Theetha L. Pavankumar, PhD, is a project scientist in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Davis, USA. Dr. Pavankumar is a pharmacologist and microbiologist. He earned his PhD in life sciences from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He joined UC Davis and is working on understanding the molecular mechanisms of DNA damage and its repair via homologous recombination. Dr. Pavankumar’s research encompasses areas of microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and single-molecule biophysical analysis of proteins involved in nucleic acid metabolism. His main research interests are RecBCD-RecA-mediated DNA repair and recombination, bacterial old adaptation, and RNA metabolism. He has expertise in site-specific fluorescence labeling of biomolecules and their single-molecule analysis using optical tweezer fluorescence microscopy and total-internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. He is a current member of the American Society of Microbiology.
