Faculty

Sesh Sundararaman, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)

Department: Pediatrics

Graduate Group Affiliations

Cell and Molecular Biology

Contact information

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Morgan Research Building Room 5008
2716 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146

Education
BA (Biology and Chemistry)
Williams College, 2008.
PhD (Cell and Molecular Biology)
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2015.
MD
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2017.

Permanent link

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Description of Clinical Expertise

Dr. Sundararaman is an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He cares for children with a wide range of infectious diseases. Within this clinical focus, he has a particular interest in travel-related infections and in improving the care of children and families traveling abroad to visit friends and relatives, with an emphasis on preventing malaria and other travel-associated illnesses.

Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Sundararaman studies Plasmodium species, the causative agents of malaria. Malaria is an infectious disease of global importance, causing hundreds of millions of cases and over half a million deaths each year. The greatest impact of malaria is on young children, who account for three-quarters of all global deaths. Dr. Sundararaman’s work focuses on the interactions between Plasmodium parasites and the host red blood cell – specifically, which components or pathways of the red blood cell environment are essential for parasite development, and how these might be leveraged to develop new antimalarial therapies. The lab’s current work investigates why perturbations of red blood cell glycolysis alter Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. In parallel, the lab examines how certain human populations have evolved partial protection against malaria, investigating the mechanisms underlying this protection and how the treatment of genetic disorders associated with that protection might alter the infection risk or disease severity.

Selected Publications

Sundararaman SA, Roper B, Davis AKF, Hanze Villavicencio KL, Mayhew JA, Wang ML, Tang NL, Soma VL, Wang Z, Feeney ME, Trehan I, Weatherhead JE, John CC, Gerber JS, Odom John AR: Malaria in Children at 9 U.S. Hospitals: 2016-2023. Pediatrics 157(6): e2025073556, June 2026.

L'Etoile N, Sundararaman SA, Theiller E, Miller JJ, Moustafa AM, Steenhoff AP, Odom John AR: Pocapavir for neonatal enteroviral sepsis: limitations of rapid viral sequencing on treatment decisions. ASM Case Rep 1(6): e00008-25, July 2025.

Sundararaman SA, Miller JJ, Daley EC, O’Brien KA, Kasak P, Daniels AM, Edwards RL, Heidel KM, Bague DA, Wilson MA, Koepler AJ, Kourtoglou EC,White AD, August SA, Apple GA, Rouamba RW, Durand AJ, Esteb JJ, Muller FL, Johnson RJ, Hoops GC, Dowd CS, John AO: Prodrug activation in malaria parasites mediated by an imported erythrocyte esterase, acylpeptide hydrolase (APEH). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 122(10): e2417682122, March 2025.

Sundararaman SA: Post-Artesunate Delayed Hemolysis in Pediatric Patients in the United States. American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Poster November 2024.

Pilling OA, Sundararaman SA, Brisson D, Beiting DP : Turning the needle into the haystack: Culture-independent amplification of complex microbial genomes directly from their native environment. PLoS Pathog 20(9): e1012418, September 2024.

Sundararaman SA, Hanze Villavicencio KL, Roper B, Wang Z, Davis AKF, Mayhew JA, Wang ML, Tang NL, Soma VL, Shust GF, Feeney ME, Trehan I, Weatherhead JE, John CC, Gerber JS, John AO. : Post-Artesunate Delayed Hemolysis in Pediatric Malaria Patients in the United States. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc 13(10): 533-536, August 2024.

Sundararaman SA, Kasak P, Daniels A, John AO, : Leveraging the Plasmodium falciparum esterase repertoire to design parasite-specific prodrugs. St. Jude-PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference, Memphis, TN, Poster March 2024.

Liu W, Li Y, Shaw KS, Learn GH, Plenderleith LJ, Malenke JA, Sundararaman SA, Ramirez MA, Crystal PA, Smith AG, Bibollet-Ruche F, Ayouba A, Locatelli S, Esteban A, Mouacha F, Guichet E, Butel C, Ahuka-Mundeke S, Inogwabini BI, Ndjango JB, Speede S, Sanz CM, Morgan DB, Gonder MK, Kranzusch PJ, Walsh PD, Georgiev AV, Muller MN, Piel AK, Stewart FA, Wilson ML, Pusey AE, Cui L, Wang Z, Färnert A, Sutherland CJ, Nolder D, Hart JA, Hart TB, Bertolani P, Gillis A, LeBreton M, Tafon B, Kiyang J, Djoko CF, Schneider BS, Wolfe ND, Mpoudi-Ngole E, Delaporte E, Carter R, Culleton RL, Shaw GM, Rayner JC, Peeters M, Hahn BH, Sharp PM : African origin of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. Nat Commun 5(1): 3346, February 2024.

Sundararaman SA, John AO: Adenosine sulfamates: Next generation of antimalarials. Cell Host & Microbe 30(8): 1074-1076, August 2022.

Sundararaman SA, John AO: Prevention of malaria in pregnancy: The threat of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance. Front In Pediatr 10(1): 966402, August 2022.