1. CURRICULUM VITAE
Rajendra Prasad Gajula. Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Department of Radiation Oncology & Molecular Radiation Sciences
CRB II Suite 416
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University-School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD- 21231 USA.
Email: grajendrap@gmail.com
rgajula1@jhmi.edu
Cell: 410-340-8785
Education:
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biotechnology- (2002-2008).
National Centre for Cell Science, University of Pune Campus, Pune-400017, INDIA.
Thesis Title: Studies on a novel noncoding RNA identified from a human neuroblastoma cell line.
Mentor: Dr. Anjali Shiras Ph.D.
Online link: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/2223
Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Biochemistry- (1999-2001).
Department of Biochemistry, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500046, INDIA.
Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Science, English - (1998-1999).
Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, OU Campus, Osmania University, Hyderabad- 500007. INDIA.
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Botony, Zoology & Chemistry- (1995-1998).
Kakatiya University, Warangal, INDIA.
Positions and Employment:
2010- Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences,
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University- School of
Medicine, Baltimore, USA. (Advisor: Dr.Phuoc T. Tran MD PhD).
2009-2010 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular biology, George Washington
University, Washing D.C. USA. (Advisor: Prof. Rakesh Kumar PhD).
2008-2009 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer
Center, Houston, USA. (Advisor: Prof. Rakesh Kumar PhD).
Honors:
2001 Graduate Aptitude Test of Engineering (conducted by IITs and IISc) India-95.6

2. Percentile.
2001 Project research Fellow award, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) India.
2001-2002 Junior research fellowship, (NCCS, Pune/Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India).
2002-2004 Junior research fellowship, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India.
2004-2007 Senior research fellowship, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India.
Selected peer-reviewed publications (in chronological order):
1. Rajendra P. Gajula,#
, Sivarajan T. Chettiar,#
, Russell D. Williams, Saravanan Thiyagarajan,
Yoshinori Kato, Khaled Aziz, Ruoqi Wang, Nishant Gandhi, Aaron T. Wild, Farhad Vesuna, Jinfang
Ma, Tarek Salih, Jessica Cades, Elana Fertig, Shyam Biswal, Timothy F. Burns, Christine Chung,
Charles M. Rudin, Joseph M. Herman, Russell K. Hales, Venu Raman, Steven S. An,and Phuoc T.
Tran. The Twist box domain is required for Twist1-induced prostate cancer metastasis. Accepted
for publication in Molecular Cancer Research on 08/20/2013.
2. Wild AT, Gandhi N, Chettiar ST, Aziz KA, Gajula RP, Williams RD, Kumar R, Taparra K, Zeng J,
Cades JA, Velarde E, Menon S, Geschwind JF, Cosgrove D, Pawlik TM, Maitra A, Wong J, Hales
RK, Torbenson MS, Herman JM, Tran PT. Concurrent versus sequential sorafenib therapy in
combination with radiation for hepatocellular carcinoma. PLoS ONE. 2013; in press.
3. Gandhi N, Wild AT, Chettiar ST, Aziz K, Kato Y, Gajula RP, Williams RD, Cades JA, Annadanam A,
Song D, Zhang Y, Hales RK, Herman JM, Armour E, Deweese TL,Schaeffer EM, Tran PT. Novel
Hsp90 inhibitor NVP-AUY922 radiosensitizes prostate cancer cells. Cancer Biol Ther. 2013 Jan
28;14(4).
4. Timothy F. Burns, Irina Dobromilskaya, Sara C. Murphy, Rajendra P. Gajula, Saravanan
Thiyagarajan, Sarah C. Chatley, Khaled Aziz, Yoon-Jae Cho, Phuoc T. Tran, Charles M. Rudin.
Inhibition of TWIST1 Leads to Activation of Oncogene-Induced Senescence in Oncogene Driven
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Mol Cancer Res. 2013 April; 11(4): 329:38.
5. Li DQ, Nair SS, Ohshiro K, Kumar A, Nair VS, Pakala SB, Reddy SD, Gajula RP,Eswaran J, Aravind L,
Kumar R. MORC2 Signaling Integrates Phosphorylation-Dependent, ATPase-Coupled Chromatin
Remodeling during the DNA Damage Response. Cell Rep. 2012 Dec 19.
6. Tran PT, Hales RK, Zeng J, Aziz K, Salih T, Gajula RP, Chettiar S, Gandhi N, Wild AT, Kumar R,
Herman JM, Song DY, Deweese TL. Tissue biomarkers for prostate cancer radiation therapy. Curr
Mol Med. 2012 Jul 1;12(6):772-87.
7. Zeng J, See AP, Aziz K, Thiyagarajan S, Salih T, Gajula RP, Armour M, Phallen J, Terezakis S,
Kleinberg L, Redmond K, Hales RK, Salvatori R, Quinones-Hinojosa A, Tran PT, Lim M. Nelfinavir
induces radiation sensitization in pituitary adenoma cells. Cancer Biol Ther. 2011 Oct
1;12(7):657-63.
8. Reddy SD, Gajula RP, Pakala SB, Kumar R. MicroRNAs and cancer therapy: the next wave or here
to stay? Cancer Biol Ther. 2010 Apr;9(7):479-82. Review.
9. Shiras A, Chettiar ST, Shepal V, Rajendran G, Prasad GR, Shastry P. Spontaneous transformation
of human adult nontumorigenic stem cells to cancer stem cells is driven by genomic instability in
a human model of glioblastoma. Stem Cells. 2007 Jun;25(6):1478-89.
Manuscripts in preparation:

3. 1. Rajendra P. Gajula*, Sivarajan T. Chettiar*, Russell D. Williams, Saravanan Thiyagarajan, Khaled
Aziz, Yoshinori Kato, Jessica Cades, Nishant Gandhi, Aaron T. Wild, Danielle Lee, Elana Fertig,
Beth A. Firulli, Christine Chung, Charles M. Rudin, Joseph M. Herman, Russell K. Hales, Anthony
B. Firulli, Steven An, Phuoc T. Tran. Structure-function studies of the bHLH phosphorylation
domain of Twist1 in prostate cancer cells. Manuscript to be submitted to Molecular Cell Biology.
LinkedIn profile:
www.linkedin.com/pub/rajendra-prasad/37/a8/943