Celebrating 5 Years of Service: Murugesan Subbarayan, PhD

Posted 10:22 AM, October 1, 2008, by jaruiz

Murugesan Subbarayan, PhD, physical science research associate, has worked in our Department for five years. Prior to coming to Stanford, Dr. Subbarayan obtained his BS in physics from Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu, India, and his MS and PhD in applied biological chemistry from Bombay University, Mumbai, India. He spent twenty years as a nuclear medicine scientist in the Radiation Medicine Center at the Tata Memorial Hospital Annex in Mumbai, India. In 2000, he began a two-year position as a postdoctoral research associate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, Dr. Subbarayan worked in Dr. Gambhir's laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, before coming to Stanford in 2003 as a physical science research associate in the Radiochemistry Facility of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS).

In addition to over 30 publications, Dr. Subbarayan's awards include the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) Award as a Visiting Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Department of Radiation Oncology; an American Society for Photobiology Travel Award; an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Scholar Award; and an American Society for Photobiology Travel Award. During his career, he has also developed and standardized a radioiodinated meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) for the first time in India, which was made available locally for the detection and treatment of neural crest tumors. Dr. Subbarayan also holds two Indian patent rights on second generation photosensitizers porphyrin and chlorin derivatives. Along with the Head of Cylotron Radiochemistry Fred Chin, PhD, Dr. Subbarayan is producing a useful molecular probe for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer patients called 18F-Fluorouracil for upcoming human studies.

Dr. Subbarayan's hobbies are meditation and reading.