Rate My Professor Ajith Karunarathne

Karunarathne's laboratory further employs computational and hybrid chemical-cellular methods to examine how the photoreceptor chromophore retinal elicits cytotoxic reactions upon blue light exposure, linking these processes to vision and skin damage. They also pioneer photopharmacology, administering photoactivatable molecules followed by targeted light irradiation to activate, inhibit, or modulate cellular functions precisely at subcellular, cellular, tissue, or organ levels. His scholarly output includes numerous peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as Scientific Reports, Cell Signal, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Notable publications encompass "Blue light excited retinal intercepts cellular signaling" (Scientific Reports, 2018), recognized as a top 100 attention-grabbing publication; "Subtype-dependent regulation of Gβγ signaling" (Cell Signal, 2021); "Dissociation of the G protein βγ from the Gq-PLCβ complex partially attenuates PIP2 hydrolysis" (J Biol Chem, 2021); "Microcystins: Biogenesis, Toxicity, Analysis, and Control" (Chem Res Toxicol, 2020); and "A short C-terminal peptide in Gγ regulates Gβγ signaling efficacy" (Mol Biol Cell, 2021). These contributions enhance molecular tools for signaling interrogation and photochemical disease interventions.