Sajish Mathew, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Pharmacy and Health Professions
Emailto:smathew@umes.edu
Phone: 410-651-7758
Office: Suite 3118, Room 3158
Office hours: Tuesday – Thursday, 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Education
- Ph.D., Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur
- M.Sc., University of Calicut, Kerala, India
Bio
Dr. Mathew graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. During his graduate work, he discovered a novel enzymatic reaction and its mechanism of action in RelA/SpoT family of proteins. Inspired by the newly evolving concept of structure-based drug design, Dr. Mathew went on to do his post-doctoral training at the Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA where he discovered that tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrRS/YARS1) is a novel target/receptor of the natural compound resveratrol (RSV)1. Dr. Mathew’s work as a Principal Investigator unraveled that tyrosine amino acid is a potential causal agent that drives age-associated neuronal oxidative damage and depletes TyrRS/YARS1 in the brains of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients2. During the course this work, his group also established that only the cis-isomer of resveratrol (cis-RSV) is neuroprotective and paradoxically, the commonly used trans-resveratrol (trans-RSV) is neurotoxic2. This work thus provided a potential molecular basis for the controversial outcomes of resveratrol in multiple clinical trials. Dr. Mathew’s group focuses on developing novel therapeutics against tyrosine- mediated neurocognitive and metabolic disorders including Alzheimer’s Disease by utilizing cis-resveratrol-based neuroprotection assays. Dr. Mathew’s efforts led to the successful development of novel, first-in-class neuroprotective TyrRS Targeting Compounds (TTCs) which were licensed by Functional Longevity Labs, Inc., (FLL)- a start-up company that focuses on improving health span and targeting Alzheimer’s Disease in collaboration with University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).
References
1. Sajish M, Schimmel P. A human tRNA synthetase is a potent PARP1-activating effector target for
resveratrol. Nature. 2015 ;519(7543):370-3. doi: 10.1038/nature14028.
2. Jhanji M, Rao CN, Massey JC, Hope MC, Zhou X, Keene CD, Ma T, Wyatt MD, Stewart JA, Sajish M.
Cis– and trans-resveratrol have opposite effects on histone serine-ADP-ribosylation and tyrosine induced
neurodegeneration. Nature Communications. 2022; 13(1):3244. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30785-8.
