Ishwar Radhakrishnan Professor

Research Summary:

Research in the Radhakrishnan lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of eukaryotic transcription regulation with emphasis on how transcription factors engage with DNA, recruit specific coactivators and corepressors via intrinsically disordered transactivation or transrepression domains and how multi-protein coactivator/corepressor-bearing chromatin-modifying complexes assemble and engage with chromatin. We are asking these questions in the context of (i) nuclear receptors that use atypical mechanisms to effect transcriptional activation and (ii) a cohort of related, yet functionally distinct, histone deacetylase (HDAC)-associated chromatin-modifying complexes that fundamentally impact on cellular physiology in eukaryotes.

Selected Publications:

Histone acetylation and deacetylation - Mechanistic insights from structural biology. Patel AB, He Y, Radhakrishnan I. Gene. 2023 Sep 17;890:147798. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2023.147798. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37726026.

Cryo-EM structure of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rpd3L histone deacetylase complex. Patel AB, Qing J, Tam KH, Zaman S, Luiso M, Radhakrishnan I, He Y. Nat Commun. 2023 May 27;14(1):3061. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38687-z. PMID: 37244892; PMCID: PMC10224958.

A Novel Mechanism of Coactivator Recruitment by the Nurr1 Nuclear Receptor. Daffern N and Radhakrishnan I. Journal of Molecular Biology. 2022 August 30;434(16):167718.

A capped Tudor domain within a core subunit of the Sin3L/Rpd3L histone deacetylase complex binds to nucleic acid G-quadruplexes. Marcum RD, Hsieh J, Giljen M, Justice E, Daffern N, Zhang Y, and Radhakrishnan I. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2022 February;298(2):101558.

The neuronal transcription factor Myt1L interacts via a conserved motif with the PAH1 domain of Sin3 to recruit the Sin3L/Rpd3L histone deacetylase complex. Marcum RD and Radhakrishnan I. FEBS Letters.2020 July;594(14):2322-2330.

Inositol phosphates and core subunits of the Sin3L/Rpd3L histone deacetylase (HDAC) complex up-regulate deacetylase activity. Marcum RD and Radhakrishnan I. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2019 September 20;294(38):13928-13938.

Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of the Ligand-Binding Domain of an Orphan Nuclear Receptor Reveal a Dynamic Helix in the Ligand-Binding Pocket. Daffern N, Chen Z, Zhang Y, Pick L, and Radhakrishnan I. Biochemistry. 2018 April 3;57(13):1977-1986.

View all publications by Ishwar Radhakrishnan listed in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed). Current and former IBiS students in blue.

Selected Honors:

Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Fellow, 1995-1998

Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, 2001-2002

Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2004-2009