Lata Balakrishnan

Lata Balakrishnan serves as an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Biology within the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University. Her research focuses on DNA replication and repair mechanisms with particular emphasis on post-translational modifications.

Her educational background includes a Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of North Dakota (2007), a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Mumbai (2002), and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Mumbai (2000).

Dr. Balakrishnan's research program investigates the mechanistic reactions of eukaryotic lagging strand DNA synthesis and accompanying DNA repair processes, with specific focus on how lysine acetylation regulates protein functions in DNA replication fidelity and repair. Her laboratory combines biochemistry, chromatin biology, and genetics to understand how post-translational modifications fine-tune genome maintenance processes. This work has significant implications for understanding aging, disease mechanisms, and cancer therapies involving deacetylase inhibitors.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding Okazaki fragment processing, flap endonuclease functions, and the role of epigenetic modifications in viral and cellular DNA metabolism. Recent work has expanded into R-loop resolution mechanisms and the impact of protein acetylation on DNA polymerase activities.

Dr. Balakrishnan actively mentors graduate students through her role as Director of Graduate Studies and maintains an active research program supported by numerous publications in high-impact journals. Her laboratory has developed specialized techniques including the Dual Agarose Magnetic (DAM) ChIP method for epigenetic analysis.

The laboratory focuses on understanding how acetylation alters enzymatic functions of DNA repair proteins to regulate replication fidelity, with particular interest in the connections between genome stability, aging, and disease pathogenesis.