Natarajan Kannan

Distinguished Research Professor 2025

Natarajan Kannan, professor in the Institute of Bioinformatics and the Franklin College Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is a leader in molecular evolution, computational biology, and protein bioinformatics. His research has transformed the understanding of how complex signaling systems evolve at the molecular level. By combining computational and experimental approaches, he has mapped the origin and evolution of biomedically important signaling proteins such as protein kinases and glycosyltransferases, uncovering novel regulatory mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Kannan’s work has led to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including in top scientific journals such as Nature Communications, PNAS, and Science Signaling, and has been cited over 8,000 times. His $10 million in research funding includes major grants from NIH, NSF, and the American Cancer Society. He has also developed open-source bioinformatics tools widely used by the scientific community. Kannan’s interdisciplinary research continues to shape biomedical sciences and advance innovations in computational and artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies.