Pushpanathan Muthuirulan

Pushpanathan Muthuirulan is currently a Research Associate at Harvard University studying the developmental and genetic basis of human height variations using functional genomics approaches. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health, where his research focused on developing state-of-the-art technologies using CRISPR-cas9 and super-resolution microscopy to map neural circuits that involves visual motion information processing in Drosophila.

He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from the Department of Genetics, School of Biological Sciences at Madurai Kamaraj University, India where he identified a novel antifungal peptide, MMGP1, from the marine metagenome and characterised its discrete antifungal mechanisms with an ultimate goal to combat opportunistic human fungal infections such as candidiasis and aspergillosis. He gained his Bachelors and Master’s degree in Zoology (specialisation Biotechnology) at the American College, India and subsequently gained industry experience as Project Assistant (2006) in Strides Arcolab R&D project towards the development and production of antifungal agents, Capsofungin acetate against Candidiasis. His expertise lies in omics technologies, drug discovery, neuroscience and developmental and evolutionary genetics.