Rate My Professor Jayanthi Papannaro

Jaya Papannarao, also known as Jayanthi Bellae Papannarao, serves as an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences and the Health Sciences Division. Holding an MSc, she is affiliated with the Katare Lab, where her research emphasizes three core aspects: identifying diseases at early stages, elucidating molecular mechanisms driving disease progression, and developing innovative therapies. Her specific academic interests include understanding the mechanisms behind diabetes-induced cardiovascular complications, discovering novel blood-based biomarkers for the early diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, and investigating age-induced cardiovascular disease. These efforts align with the lab's broader focus on molecular mechanisms in cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including the pathological roles of microRNAs in diabetic cardiomyopathy, circulating microRNAs as biomarkers, suicidal autophagy in diabetic hearts, therapies for diabetic ulcers, and nanoparticle-mediated RNA delivery for cardiovascular conditions.

Papannarao has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications highlighting her contributions to cardiovascular biomarker research. Notable works include 'Serial measurement of circulating cardiovascular-enriched microRNAs in patients with ischaemic heart disease: A five-year longitudinal study' published in Bioscience Reports in 2025; 'microRNAs involved in neuropathic pain can be measured in saliva' in the British Journal of Anaesthesia in 2025; 'Serial measurement of circulating cardiovascular enriched miR-1 and -34a reflects the changes in cardiac function in patients with ischemic heart disease: A five year follow-up study' presented as an abstract in Circulation Research in 2024; 'Role of miRNA-1 in diabetes' at the 47th New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes Annual Scientific Meeting in 2024; and 'Circulating microRNAs as prognostic biomarkers for ischemic heart disease' as a poster at the 17th New Zealand Medical Sciences Congress in 2023. Additional contributions appear in studies such as 'Cardiac Progenitor Cells and Adipocyte Stem Cells from Same Patients Exhibit In Vitro Functional Differences' in 2022 and 'Acute Weight Loss Restores Dysregulated Circulating microRNAs in Class III Obese Subjects' in 2019. Her work supports ongoing investigations into microRNA dynamics in clinical settings for improved diagnostics and treatments in cardiovascular pathologies.