Bala S. C. Koritala, Dr. rer. nat

Affiliations: 
2020- Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center 
 2022- Otolaryngology University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, United States 
Area:
Biochemistry, Circadian Biology, Natural Variations, Oncology, Molecular Biology, Economics
Website:
https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/koritaby
Google:
"Bala Koritala"
Bio:

Dr. Bala S. C. Koritala is a research instructor at the Department of Otolaryngology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Medical Center, OH, USA. His research goal is to understand the mysteries of molecular mechanisms associated with
circadian clock variation and its consequences with complex traits including pathology and fitness. Dr. Koritala received
his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology at Bharath University, India in 2009. After he received his master’s degree
in Biotechnology at Amity University in 2011, Dr. Koritala headed to Germany to pursue his career in medical research. In
the process of exploring his research interest, he obtained another master’s degree in Biology at the Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich. During this period, he found his research interests in understanding the importance of the circadian
clock and its regulation in human diseases at Prof. Martha Merrow's laboratory. Dr. Koritala earned an honorary doctorate
degree in natural sciences (Dr. rer. nat) from the faculty of medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in
2016.
Dr. Koritala’s doctoral work “Circadian Entrainment and Molecular Mechanisms of Protein Aggregation” investigates the
role of zeitgebers in the progression of protein aggregation diseases. He used C. elegans as a model to understand the
impact of physiological temperature cycles on protein aggregation and found that temperature cycles have an incuence at
the transcriptional and translational level (rhythmic expression) on heat shock proteins in C. elegans known to be involved
in reducing toxic aggregate formations. He also observed that the same physiological temperature cycles reduce the
protein aggregation in C. elegans neurodegenerative models. Dr. Koritala and his colleagues identified the subset of
proteins from the aggregates in temperature cycles and not in constant conditions using proteomics tools. Dr. Koritala
discovered the developmental program (Larval stages) that affects in the neurodegenerative models of C. elegans.
After he received his Dr. rer. nat from Germany, in 2016, Dr. Koritala started his research to understand the circadian
regulation of Ztness under natural conditions at Rutgers University, USA. For this study, Dr. Koritala used natural ecotypes
of Neurospora, a classical circadian model that can exhibit circadian output of asexual development. Dr. Koritala and his
colleagues observed that habitat-specific clock variation is involved in local adaptation of N. discreta, a species that is
adapted to two different habitats, under or above tree bark. North American strains, whose habitat is under the tree bark,
gained reproductive fitness in comparison to that of African strains, regardless of light/dark cycle, but lost their clock
regulation of asexual development. His work furthered the knowledge about the molecular mechanism associated with
habitat-specific clock variation and fitness.
In 2018, Dr. Koritala moved to Washington State University, USA to continue his research to understand the role of the
circadian clock in cancer therapy. For this study, Dr. Koritala is using mammalian models including mice and humans. As
part of his research, Dr. Koritala is understanding circadian rhythms and its properties at transcriptome and proteome level
in day and night shift workers. Dr. Koritala believes these research outcomes will give novel insights to understand the
molecular mechanism of an increase of chronic pathologies mainly cancer in shift work. Furthermore, Dr. Koritala is
studying time of the day drug delivery and its impact on molecular mechanisms (DNA damage and DNA repair) associated
with the prognosis of breast tumors.
Recently, Dr. Koritala started new position as a Research Instructor at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to
understand the importance of circadian clock in hospital treatments.
(Show less)

Mean distance: (not calculated yet)
 
BETA: Related publications

Publications

You can help our author matching system! If you notice any publications incorrectly attributed to this author, please sign in and mark matches as correct or incorrect.

See more...