Mason Science Series Spring 2021 Research Discussions
Rising to the National and International COVID-19 Challenge
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
4 - 5 pm
Dean Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm invites you to join our discussion with Dr. Aarthi Narayanan, who will share the latest developments in ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19.
We are very excited to welcome Dr. Narayanan as our first speaker of the Spring 2021 Mason Science Series. Aarthi will share the latest research findings, and applications to therapeutic and vaccine products through a controlled development pipeline.
Dr. Narayanan’s laboratory is involved in a multitude of efforts geared towards development of therapeutics and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Her team collaborates with several national and international academic and corporate entities to provide critical support in product development while gleaning basic biological information pertaining to the infectious process and inflammatory events.
Dr. Narayanan is a faculty member in Mason’s National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, a robust research center with emphasis on several emerging infectious agents with potential to cause human disease.
This event will be hosted on ZOOM
Individualized links will be sent after you register for the event.
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About the Speaker
Aarthi Narayanan, Ph.D. - Associate Professor, George Mason University; National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID); Biology Department
Dr. Aarthi Narayanan is a molecular virologist who has actively been engaged in teaching and research at Mason for more than a decade. With more than 15 years of experience on biodefense and emerging infectious viral agents, she works on several aspects of viral infection and associated inflammation.
Aarthi graduated from the University of Georgia at Athens where the focus of her project was on nuclear and cytoplasmic transport of small RNA molecules and associated proteins; she trained as a post doctoral fellow at the NIH where the focus of her research was on the interaction of HSV with the host protein HCF-1. She joined the NCBID in February of 2007 as a Research Assistant Professor and devoted her time in proteomics studies of bacterial and viral pathogens and host-based biomarkers. Her research portfolio was focused on understanding the host response to acute viral infections.
Dr. Narayanan’s laboratory is located in the Biomedical Research Laboratory (BRL) in the Prince William Campus of George Mason University. Dr. Narayanan’s laboratory was and continues to be actively engaged all aspects of countermeasure development for acute viral infections including diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Her laboratory works on multiple viruses, including Coronaviruses, Alphaviruses, Bunyaviruses and Flaviviruses. Dr. Narayanan is also fully trained and experienced in working with BSL3 agents in high containment scenarios.
She has extensive experience with proteomics approaches for the analysis of host: pathogen interactions. Her laboratory is actively engaged in proteomic characterization of inflammatory mediators produced in the context of several acutely infectious viral agents. Dr. Narayanan’s collaborations include academic and corporate entities within the United States and globally. She has served and continues to serve as PI and Co-PI on several federally and non-federally funded programs. Her funding portfolio includes over $8 million in grants in which she serves as PI and Co-PI (up to 2021 and not including the option year funds that are still associated with existing funds).