Durga Udayakumar, Ph.D.

Dr. Udayakumar graduated from Medical College of Georgia, (Georgia Health Sciences University) Augusta GA in 2005 with a PhD in Molecular Medicine with emphasis on biochemical signaling in DNA damage and repair under the mentorship of Dr. William S. Dynan. She then completed her post-doctoral trainings at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dept of Pathology and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dept of Dermatology on Tumor Vascular Biology, and Melanoma tumorigenesis. In 2011 she held an Instructor appointment at MGH, Harvard Medical School with research focused on Genetic determinants of UV induced skin cancers. In 2012, she joined University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as an Instructor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Since 2015, she has been appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her research interest is on Radiogenomics with a special focus on identifying imaging measures extracted from quantitative MRI parameters as a non invasive tool to better predict biological characteristics in tumors. 

Undergraduate

Anna University - India (2000), Biotechnology

Graduate School

Augusta University (2005), Molecular Medicine

Featured Publications

Single-shot RARE with Dixon: Application to robust abdominal imaging with uniform fat and water separation at 3T.

Wang X, Udayakumar D, Xi Y, Rofsky NM, Pedrosa I, Madhuranthakam AJ, Magn Reson Med 2021 09 86 3 1463-1471

Deciphering Intratumoral Molecular Heterogeneity in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma with a Radiogenomics Platform.

Udayakumar D, Zhang Z, Xi Y, Dwivedi DK, Fulkerson M, Haldeman S, McKenzie T, Yousuf Q, Joyce A, Hajibeigi A, Notgrass H, de Leon AD, Yuan Q, Lewis MA, Madhuranthakam AJ, Sibley RC, Elias R, Guo J, Christie A, McKay RM, Cadeddu JA, Bagrodia A, Margulis V, Brugarolas J, Wang T, Kapur P, Pedrosa I, Clin Cancer Res 2021 Jul

Addressing metabolic heterogeneity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma with quantitative Dixon MRI.

Zhang Y, Udayakumar D, Cai L, Hu Z, Kapur P, Kho EY, Pavía-Jiménez A, Fulkerson M, de Leon AD, Yuan Q, Dimitrov IE, Yokoo T, Ye J, Mitsche MA, Kim H, McDonald JG, Xi Y, Madhuranthakam AJ, Dwivedi DK, Lenkinski RE, Cadeddu JA, Margulis V, Brugarolas J, DeBerardinis RJ, Pedrosa I JCI Insight 2017 Aug 2 15

Structural and Biochemical Analyses Reveal the Mechanism of Glutathione S-Transferase Pi 1 Inhibition by the Anti-cancer Compound Piperlongumine.

Harshbarger W, Gondi S, Ficarro SB, Hunter J, Udayakumar D, Gurbani D, Singer W, Liu Y, Li L, Marto JA, Westover KD J. Biol. Chem. 2016 Nov

Characterization of DNA binding and pairing activities associated with the native SFPQ·NONO DNA repair protein complex.

Udayakumar D, Dynan WS Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2015 Aug 463 4 473-8

Single-strand DNA-binding protein SSB1 facilitates TERT recruitment to telomeres and maintains telomere G-overhangs.

Pandita RK, Chow TT, Udayakumar D, Bain AL, Cubeddu L, Hunt CR, Shi W, Horikoshi N, Zhao Y, Wright WE, Khanna KK, Shay JW, Pandita TK Cancer Res. 2015 Mar 75 5 858-69

Detecting ATM-dependent chromatin modification in DNA damage response.

Udayakumar D, Horikoshi N, Mishra L, Hunt C, Pandita TK Methods Mol. Biol. 2015 1288 317-36

Melanocytes Are Selectively Vulnerable to UVA-Mediated Bystander Oxidative Signaling.

Redmond RW, Rajadurai A, Udayakumar D, Sviderskaya EV, Tsao H J. Invest. Dermatol. 2013 Nov

EphA2 is a critical oncogene in melanoma.

Udayakumar D, Zhang G, Ji Z, Njauw CN, Mroz P, Tsao H Oncogene 2011 Dec 30 50 4921-9

Genetic determinants of cutaneous melanoma predisposition.

Udayakumar D, Mahato B, Gabree M, Tsao H Semin Cutan Med Surg 2010 Sep 29 3 190-5

• Lauterbur Award
  Best Oral Presentation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Main Scientific Session (2021)