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Biography:

Kiran studied Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai, India). He moved to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) to work with Prof. Jens Nielsen and obtained his PhD in Systems Biology. Kiran was then appointed as Assistant Professor at DTU where he worked on transcriptional regulation and metabolic engineering. In 2010, Kiran joined the Structural and Computational Biology Unit at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany). He was appointed Director of Research at the MRC Toxicology Unit in 2019, and appointed as Professor of Molecular Systems Biology in October 2022.

 

Research Interests:

An adult individual typically harbours a few hundred grams of bacteria in their digestive tract. Recent findings have brought forward the fundamental role of this microbiota in determining drug efficacy, mode of action and side effects. Yet, such interactions at the microbiome level remain unknown for the vast majority of the drugs and for other xenobiotics that we are exposed to (e.g. food contaminants like pesticides). The overarching goal of Kiran’s research programme is to discover and model complex (xeno-) metabolic networks emerging in the gut microbiota and thereby gain mechanistic insights into microbiome-mediated toxicity. To this end, this interdisciplinary programme brings together computational (metabolic modelling, bioinformatics, chemo-informatics and machine learning) and experimental (in vitro microbiomics, metabolomics and chemical genomics) approaches.

 

Publications

Key publications: 

Lindell AE, Zimmermann-Kogadeeva M and Patil KR. Multimodal interactions of drugs, natural compounds and pollutants with the gut microbiotaNat Rev Microbiol, doi:10.1038/s41579-022-00681-5 (2022)

Klunemann M, Andrejev S, Blasche S, Mateus A, Phapale P, Devendran S, Vappiani J, Simon B, Scott TA, Kafkia E, Konstantinidis D, Zirngibl K, Mastrorilli E, Banzhaf M, Mackmull MT, Hovelmann F, Nesme L, Brochado AR, Maier L, Bock T, Periwal V, Kumar M, Kim Y, Tramontano M, Schultz C, Beck M, Hennig J, Zimmermann M, Sevin DC, Cabreiro F, Savitski MM, Bork P, Typas A and Patil KR. Bioaccumulation of therapeutic drugs by human gut bacteriaNature 597(7877): 533-538 (2021)

Machado D, Maistrenko OM, Andrejev S, Kim Y, Bork P, Patil KR and Patil KR. Polarization of microbial communities between competitive and cooperative metabolismNat Ecol Evol 5, 195–203 (2021)

Maier L, Pruteanu M, Kuhn M, Zeller G, Telzerow A, Anderson EE, Brochado AR, Fernandez KC, Dose H, Mori H, Patil KR, Bork P and Typas A. Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteriaNature 555, 623–628 (2018)

Tramontano M, Andrejev S, Pruteanu M, Klünemann M, Kuhn M, Galardini M, Jouhten P, Zelezniak A, Zeller G, Bork P, Typas A and Patil KR. Nutritional preferences of human gut bacteria reveal their metabolic idiosyncrasiesNature Microbiol. 3, 514–522 (2018)

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MRC Investigator
ERC Investigator
Professor of Molecular Systems Biology

Contact Details

MRC Toxicology Unit
Gleeson Building
Tennis Court Road
Cambridge

CB2 1QR

Telephone and Email

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