Macromolecular Structural Biology Lab
Biotechnology Department, IIT Hyderabad
Dr. Rajakumara Eerappa
Principal Investigator
NATIONAL
Drug design
Dr. Guruprasad Kalthur,
Professor and Head of the Department, Department of Clinical Embryology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education
https://manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/department-faculty/faculty-list/guruprasad-kalthur.html
Project: Structure based design and evaluation of inhibitors against phosphodiesterases for enhancing sperm motility and early embryo development, and to reduce gamete and embryo toxicity
Publications:
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Satish M, Kumari S, Nitin K, Ninjoor YK, Babu A, Adiga SK, Kalthur G#, Rajakumara E#. Computational, biochemical and ex vivo evaluation of xanthine derivatives against phosphodiesterases to enhance the sperm motility. J Biomol Struct Dyn. Jun 13:1-11 (2022).
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Satish M, Kumari S, Deeksha W, Abhishek S, Nitin K, Adiga SK, Hegde P, Dasappa JP, Kalthur G#, Rajakumara E#. Structure-based redesigning of pentoxifylline analogs against selective phosphodiesterases to modulate sperm functional competence for assisted reproductive technologies, Nature Scientific Reports 11(1):12293 (2021). https://youtu.be/grUr-9_X7cw. Print or online media: Link to doc file ‘mPTX-IVF- News-Coverage’
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Designing of pentoxifylline derivatives against phosphodiesterases to enhance the sperm competence for assisted reproductive technologies (Under preparation).
Grant: CRG, SERB, DST; 2021-24
Prof. G. Satyanarayana, Chemistry Department, IIT Hyderabad
https://sites.google.com/iith.ac.in/gsresearchgroug/home?authuser=1
Publications:
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Designing of pentoxifylline derivatives against phosphodiesterases to enhance the sperm competence for assisted reproductive technologies (Under preparation).
Grant: CRG, SERB, DST; 2021-24
Students: a joint PhD student
Filed patent:
Application No: 202341028076
Title: Synthesis and evaluation of inhibitor against phosphodiesterases PDE4A, PDE4D, and PDE10
Inventors (all from IITH): Dr. Rajakumara Eerappa, Prof. G. Satyanarayana, Mr. Raj Virendra Gupta, Mr. M. Ramachandra Reddy
Prof. Sumohana Channappayya
Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Hyderabad
https://people.iith.ac.in/lfovia/index.html
Project: Technology and data driven (DL/ML) approaches to understand protein-protein network of host-pathogen interactions, developing DL/ML algorithms, and enzyme & antibody engineering, and peptide & small molecules-based lead compound discoveries.
Epigenetics, DNA repair and characterization of cancer drug targets
Dr. Gunjan Mehta
Laboratory of Chromosome Dynamics and Genes Regulation, Biotechnology Department, IITH
https://www.mehtalab-iith.com/
Project: Mechanistic understanding of functioning of CHD1 remodelers using biochemical, structural and Single-Molecule Imaging approaches, and identify the small molecule inhibitors
Publications:
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Mehta, G#., Sanyal, K., Abhishek, S., Rajakumara E & Ghosh, S. K#. Minichromosome maintenance proteins in eukaryotic chromosome segregation. BioEssays 44, 2100218 (2022).
Grant: Extramural research grant, Under Basic research in Modern Biology, DBT-Government of India
Students: a joint PhD student
Dr. Athi N. Naganathan
Biotechnology Department, IIT Madras
https://biotech.iitm.ac.in/faculty/athi-n.-naganathan/
Project: Mechanistic and structural studies on the allosteric regulation of phospho-mimetic variants of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases 1 activities by DNA break, PAR and PARP inhibitors, and design of PARPi(s)
Grant: STARS-MoE, Recommended for funding
Phase separation in protein aggregation, thermodynamics of hydrogels formation, and designing of PAR based biomedical constructs
Dr. Purusharth Rajyaguru
Biochemistry Department, IISc
https://biochem.iisc.ac.in/purusharth-i-rajyaguru.php
Topic: Mitigation of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) aggregates using peptides, and mechanistic understanding of PARP1 and PARP2 activities by RNA G-quadruplex.
Dr. Jyotsnendu Giri, BME, IITH
https://people.iith.ac.in/jgiri/
Topics: Nanofibres, nanoparticles and hydrogel design for biomedical applications
Publications:
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Deeksha W, Abhishek S, Giri J, Rajakumara E#. Regulation of PARP1 and its apoptotic variant activity by single-stranded DNA (Accepted by FEBS J.).
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Rajakumara E#, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Rajeshwari R, Giri J, Davari MD. Hijacking Chemical Reactions of P450 Enzymes for Altered Chemical Reactions and Asymmetric Synthesis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 24(1), 214 (2022).
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Singh R, Roopmani P, Chauhan M, Basu, S. M., Deeksha, W., Kazem, MD, Hazra S, Rajakumara E & Giri J#. Silver sulfadiazine loaded core-shell airbrushed nanofibers for burn wound healing application. Int. J. Pharm. 613, 121358 (2022).
Grant: 1. CRG, SERB-DST 2. DBT 3. Submitted a call for Letter of Intent (LoI) on ‘Cancer Disease Biology’, DBT, for funding.
Students: a joint ID PhD student with PMRF fellowship
Enzyme engineering and characterization for chiral synthesis of API
Dr. Priyanka Bajaj
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology NIPER Hyderabad
Publications:
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Rajakumara E#, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Rajeshwari R, Giri J, Davari MD. Hijacking Chemical Reactions of P450 Enzymes for Altered Chemical Reactions and Asymmetric Synthesis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 24(1), 214 (2022).
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Rajakumara E#, Abhishek S, Nitin K, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Schwaneberg U. & Davari MD#. Structure and Cooperativity in Substrate–Enzyme Interactions: Perspectives on Enzyme Engineering and Inhibitor Design. ACS Chem. Biol. (2022) doi:10.1021/acschembio.1c00500.
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Aromatic nitration and the dire need for the development of an efficient green enzyme based catalytic process (Under preparation)
Students: A joint PhD student
INTERNATIONAL
Enzyme Engineering
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schwaneberg
Chair for Biotechnology
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
https://www.dwi.rwth-aachen.de/en/person/prof-dr-ulrich-schwaneberg
Dr. Mehdi D. Davari
Research group leader in Computational Chemistry at Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), Weinberg, Germany
Publications:
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Rajakumara E#, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Rajeshwari R, Giri J, Davari MD. Hijacking Chemical Reactions of P450 Enzymes for Altered Chemical Reactions and Asymmetric Synthesis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 24(1), 214 (2022).
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Rajakumara E#, Abhishek S, Nitin K, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Schwaneberg U. & Davari MD#. Structure and Cooperativity in Substrate–Enzyme Interactions: Perspectives on Enzyme Engineering and Inhibitor Design. ACS Chem. Biol. (2022) doi:10.1021/acschembio.1c00500.
Hydrogels, layer-by-layer assemblies and polymeric vesicles designs for biomedical applications
Prof. Simon Moulton, Professor of Biomedical Electromaterials Science, Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Submitted a proposal for IITH - SUT joint PhD programme.
Industry collaboration
Myself and Prof. Sumohana Channappayya, have a joint collaboration with Boltzmann company (https://boltzmann.co/).
Topics: Technology and data driven approach for antibody engineering and characterization, peptide and small molecules drugs design and development of ML/DL based algorithms for above purposes.