Sowmya Chandrasekar
450 S Catalina Ave #304
Pasadena
CA 91106
Home phone: (626)-796-4557
Mobile phone: (626)-437-6772
Email: sowmyachand@gmail.com
Objective
Seeking a position as a research assistant in a biochemical or molecular
biology lab specializing in protein purification, site directed mutagenesis
and enzyme characterization
Education
Miami University, Oxford, OH
 Master’s degree in biochemistry
08/2001-09/2004
Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, India
 Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy
08/1996-05/2000
Research
Experience
Graduate Work
Miami University
08/2001-09/2004
Investigating metal and substrate binding to ImiS, metallo-βlactamase from Aermonas sobria using site-directed mutagenesis

Over-expression and purification of recombinant ImiS in E.coli

Mutating amino acid residues which are hypothesized to be
involved in binding the metal to the active site

Mutating amino acid residues which are postulated to be involved
in substrate binding

Steady state kinetics on wild type ImiS and its mutants

Determination of metal-enzyme equivalency in active site of ImiS
and its mutants using ICP-AES

Comparative studies on the secondary structure of the wild type
enzyme and mutants using CD spectroscopy

Separation and identification of the contaminant in ImiS using Gel
Filtration and MALDI-TOF
Undergraduate Thesis
Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University
07/1999-5/2000
Study of bioequivalence and dissolution profiles of different
brands of paracetamol tablets
Work
Experience

Collected urine samples from several student volunteers at regular
intervals

Analyzed these samples in the UV-Vis to detect the metabolized
product after certain time periods

Based on the results obtained, identified the most ideal
commercially available paracetamol
Teaching Assistant
Miami University
08/2001-05/2004

Teaching basic laboratory techniques such as titration, qualitative
and quantitative analysis

Supervising and grading lab reports for 60 students per week
Pharmacy Intern
Kilpauk Medical Hospital, Chennai, India
Research Skills
12/1998-2/1999

Dispensing drugs to out-patients and in-patients

Case studies on patient medication records
Techniques and Instrumentation

Protein Chemistry: pET-over-expression systems, purification
methods, SDS-PAGE, dialysis, FPLC, steady state kinetics and
metal substitution

Molecular Biology: Site-directed mutagenesis, DNA cloning, DNA
gel electrophoresis, PCR, DNA sequencing, DNA purification, cell
transformations using heat shock and electroporation

Separation Chemistry: Ion-exchange chromatography and size
exclusion chromatography

Spectroscopy: ICP-AES, UV-Vis and CD

Animal work: Injecting CVS and CNS drugs into frogs and rabbits
as a part of undergraduate laboratory work



MS Office (Word/Excel/Powerpoint)
IGOR
Sigmaplot
Computer Skills
Awards & Affiliations

William Hale Charch Scholarship, Miami University, 2001-2002,
summer 2002 and 2002-2003

Graduate member of American Chemical Society

Registered pharmacist-TamilNadu pharmacy council, India
Publications
Crawford, Patrick A., Narayan Sharma, Sowmya Chandrasekar, Tara
Sigdel, Timothy Walsh, James Spencer and Michael W. Crowder,
Over-expression, purification, and characterization of metallo-lactamase ImiS from Aermonas veronii bv. sobria, Protein Expression
and Purification, 36 (2004), 272-279.
References
Dr. Michael Crowder, Professor, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 (Research Advisor)
Tel: (513)-529-7274; email: crowdemw@muohio.edu
Dr Christopher Makaroff, Chair, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056
Tel: (513)529-1649; email: makaroca@muohio.edu
Dr Robert Stewart, Professor, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056
Tel: (513)529-2818; email: stewarrp@muohio.edu