Rajashekara, Gireesh

Gireesh Rajashekara, DVM, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Food Animal Health Research Program
OARDC/Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
The Ohio State University
1680 Madison Avenue
Wooster, OH 44691

Ph: (330) 263-3745
Fx: (330) 263-3677
e-mail: rajashekara.2@osu.edu

Professional Training and Experience
•  BVSc(DVM), Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences, Karnataka, India
• MVSc, Microbiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Karnataka, India
• PhD, Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA
• Post doctoral Training, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA and Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Research Interests
• Molecular microbiology
• Host-pathogen interactions and pathogenesis
• Virulence mechanisms 
• Vaccine Development

Honors and Awards
Patents
• Application of recombinant fimbrial protein antigen for the diagnosis of Salmonella enteritidis infection in poultry United States Patent 6,495,334 and International Patent # WO 98/03656.
• Brucella melitensis mutants and methods. # PO6114US (pending).

Professional Memberships
• American Society for Microbiology
• American Association of Immunologists

Publications (Peer-reviewed publications; past five years)
1.  Trevor E. Swartz, Tong-Seung Tseung, Marcus A. Frederickson, Gaston Paris,
Gireesh Rajashekara, Jung-Gun Kim, Mary Beth Mudgett, Gary A. Splitter,
Fernando A. Goldbaum, Winslow R. Briggs, and Roberto A. Bogomolni. The Light-Activated LOV-Histidine Kinases: a New Bacterial Photoreceptor Family. Submitted for publication (Science)

2.  Gireesh Rajashekara, Linda Eskra, Angie Mathison, Erik Petersen, Qiqi Yu, Jerome Harms, and Gary Splitter. Brucella: Functional Genomics and Host-pathogen interactions. Ani. Health Res. Rev. (In press)

3.  Gireesh Rajashekara, David A. Glover, David O’Callaghan, Menachem Banai, and Gary A. Splitter. (2006).  Attenuated bioluminescent Brucella melitensis mutants, GR019 (VirB4), GR024 (GalE), and GR026 (90-91IR) confer protection in mice. Infection and Immunity. 2006, 74:2925-36.

4.  Bradley D. Anderson, Michael C. Gilson, Bryan S. Biehl, Jeremy D. Glasner, Gireesh
Rajashekara, Gary A. Splitter, Nicole T. Perna.  (2006). CGHScan: Finding variable regions using comparative genomic hybridization data.  BMC Genomics 2006, 7:91.

5.  Rajashekara, G. Glover, D.A., Krepps, M., and Splitter, G.A. 2005. Temporal analysis of pathogenic events in virulent and avirulent Brucella melitensis infections.  Cellular Microbiology, 7:1459-73.

6. Gireesh Rajashekara, Michael Krepps, Linda Eskra, Angela Mathison, Alison Montgomery, Yohei Ishii, and Gary Splitter. (2005). Unraveling Brucella genomics and pathogenesis in immunocompromised IRF-1-/- mice.  Am. J. Repro. Immunol. 54: 358–368.

7. Jun Zhu, Zhaohua Qiu, Christiane Wiese, Yohei Isheii, Jen Friedrichsen, Gireesh Rajashekara, and Gary A Splitter. 2005. Nuclear and mitochondrial localization signals overlap within bovine herpes virus 1 tegument protein VP22. J.Biol.Chem. 280:16038-16044

8.  Rajashekara, G., Glasner, J.D., Glover, D.A., Splitter, G.A. 2004. Comparative whole-genome hybridization reveals genomic islands in Brucella species. J. Bacteriology. 186:5040-5051.

9.  Seung-Hun Baek, Gireesh Rajashekara, Gary A. Splitter, and James P. Shapleigh.  2004.
Denitrification genes regulate Brucella virulence in mice. J. Bacteriology. 186: 6025-6031.