Assoc Prof Lakshminarayanan Rajamani

Associate Professor Lakshminarayanan Rajamani is the Co-Head of the Ocular Anti Infective and Inflammation Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI). He holds joint appointments at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as at the Academic Clinical Program in Ophthalmology & Visual Science Programme at Duke-NUS. He received his PhD degree from the Department of Chemistry at the National University of Singapore in 2003. He received numerous awards such as the prestigious Singapore Millennium Foundation - Post Doctoral Fellowship, ASEM-DUO Denmark Fellowship, Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow and Outstanding Scientist Award. At SERI, he has been involved in translational research for treating bacterial and fungal infections of the eye. His expertise area includes the design and development of antimicrobial polymers, peptides, and nanofibers for infection control and testing their safety and efficacy in relevant animal models. He has published >160 research & review articles and an h-index of 63 with >12,000 citations and has 4 patents. At NUS, he teaches foundation courses on microbiology, physical pharmacy, pharmaceutical polymers and polymers for drug delivery.

• PhD (2003)
• MTech (1997)
• MSc (1994)
• BSc (1992)

• Associate Professor (Practice Track), Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore (2020 – Present)
• Associate Professor, Ophthalmology Academic Clinical Program (2018 – Present)
• Chairperson, Institutional Biosafety Committee (2018 – Present)

• Innovative Scientist of the Year Award 2017, 2nd International Conference on Innovative Approaches in Applied Sciences and Technologies, Singapore (2017)
• Outstanding Young Research Award for the Year, Singapore Eye Research Institute (2013)
• Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award for the Year (2nd Prize), Research Day, School of Dentistry, USC (2008)
• Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award for the Year 2008 (1st Prize), Research Day, School of Dentistry, USC (2007)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Fellowship, National Institute of Health (2005)
• Denmark Fellowship, ASEM-DUO (2004)
• Research Fellowship, Singapore Millennium Foundation (2002)

• ​Antimicrobial Combination Therapy for Bacterial and Fungal Keratitis (2024 – Present)
• Rational Design of Antimicrobial Peptides and Polymers for Fungal Keratitis (2021 – Present)
• Durable Antimicrobial Wound Dressings for Burn Injuries & Infection Control (2013 – 2024)

1. Wu S, Mayandi V, Leng Goh ET, Wang W, Han N, Zhong R, Luo Z, Wang Y, Chen M, Lakshminarayanan R*, Ruan Z, Liu S, Lin S. Boronic Acid Derivatives Inhibit Candida Albicans Growth by Compromising Energy Metabolism. J Adv Res. 2026 Apr;82:1189-1202.
2. Aung TT, Venktatesh M, Periayah MH, Ting DSJ, Wang X, Goh ETL, Tun SBB, Hua CHE, Barathi VA, Verma NK, Yue W, Tan DTH, Chan ASY, Lakshminarayanan R*. Structure-Activity Relationship in ε-Lysine Peptides: The Length Effects on Antifungal Activity. Biomacromolecules. 2025 Oct 13;26(10):6653-6666.
3. Ting DSJ, Aung TT, Mayandi V, Periayah MH, Goh ETL, Muthu M, Barathi VA, Mehta JS, Tan DTH, Lakshminarayanan R*. Biosynthetic ε-poly-L-lysine for the Treatment of Extensively- and Pan-drug-resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. NPJ Antimicrob Resist. 2025 Sep 9;3(1):77.
4. Zhu X, Tram NDT, Murali DM, Barathi VA, Venkatesh M, Lakshminarayanan R, Ee PLR. Antimicrobial Peptide-conjugated Graphene Coatings for Prevention and Treatment of Bacterial Infections. Nanoscale. 2025 Aug 28;17(34):19914-19927.
5. Ghomi ER, Mayandi V, Chellappan V, Dubey N, Amuthavalli K, Neisiany RE, Barathi VA, Verma NK, Lakshminarayanan R*, Ramakrishna S. Biomimetic Aligned Nanofibrous Dressings Containing Cell-selective Polymer Enhance Diabetic Wound Regeneration. Mater. Des. 2024;238:112694.
6. Ghomi ER, Chellappan V, Neisiany RE, Dubey N, Amuthavalli K, Verma NK, Lakshminarayanan R*, Ramakrishna S. An Innovative Tunable Bimodal Porous PCL/gelatin Dressing Fabricated by Electrospinning and 3D Printing for Efficient Wound Healing and Scalable Production. Compos. Sci. Technol. 2024; 247:110402.
7. Tram NDT, Xu J, Mukherjee D, Obanel AE, Mayandi V, Selvarajan V, Zhu X, Teo J, Barathi VA, Lakshminarayanan R*, Ee PLR. Bacteria-responsive Self-assembly of Antimicrobial Nanonets for Tap-and-kill of Antibiotic-resistant Strains. Adv Funct Mater 2023; 33: 2210858.
8. Mayandi V, Kang WT, Ting DSJ, Goh ETL, Lynn MN, Aung TT, Vadivelu J, Barathi VA, Chan ASY, Lakshminarayanan R. Propranolol Ameliorates the Antifungal Activity of Azoles in Invasive Candidiasis. Pharmaceutics. 2023 Mar 23;15(4):1044.
9. Wendy R, Periayah MH, Loh XJ, Rajamani L*, Anbanandam P. Synthesis, Characterization and Cell Selectivity of Poly(Quaternary Ammonium Chlorides): Effect of the Degree of Quaternization and Copolymer Composition. Mater. Adv., 2023,4, 4954-4964.
10. Ghomi ER, Lakshminarayanan R*, Chellappan V, Verma NK, Chinnappan A, Neisiany RE, Amuthavalli K, Poh ZS, Wong BHS, Dubey N, Narayan R, Ramakrishna S. Electrospun Aligned PCL/gelatin Scaffolds Mimicking the Skin ECM for Effective Antimicrobial Wound Dressings. Adv Fiber Mater. 2023;5(1):235-251.
11. Peguda HK, Lakshminarayanan R, Carnt NA, Gu Z, Willcox MDP. The Activity of Polyhomoarginine Against Acanthamoeba Castellanii. Biology (Basel). 2022 Nov 28;11(12):1726.
12. Suresh Babu V, Kizhakeyil A, Dudeja G, Chaurasia SS, Barathi VA, Heymans S, Verma NK, Lakshminarayanan R*, Ghosh A. Selective Induction of Intrinsic Apoptosis in Retinoblastoma Cells by Novel Cationic Antimicrobial Dodecapeptides. Pharmaceutics. 2022 Nov 18;14(11):2507.
13. Lim EJ, Goh ETL, Tram NDT, Periayah MH, Ee PLR, Barkham TMS, Poh ZS, Verma NK, Lakshminarayanan R*. Rationalisation of Antifungal Properties of α-helical Pore-forming Peptide, Mastoparan B. Molecules. 2022 Feb 21;27(4):1438.
14. Cui M, Zheng M, Wiraja C, Chew SWT, Mishra A, Mayandi V, Lakshminarayanan R*, Xu C. Ocular Delivery of Predatory Bacteria with Cryomicroneedles Against Eye Infection. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021; 8:e2102327-N.A.
15. Zhou G, Deng X, Tian J, Fazil MHUT, Lakshminarayanan R*, Srinivasan R. SnAP Reagents for the Synthesis of Selenomorpholines and 1,4-selenazepanes and Their Biological Evaluation. Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Feb;56: 1780-1783.