RESEARCH PROJECTS
Grants received
2022 DST-SERB Start-up Research Grant (SRG), Government of India as Principal Investigator (PI)
2021 Seed funding award, Adamas University, Kolkata, India as Principal Investigator (PI)
Investigating the influence of biophysical parameters on protein folding stages
Protein folding is a complex process with the mechanisms not yet completely understood. Several biophysical factors are known to influence the protein folding such as hydrophobicity, secondary forces, local frustration, contact order. Hydrophobicity and secondary forces are known to influence the thermodynamics, whereas local frustration and contact order influences the kinetics of protein folding. Protein folding, in common, process through three stages i.e. early, intermediate and late. There is no clear report yet on how several biophysical parameters influence the different protein folding stages. Based on the database available, data analysis work is going on to investigate the influence of those parameters.
In silico screening of phytochemicals from ancient Indian herbs as potential drugs
Ayurvedic medicine is one of the ancient heath care practices across the world, which was developed in India more than 3000 years ago. There are several ayurvedic medicines which are considered as alternative medicine to allopathic/homeopathic medicine till now and widely used across the globe as traditional Indian herbal medicine. In recent years the world has witnesses emergence of several infectious diseases and the development of effective medicines is becoming the need of hour. Our group is working on in silico screening and identifying the phytochemicals from ancient Indian herbs as potential drug against those diseases through protein modeling and molecular docking approach.
Application of solid solutions of metal oxide nanoparticles as alternative to antibiotics
Antibiotic resistance is emerging as one of the major threats to public health across the globe. Adaptation of pathogenic bacteria to the chemical structure of the antibiotics is the main reason behind this drug resistance. In this scenario, the Metal Oxide Nanoparticles (MONPs) are found to be the perfect alternative to antibiotics since, so far there is no mechanism reported by which bacteria can develop resistance against it. NPs are becoming the centre of attraction because of their effectiveness at smaller dose. The two main features of MONPs which determines its efficacy are its penetration efficiency across the bacterial cell wall and photocatalytic properties. Our group in collaboration with Dr. Somaditya Sen's group at IIT Indore is trying to design and develop such MONPs possessing these two key features with high efficiency and also trying to elucidate the mechanism of action which will provide a new avenue in the area of nanomedicine.