- Recipient of Biotechnology Ignition Grant
- Founding member of Immuno-oncology Society of India
Key publications
- Suzanne Gartner, Yiling Liu, and Senthilkumar Natesan (2012). Generation of cells within human nurse macrophages and consequences following HIV infection. PLoS ONE, 7(7): e40139.
- Senthilkumar Natesan, Kataria, J. M., Dhama, K, Bharadwaj, N. and Sylvester S. (2006). Anti-neoplastic effect of chicken anemia virus VP3 protein (Apoptin) in Rous sarcoma virus induced tumours in chicken. Journal of General Virology. 87. 2933-40.
- Senthilkumar Natesan, Kataria, J. M., Dhama, K, Rahul, S. and Bhardwaj, N. (2006). Biological and molecular characterization of chicken anaemia virus isolates of Indian origin. Virus research. 118. 78-86.
- Kuldeep Dhama, Sandip Chakraborty, Sanjay Kapoor, Ruchi Tiwari, Amit Kumar, Rajib Deb, S. Rajagunalan, Rajendra Singh, Kranti Vora, Senthilkumar Natesan (2013) One World, One Health – Veterinary Perspectives. Advances in Animal and Veterinary Sciences. 1 (1): 5 – 13.
- Alonso Heredia, Senthilkumar Natesan, Nhut M. Le, Sandra Medina-Moreno, Juan C. Zapata, Marvin Reitz, Joseph Bryant, Robert R. Redfield (2014). Indirubin 3′-Monoxime, from a Chinese Traditional Herbal Formula, Suppresses Viremia in Humanized Mice Infected with Multidrug-Resistant HIV No Access. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. 30(5): 403-406.