Dr Sunita Ramesh

Senior Lecturer

College of Science and Engineering

place Biological Sciences (321)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Dr Sunita Ramesh completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, investigating the ‘Molecular Mechanisms of Zinc Uptake and Regulation in Cereals’. Upon completion of her PhD in August 2002, Dr Ramesh took up a position as a post-doctoral researcher in the Plant Research Centre at the Waite Campus, University of Adelaide. She continued her research into improving abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants such as wheat, barley, chickpea with a strong focus on the role of membrane transport proteins and associated signalling cascades. In 2015, Dr Ramesh was the lead researcher involved in identifying that gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) – an inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammalian brains, is a stress signal in planta; and that a family of anion channel proteins have a putative GABA binding motif. Her reserach involves studying the role of GABA in reducing cell death in grape berries.

In 2017, Dr Ramesh started teaching part time at the School of Biomedicine at the University of Adelaide, while continuing her plant focussed research. Whilst at the School of Biomedicine, Dr Ramesh started research into the roles of ion channels and transporters in cell motility in cancer, with a particularly strong focus on brain cancer. Currently Dr Ramesh’s research focuses on identifying novel natural compounds and their modes of action in limiting tumour cell movement.

Dr Ramesh joined Flinders University as a Lecturer in Molecular biology in 2020 and established Transport Physiology and Signalling research group. Her laboratory uses several heterologous expression systems such as Xenopus oocytes, E. coli, yeast, tobacco cells, plants, and cell lines to answer research questions. Her research group focusses on investigating plant-soil-microbe interactions and the role of plant exudates to improve abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Her group also researches into identifying novel natural pharmacological compounds to limit brain cancer invasiveness.

Qualifications

PhD Molecular Physiology - The University of Adelaide

Honours, awards and grants

Year

Grant

Role

Funding ($)

2023-2027

Grains Research Development Corporation

CI

1.8 M

2023-2024

Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation

CI (A)

91,816

2022-2023

Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grants

CI (B)

25,000

2022-2023

Neurosurgical Research Foundation Grant

CI (A)

31,000

2022-2025

Australia India Council Grant

(AIC-039-2021)

CI (A)

160,000

2019-2021

ARC Discovery (DP190101745)

CI (B)

433,000

2014-2017

OCE (Office of Chief Executive, CSIRO) Fellowships

CI (C)

300,000

2022 

2021

Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grants

DVCR Infrastructure Funding Grant

CI (B) 

CI (A)

$25,000

$45,000

2020

Major Equipment Round, CSE

CI (A)

$47,000

2017 University of Adelaide Women's Research Excellence Award $5000
2016 Excellent Poster Award International Workshop for Plant Membrane Biology
2000 Best Presentation / Talk The University of Adelaide
1997 Postgraduate Scholarship, CRC for Molecular Plant Breeding The University of Adelaide

Topic coordinator
BIOL2771 Biochemistry
Topic lecturer
BIOL2771 Biochemistry - 2020 S1
BIOL3772 INTEGRATING MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE AND INTEGRATING MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE GE
Higher degree by research supervision
Current
Principal supervisor: Abitotic Stress Tolerance (1), Nitrogen Assimilation and Transport (1), GABA Signalling (1)
Associate supervisor: Volatile Signalling (1)
Completion
Associate supervisor: Microbiology (1)
Higher degree by research student achievements
Ms Chethana Gowder-Shekharappa

Wine Australia Top up Scholarship - FEB 2020