Research Summary

My research interests are primarily focused on the application of Magnetic Resonance technology to characterize the underlying metabolic dysregulation in pathologies and use them to develop clinically relevant markers for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Specifically, I’ve been engrossed with the application of hyperpolarized dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization MRI technique to urologic cancers; renal cell carcinoma and prostate cancer. Recently I've been exploring the differential metabolism of bacteria to develop specific imaging biomarkers infectious disease.

Education

University of Madras, Chennai, India, B.Engg., 05/1996, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
University of California Davis, CA, Ph.D., 12/2007, BioPhysics
University of California San Francisco, CA, Postdoc, 09/2015, Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, Hyperpolarized MRI

Honors & Awards

  • 2003
    Non resident Tuition Fellowship, Biophysics Graduate Group, UC Davis
  • 2008
    Pfizer Global Research Centers of Excellence award for Delivery
  • 2009
    Individual Performance Award, Pfizer

Selected Publications

  1. Ilona Polvoy, Hecong Qin, Robert R. Flavell, Jeremy Gordon, Pavithra Viswanath, Renuka Sriram, Michael A. Ohliger, David M. Wilson. Deuterium Metabolic Imaging—Rediscovery of a Spectroscopic Tool. Metabolites. 2021 Aug 25; 11(9):570.  View on PubMed
  2. Qin H, Tang S, Riselli AM, Bok RA, Delos Santos R, van Criekinge M, Gordon JW, Aggarwal R, Chen R, Goddard G, Zhang CT, Chen A, Reed G, Ruscitto DM, Slater J, Sriram R, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J. Clinical translation of hyperpolarized 13 C pyruvate and urea MRI for simultaneous metabolic and perfusion imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2021 Aug 10.  View on PubMed
  3. Renuka Sriram, Celine Baligand, John Kurhanewicz. Using Hyperpolarized NMR to Understand Biochemistry from Cells to Humans. . 2021 May 22; 123-149.  View on PubMed
  4. Sun J, Bok RA, DeLos Santos J, Upadhyay D, DeLos Santos R, Agarwal S, Van Criekinge M, Vigneron DB, Aggarwal R, Peehl DM, Kurhanewicz J, Sriram R. Resistance to Androgen Deprivation Leads to Altered Metabolism in Human and Murine Prostate Cancer Cell and Tumor Models. Metabolites. 2021 Feb 26; 11(3).  View on PubMed
  5. Ahamed F, Van Criekinge M, Wang ZJ, Kurhanewicz J, Larson P, Sriram R. Modeling hyperpolarized lactate signal dynamics in cells, patient-derived tissue slice cultures and murine models. NMR Biomed. 2021 03; 34(3):e4467.  View on PubMed
  6. Wang S, Li J, Hua J, Su Y, Beckford-Vera DR, Zhao W, Jayaraman M, Huynh TL, Zhao N, Wang YH, Huang Y, Qin F, Shen S, Gioeli D, Dreicer R, Sriram R, Egusa EA, Chou J, Feng FY, Aggarwal R, Evans MJ, Seo Y, Liu B, Flavell RR, He J. Molecular Imaging of Prostate Cancer Targeting CD46 Using ImmunoPET. Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Mar 01; 27(5):1305-1315.  View on PubMed
  7. Qin H, Zhang V, Bok RA, Santos RD, Cunha JA, Hsu IC, Santos Bs JD, Lee JE, Sukumar S, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Wilson DM, Sriram R, Kurhanewicz J. Simultaneous Metabolic and Perfusion Imaging Using Hyperpolarized 13C MRI Can Evaluate Early and Dose-Dependent Response to Radiation Therapy in a Prostate Cancer Mouse Model. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2020 08 01; 107(5):887-896.  View on PubMed
  8. Sriram R, Van Criekinge M, DeLos Santos J, Ahamed F, Qin H, Nolley R, Santos RD, Tabatabai ZL, Bok RA, Keshari KR, Vigneron DB, Peehl DM, Kurhanewicz J. Elevated Tumor Lactate and Efflux in High-grade Prostate Cancer demonstrated by Hyperpolarized 13C Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Prostate Tissue Slice Cultures. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Feb 26; 12(3).  View on PubMed
  9. Parker MFL, Luu JM, Schulte B, Huynh TL, Stewart MN, Sriram R, Yu MA, Jivan S, Turnbaugh PJ, Flavell RR, Rosenberg OS, Ohliger MA, Wilson DM. Sensing Living Bacteria in Vivo Using d-Alanine-Derived 11C Radiotracers. ACS Cent Sci. 2020 Feb 26; 6(2):155-165.  View on PubMed
  10. Korenchan DE, Bok R, Sriram R, Liu K, Santos RD, Qin H, Lobach I, Korn N, Wilson DM, Kurhanewicz J, Flavell RR. Hyperpolarized in vivo pH imaging reveals grade-dependent acidification in prostate cancer. Oncotarget. 2019 Oct 22; 10(58):6096-6110.  View on PubMed
  11. Chung BT, Chen HY, Gordon J, Mammoli D, Sriram R, Autry AW, Le Page LM, Chaumeil MM, Shin P, Slater J, Tan CT, Suszczynski C, Chang S, Li Y, Bok RA, Ronen SM, Larson PEZ, Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB. First hyperpolarized [2-13C]pyruvate MR studies of human brain metabolism. J Magn Reson. 2019 12; 309:106617.  View on PubMed
  12. Wang S, Korenchan DE, Perez PM, Taglang C, Hayes TR, Sriram R, Bok R, Hong AS, Wu Y, Li H, Wang Z, Kurhanewicz J, Wilson DM, Flavell RR. Amino Acid-Derived Sensors for Specific Zn2+ Detection Using Hyperpolarized 13 C Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Chemistry. 2019 Sep 12; 25(51):11842-11846.  View on PubMed
  13. Korenchan DE, Gordon JW, Subramaniam S, Sriram R, Baligand C, VanCriekinge M, Bok R, Vigneron DB, Wilson DM, Larson PEZ, Kurhanewicz J, Flavell RR. Using bidirectional chemical exchange for improved hyperpolarized [13 C]bicarbonate pH imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2019 09; 82(3):959-972.  View on PubMed
  14. Muir RK, Zhao N, Wei J, Wang YH, Moroz A, Huang Y, Chen YC, Sriram R, Kurhanewicz J, Ruggero D, Renslo AR, Evans MJ. Measuring Dynamic Changes in the Labile Iron Pool in Vivo with a Reactivity-Based Probe for Positron Emission Tomography. ACS Cent Sci. 2019 Apr 24; 5(4):727-736.  View on PubMed
  15. Bancroft Brown J, Sriram R, VanCriekinge M, Delos Santos R, Sun J, Delos Santos J, Tabatabai ZL, Shinohara K, Nguyen H, Peehl DM, Kurhanewicz J. NMR quantification of lactate production and efflux and glutamate fractional enrichment in living human prostate biopsies cultured with [1,6-13 C2 ]glucose. Magn Reson Med. 2019 08; 82(2):566-576.  View on PubMed
  16. Bok R, Lee J, Sriram R, Keshari K, Sukumar S, Daneshmandi S, Korenchan DE, Flavell RR, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J, Seth P. The Role of Lactate Metabolism in Prostate Cancer Progression and Metastases Revealed by Dual-Agent Hyperpolarized 13C MRSI. Cancers (Basel). 2019 Feb 22; 11(2).  View on PubMed
  17. Sriram R, Gordon J, Baligand C, Ahamed F, Delos Santos J, Qin H, Bok RA, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J, Larson PEZ, Wang ZJ. Non-Invasive Assessment of Lactate Production and Compartmentalization in Renal Cell Carcinomas Using Hyperpolarized 13C Pyruvate MRI. Cancers (Basel). 2018 Sep 05; 10(9).  View on PubMed
  18. Lee JE, Diederich CJ, Bok R, Sriram R, Santos RD, Noworolski SM, Salgaonkar VA, Adams MS, Vigneron DB, Kurhanewicz J. Assessing high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment of prostate cancer with hyperpolarized 13 C dual-agent imaging of metabolism and perfusion. NMR Biomed. 2019 10; 32(10):e3962.  View on PubMed
  19. Sriram R, Nguyen J, Santos JD, Nguyen L, Sun J, Vigneron S, Van Criekinge M, Kurhanewicz J, MacKenzie JD. Molecular detection of inflammation in cell models using hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate. Theranostics. 2018; 8(12):3400-3407.  View on PubMed
  20. Qin H, Carroll VN, Sriram R, Villanueva-Meyer JE, von Morze C, Wang ZJ, Mutch CA, Keshari KR, Flavell RR, Kurhanewicz J, Wilson DM. Imaging glutathione depletion in the rat brain using ascorbate-derived hyperpolarized MR and PET probes. Sci Rep. 2018 05 21; 8(1):7928.  View on PubMed

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