T. "Soma" Somasundaram

Director, X-ray Crystallography Facility
Distinguished University Scholar
Soma profile image

Contact Information

tsomasundaram@fsu.edu
850-644-6448
Office Location
414 KLB
Lab Location
410-412 KLB

Welcome! I am a Distinguished University Scholar, Faculty Senator, Senior Research Associate, and the Director of the IMB X-Ray Facility [RRID:SCR_017922], a Core Facility, specializing in macromolecular single crystal X-ray diffraction at Kasha Laboratory, Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. I train students how to collect and analyze macromolecular X-ray diffraction data using both home and synchrotron x-ray sources. I am an author or co-author (ORCID logo 0000-0002-3629-5117) on several peer-reviewed publications. During the Fall semester of every year, I train the in-coming graduate students on the practical aspects of macromolecular crystallization and x-ray diffraction data collection. The three-week training, XRF Protein Crystallization & X-Ray Diffraction Workshop is part of the Core Facilities Training Workshop.

I am a member of the Executive Board and the current President of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities and a member of ABRF Membership, and Communication Committees and I was the past President of the Southeastern Association of Shared Resources. In 2021, I received the Distinguished University Scholar Award, and was elected as a Faculty Senator. Since 2021 I have hosted several students from FSUshadow program to learn about working in cores. I have organized PITTCON Conferee Networking Events (Funding for mid-size equipment and Core Facility Opportunities and Challenges). I am a member of the Editorial Board of Cell Press's Star Protocol. Since 2012, I have been involved with the FSU Scientific Equipment Portal and our team won the 2017 Prudential (Davis) Productivity Award for the work. In 2024 ABRF Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, I gave three talks on structural biology cores and core advocacy issues. Since 2020 I have been studying Arabic language and in 2024 enrolled in the Middle Eastern Studies program.

Professional Information

  1. Facility Director (1993-present), X-Ray Crystallography Facility, Institute of Molecular Biophysics. FSU.
  2. President (2024-present), Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities.
  3. Board Member (2023-present), Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities.
  4. Senator (2021-present), FSU Faculty Senate, Florida State University
  5. Chair (2022-23), Faculty Senate Election Committee, Florida State University.
  6. Co-founding member (2012-present), FSU-Wide Core Facility Managers Network.
  7. President (2019-21), Treasurer (2016-19), Southeastern Association of Shared Resources, ABRF Chapter.
  8. Host (2021-present), FSUShadow Program.
  9. Mentor (2007-18), Young Scholars Program of Department of Biological Science, FSU.

Awards

  • ‘2021 FSU Distinguished University Scholar', Thayumanasamy Somasundaram, Highest university award bestowed to a specialized faculty.

  • ‘2017 Prudential Productivity Cash Award’ FSU ID#: 404– William Sweeney, Thayumanasamy Somasundaram, Claudius Mundoma, James Stephens, Donna Trumbower, Carlos Murphy, Kyle Gower-Winter, and Rebekah Dorn, Scientific Equipment Database and Web Portal, Jun 14, 2017.

Publications

ORCID ( ORCID logo 0000-0002-3629-5117)

34.’The Eighth Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Shared Resources‘, T.N. Seagroves, D. Bagarozzi, P. Bagchi, N.M. Boukli, N. Browner, F.C-Lee, S. Constable, K.B. Dahlman, L. Griffiths, T.E. Mesa, and Thayumanasamy Somasundaram. J. Biomol.Tech  32(4) https://doi.org/10.7171/3fc1f5fe.ea38010c.

33.’Making the right decisions: Adopting to emerging needs‘, K.B. Dahlman, D. Bagarozzi, P. Bagchi, D. Blum, N.M. Boukli, F.C-Lee, S. Constable, T.N. Seagroves, Thayumanasamy Somasundaram. J. Biomol.Tech  31(4), 165-167 (2020).

32.’The structure of lombricine kinase: implications for phosphagen kinase conformational changes‘, D.J. Bush, O. Kirillova, S.A. Clark, O. Davulcu, F. Fabiola, Q. Xie, Thayumanasamy Somasundaram, W.R. Ellington, and M.S. Chapman. J. Biol Chem. 286, 9338-9350 (2011).

31.’De-icing: Recovery of Diffraction Intensities in the presence of Ice Rings‘, Michael Chapman and Thayumanasamy Somasundaram. Acta Cryst. D66, 741-744 (2010).

30.’ Spackling the crack: stabilizing human fibroblast growth factor-1 by targeting the N- and c- terminus β-strand interactions‘ Vikash Kumar Dubey , Jihun Lee, T. Somasundaram, Sachiko Blaber, and M. Blaber. J. Mol. Biol. 371(1), 256-268 (2007). [DOI Link]

29.’ Conversion of type I 4:6 to 3:5 ß-turn types in human acidic fibroblast growth factor ‘, Jihun Lee, Vikash Kumar Dubey , T. Somasundaram, and M. Blaber. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics 62(3), 686-697 (2006). [DOI Link]

28.’ An atomic resolution structure for human fibroblast growth factor 1 ‘, Matthew J. Bernett, T. Somasundaram, and M. Blaber. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics 57(3), 626-634 (2004). [DOI Link]

27.’ The putative catalytic bases have, at most, an accessory role in the mechanism of arginine kinase ‘, P.S. Pruett, A. Azzi, S.A. Clark, M.S. Yousef, J.L. Gattis, T. Somasundaram, W.R. Ellington and M. S. Chapman. J Biol Chem 278(29), 26952-57 (2003). [DOI Link]

Invited Talks

13. '"ABRF: Defining Excellence in Shared Resources', T. Somasundaram. 2024 11th Annual SEASR Meeting, Jun 12-14, 2024, Nashville, TN.

12. '"Advocating for the Cores in your institution', T. Somasundaram. 2024 35th ABRF Annual Meeting, Apr 21-24, 2024, Minneapolis, MN.

11. '"Training and research in Structural Biology Cores', T. Somasundaram. 2024 35th ABRF Annual Meeting, Apr 21-24, 2024, Minneapolis, MN.

10. '"Structural Biology Cores" Challenges, Evolution, and Opportunities", T. Somasundaram. 2024 35th ABRF Annual Meeting, Apr 21-24, 2024, Minneapolis, MN.

9. 'Role of Shared Resources in the Era of Open Science', T. Somasundaram. 2023 FSU Open Scholars Symposium, Sep 28-29, 2023, Tallahassee, FL.

8. ‘Instrument and Facility PIDs: Constraints and Suggestions‘, T. Somasundaram, FAIR Facilities & Instruments Workshop -1,  Boulder, CO, Sep 13-15, 2023.

7. ‘Core Facilities: Challenges and Opportunities‘, T. Somasundaram. 2018 PITTCON Conferee Networking Event, Orlando, Florida, Feb 26, 2018.

6. ‘Low-cost home-built imager for protein screening‘, T. Somasundaram. 66th Annual Meeting, American Crystallographic Association, Denver, CO, Jul 22-26, 2016.

5. ‘Funding/Upgrading for Mid-size Equipment‘, T. Somasundaram. 2016 PITTCON Conferee Networking Event, Atlanta, Georgia.

4. ‘Why you need a home X-Ray Facility?‘, T. Somasundaram. 2015 Second Florida Core Networking Event, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida.

3. ‘FSU’s IMB Core Facilities and their capabilities‘, T. Somasundaram. 2014 First Florida Core Networking Event, UF-ICBR, Gainesville, Florida.

Posters

18. ‘Improved Robotic Imager’,  T. Somasundaram and M. Zawrotny, 2018 Pittcon, Orlando, FL; Feb 25-27, 2018.

17. ‘Dual and mono axis robotic crystal imager‘, M. Zawrotny and T. Somasundaram, 2017 FSU CoM Life Sciences Symposium, Tallahassee, FL 32306; Feb 9-10, 2017 [html | pdf].

16. ‘Simple Imager for Multi-well Plates‘, M. Zawrotny and T. Somasundaram, 2016 Pittcon, Atlanta, GA 30313; Mar 8, 2016.

15. ‘Simple Robotic Imager for Multi-well Plates‘, M. Zawrotny and T. Somasundaram, 2016 Life Science Symposium, FSU College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL 32306; Feb 25-26, 2016.

14. ‘IMB XRF-Core Facility’, T. Somasundaram, 2015 Fifth Annual Life Science Symposium: Ageing, Tallahassee, FL. Feb 19-20, 2015.

Updated: October 31, 2024.