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Rohan Balakrishnan

Assistant Professor

University of North Texas

Department of Biological Sciences

Email: Rohan.balakrishnan@unt.edu

Education

  • PhD, Ohio State University, 2015
    Major: Biochemistry
    Dissertation: Role of the Conserved GT Pase LepA in Escherichia Coli

Professional Positions

    Professional

  • Assistant Professor, University of North Texas. University of North Texas. (2024 - Present).
  • Postdoctoral research associate, UC San Diego. UC San Diego. (2015 - 2024).

Professional Memberships

  • BioDiscovery Institute, UNT. (December 9, 2024 - Present).

Development Activities

  • Workshop, ATG Fall Faculty Grantsmanship Workshop, UNT. United States of America. (December 10, 2024).

Teaching

Teaching Experience

    University of North Texas

  • BIOL 2041 - Microbiology, 2 courses.
  • BIOL 4801 - Microbial Genetics, 2 courses.
  • BIOL 4900 - Special Problems, 2 courses.
  • BIOL 5800 - Microbial Genetics, 1 course.

Directed Student Learning

  • Dissertation Committee Member, Biological Sciences. (July 6, 2025).
  • Directed Individual/Independent Study, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (January 15, 2025).
  • Directed Individual/Independent Study, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (January 13, 2025).
  • Directed Individual/Independent Study, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (January 10, 2025).
  • Dissertation Committee Member, Biological Sciences. (2024).
  • Dissertation Committee Member, Biological Sciences. (2024).
  • Directed Individual/Independent Study, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (2025 - January 1, 2026).

Awards and Honors

  • Junior Research Fellowship, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. (2008).

Research

Published Intellectual Contributions

    Journal Article

  • Guessous, G., Patsalo, V., Balakrishnan, R., Çağlar, T., Williamson, J.R., Hwa, T. (2023). Inherited chitinases enable sustained growth and rapid dispersal of bacteria from chitin particles. Nature Microbiology. 8 (9) 1695-1705. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01444-5
  • Balakrishnan, R. (2023). Conditionally unutilized proteins and their profound effects on growth and adaptation across microbial species. Current Opinion in Microbiology. 75 102366.
  • Balakrishnan, R., Mori, M., Segota, I., Zhang, Z., Aebersold, R., Ludwig, C., Hwa, T. (2022). Principles of gene regulation quantitatively connect DNA to RNA and proteins in bacteria. Science. 378 (6624) American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abk2066
  • Wu, C., Balakrishnan, R., Braniff, N., Mori, M., Manzanarez, G., Zhang, Z., Hwa, T. (2022). Cellular perception of growth rate and the mechanistic origin of bacterial growth law. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (20) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201585119
  • Balakrishnan, R., de Silva, R.T., Hwa, T., Cremer, J. (2021). Suboptimal resource allocation in changing environments constrains response and growth in bacteria. Other. 17 (12) Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202110597
  • Dai, X., Zhu, M., Warren, M., Balakrishnan, R., Okano, H., Williamson, J.R., Fredrick, K., Hwa, T., Lee, S.Y. (2018). Slowdown of Translational Elongation in Escherichia coli under Hyperosmotic Stress. mBio. 9 (1) American Society for Microbiology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mbio.02375-17
  • Gibbs, M.R., Moon, K., Chen, M., Balakrishnan, R., Foster, L.J., Fredrick, K. (2017). Conserved GTPase LepA (Elongation Factor 4) functions in biogenesis of the 30S subunit of the 70S ribosome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (5) 980-985. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613665114
  • Fleming, I.M., Paris, Z., Gaston, K.W., Balakrishnan, R., Fredrick, K., Rubio, M.A., Alfonzo, J.D. (2016). A tRNA methyltransferase paralog is important for ribosome stability and cell division in Trypanosoma brucei. Scientific Reports. 6 (1) Springer Science and Business Media LLC. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21438
  • Dai, X., Zhu, M., Warren, M., Balakrishnan, R., Patsalo, V., Okano, H., Williamson, J.R., Fredrick, K., Wang, Y., Hwa, T. (2016). Reduction of translating ribosomes enables Escherichia coli to maintain elongation rates during slow growth. Nature Microbiology. 2 (2) Springer Science and Business Media LLC. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.231
  • Balakrishnan, R., Oman, K., Shoji, S., Bundschuh, R., Fredrick, K. (2014). The conserved GTPase LepA contributes mainly to translation initiation in Escherichia coli. Other. 42 (21) 13370-13383. Oxford University Press (OUP). http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gku1098

Presentations Given

    Invited Talk

  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Protein production in starving bacteria, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States of America. (2025).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Protein Synthesis in starvation, BioDiscovery Institute UNT, Denton, United States of America. (2025).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), BioFrontiers, Quantitative studies on protein synthesis reveal a tight coordination between transcription and translation, UNT, Denton, United States of America. (2025 - 2025).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Quantitative studies on protein synthesis in bacteria, UCSF, San Francisco, United States of America. (2024).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Microbial protein synthesis: quantitative and physiological studies, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, Canada. (2024).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Quantitative studies on protein synthesis, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, United Kingdom. (2022 - 2022).

    • Oral Presentation

  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author), APS Physics meeting, Global resource allocation by bacteria during carbon starvation., APS Physics, United States of America. (2025).
  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages, Cellular Perception of Growth Rate and the Mechanistic Origin of Bacterial Growth Laws, UW Madison, Wisconsin, USA, United States of America. (2022 - 2022).
  • Cremer, J. (Author & Presenter), Hwa, T. (Author), Balakrishnan, R. (Author), March Meeting, Bacterial adaptation to changing conditions-an eco-physiological case study with the gut bacterium Escherichia coli, American Physical Society, United States of America. (2022).
  • Mori, M. (Author & Presenter), Balakrishnan, R. (Author), Segota (Author), Zhang, Z. (Author), Ludwig, C. (Author), Aebersold, R. (Author), Hwa, T. (Author), March Meeting, Principles of gene regulation quantitatively connect DNA to RNA and proteins in bacteria, American Physical Society, United States of America. (2022).

    • Poster

  • Balakrishnan, R. (Author & Presenter), Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages, Extensive and regulated protein turnover governs protein synthesis and survival of E. coli in stationary phase, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States of America. (2023).

Media Contributions

    Internet

  • "Rewriting the textbook on gene regulation: It's the big picture that counts," phys.org. (December 22, 2022).

Copyrights, Patents

    Patent

  • Hwa, T., Manzanarez, G., Balakrishnan, R., Kannan, H., Mori, M., METHODS OF USING NON-GROWING BACTERIA TO SYNTHESIZE TARGET PRODUCTS (submitted, September 2024), Provisional, Date submitted to the University: September 27, 2024. Date of Patent Application: September 27, 2024. .

Service

Professional Service

  • Committee Member, BioDiscovery Institute (Awards Committee). (2025 - Present).
  • Committee Member, BioDiscovery Institute (various ad hoc committees). (2025 - Present).
  • Committee Member, UNT BMB rotation student ad hoc committee. (2025 - Present).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Nature Microbiology. (November 30, 2025).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Cell Systems. (May 15, 2025).
  • Reviewer, Grant Proposal, Human Frontiers Science Program. Strasbourg, (2024).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Journal of Royal Society Interface. (2024).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, mLife. (2024).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Frontiers in Microbiology. (2023 - 2023).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Genome Research. (2021 - 2021).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Plos Genetics. (2019 - 2019).
  • Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Bioinformatics. (2018).