Krishna Reddy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine

Contact Info

• Academic Email: krishnareddy@usf.edu

Education

Biography

Krishna obtained his Bachelor’s in Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, and a PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of South Florida in the labs of Bob Deschenes and Vladimir Uversky. He then did a postdoc in the lab of Olga Boudker at Weill Cornell Medical College/HHMI, where he became interested in applying bioinformatics and molecular evolution to inform deeper understandings of the structure, function, and mechanism of membrane transporters. In 2025, he returned to the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida to start his independent group, where he is continuing to develop new experimental and computational methods to further dissect transporter structure-function.

Research Interests

• Cells require membrane transporters to perform continuous, selective movement of molecules across their membranes; this ‘out-of-equilibrium' state maintains the homeostasis of various organic and inorganic substrates critical to life, including ions, nutrients, lipids, drugs, and numerous other signaling molecules. Transporters are intricate molecular machines with incredible functional diversity and plasticity, enabling cells to adapt to complex and ever-changing environments.
• To understand the mechanics of membrane transport, we integrate computational and experimental approaches, spanning biophysics, structural biology, bioinformatics, genomics, and more. Our ultimate goal is to be able to precisely control how transporters work, through either protein engineering or pharmacology.

Recent Publications

• Krishna D. Reddy, Burha Rasool, Farideh Badichi Akher, Nemanja Kutlešić, Swati Pant, Olga Boudker Evolutionary analysis reveals the origin of sodium coupling in glutamate transporters bioRxiv. , 2023.
• Krishna D. Reddy, Didar Ciftci, Amanda J. Scopelliti, Olga Boudker The archaeal glutamate transporter homologue GltPh shows heterogeneous substrate binding J Gen Physiol. , 2022.

Positions Held

• Instructor (Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College 2023 - 2024)
• Postdoctoral Researcher (Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College 2017 - 2023)