G. Renuka Kumar

Regulation of virion production by the ORF8 signal peptide across SARS-CoV-2 variants

This study shows ORF8 suppresses viral particle production by interacting with Spike and causing Golgi fragmentation, supporting evolutionary pressure to delete ORF8 in SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Accelerating PERx Reaction Enables Covalent Nanobodies for Potent Neutralization of SARS-Cov-2 and Variants

This paper develops covalent nanobodies using a PERx mechanism to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and variants with greatly increased potency.

Transcriptomics-based drug repositioning pipeline identifies therapeutic candidates for COVID-19

A computational drug repositioning pipeline identifies potential therapeutics for COVID-19 by matching SARS-CoV-2 gene expression signatures to drug profiles.

Sentinel cells enable genetic detection of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein

This paper introduces SARSNotch, a sentinel cell system that detects SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and triggers genetic responses in cell lines and T lymphocytes.

Tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for Developing Human Cortical Astrocytes

In primary human cortical tissue and stem cell-derived organoids, SARS-CoV-2 infects astrocytes almost exclusively, apparently through DPP4 rather than ACE2, leaving them reactive and stressed.

A Toolkit for Rapid Modular Construction of Biological Circuits in Mammalian Cells

The paper introduces MTK, a toolkit for rapid modular DNA circuit assembly in mammalian cells, demonstrating its use in constructing an Ebola virus replication complex circuit.