Ayyappa Sudalaiyadum Perumal
Faculty Lecturer
Ph.D., Biology and Health, IRIM-CNRS, Université de Montpellier, France
M.S. (by research) RNA biochemistry and molecular pathogenesis, Anna University, India
Interdisciplinary research has found novel and intuitive ways to repurpose biological systems for cutting-edge applications and answer fundamental questions in science. Trained as a molecular microbiologist in transcription biology, my research at McGill focused on understanding the motility behaviour of microorganisms in confined artificial geometries for developing non-conventional computing approaches. We prototyped a microfluidic device to explore solutions to NP-complete problems in polynomial time. Since this proof-of-concept work, I have developed a taste for bridging biological systems to engineering technologies at various micro-and nano scales. Another example is the integration of biomolecules on engineered nanosurfaces, such as nanostructures and nanoparticles, for applications in biosensing and diagnosis. This has also led to a fundamental understanding of how biological systems respond to these artificial surfaces, which could be relevant to developing micro-nano interfaces.
Currently, I am actively researching two areas –
A. Gas embolism: to develop a biomedical device to investigate the genesis, evolution and prognosis of gas embolism under systemic pressure variations (in collaboration with Prof. Dan Nicolau's team).
B. RNA biologics: Microfluidics for in vitro RNA synthesis and lipid encapsulation applications in biologics (in collaboration with Prof. Amine Kamen's team).
Research areas:
· Non-conventional computation using microorganisms
· Traffic simulation using microorganisms (biosimulation)
· Nanobiosurfaces, biomolecules and biological responses
· Transcription biology and microfluidics for RNA biologics (in vitro transcription and encapsulation)
· BIEN 420: Biodevices for diagnostics and high-throughput screening (co-instructor with Prof. Dan V Nicolau)
· BIEN 510: Engineered Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications (co-instructor with Prof. Matt Kinsella)
· BIEN 670: Downstream Processing
· BIEN 590: Cell culture engineering
Non-conventional computation using microorganisms
Van Delft, Falco CMJM, Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Anja van Langen-Suurling, Charles De Boer, Ondřej Kašpar, Viola Tokárová, Frank WA Dirne, and Dan V. Nicolau. "Design and fabrication of networks for bacterial computing." New Journal of Physics 23, no. 8 (2021): 085009. *equal first authorship
Perumal, Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum, Zihao Wang, Giulia Ippoliti, Falco CMJM van Delft, Lila Kari, and Dan V. Nicolau. "As good as it gets: a scaling comparison of DNA computing, network biocomputing, and electronic computing approaches to an NP-complete problem." New Journal of Physics 23, no. 12 (2021): 125001. *equal first authorship
Tokárová, Viola, Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Monalisha Nayak, Henry Shum, Ondřej Kašpar, Kavya Rajendran, Mahmood Mohammadi et al. "Patterns of bacterial motility in microfluidics-confining environments." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 17 (2021): e2013925118. *equal first authorship
Nanobiosurfaces, biomolecules and biological responses
Dobroiu, Serban, Falco CMJM van Delft, Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Shantoshini Dash, Jenny Aveyard, Jeroen van Zijl, Jaap Snijder et al. "Spatially Addressable Multiplex Biodetection by Calibrated Micro/Nanostructured Surfaces." ACS sensors (2023). *equal first authorship
Transcription biology
Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Ayyappasamy, Rishi Kishore Vishwakarma, Yangbo Hu, Zakia Morichaud, and Konstantin Brodolin. "RbpA relaxes promoter selectivity of M. tuberculosis RNA polymerase." Nucleic acids research 46, no. 19 (2018): 10106-10118.
Vishwakarma, Rishi Kishore, Anne-Marinette Cao, Zakia Morichaud, Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Emmanuel Margeat, and Konstantin Brodolin. "Single-molecule analysis reveals the mechanism of transcription activation in M. tuberculosis." Science Advances 4, no. 5 (2018): eaao5498.