The Principle Investigator

My name is Ornchuma Itsathitphaisarn. I am a lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry and a deputy head of Center of Excellence for Shrimp Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Centex Shrimp), Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Thailand. I read Biochemistry at St. John's College, Oxford University and earned a first class bachelor and master degree in Biochemistry in 2007. My 2007-2012 doctoral training in structural biology of protein-nucleic acid interactions at Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University was under the co-supervision of Prof. Thomas A. Steitz (a 2009 Chemistry Nobel Laureate) and Prof. Joan A. Steitz. My doctoral thesis sheds light on how bacterial replicative DNA helicase unzips the double helix structure of DNA to make the genetic information available for DNA replication.

I joined the faculty of Science in December 2012. My research currently focuses on molecular biology and biochemistry of shrimp and shrimp pathogens, particularly newly emerging disease-causing agents. Shrimp aquaculture is definitely a drastic move from the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology that was my comfort zone during my PhD. However, after searching for underexplored research areas in Thailand, I settles for shrimp and its emerging diseases where I am certain that my expertise can make a different in this understaffed field.