RESEARCH
The second half of 20th century has witnessed the prowess of chemist's to design and engineer elegant complex molecules. However, there was a shift in the paradigm towards syntheses of molecules with defined function rather than defined structure. As the focus of chemistry changes from structure to function, the present challenge of chemical community is "Synthesis of New Function through engineering of small molecule and biomacromolecules". Towards that goal, our group interest is designing new (macro) molecules for applications in the area of Chemical Biology/Physiology and Molecular Imaging. In general, our research is focusing on following areas :
1. Synthetic Virus Particles: Design and Synthesis of Protein Scaffold that would Self Assemble to form Virus particles :Self-assembly of protein molecules to form beautiful nanostrucutures are exemplified in the nature by the presence of various types of viruses which differ by their size and shape. Nature has worked its way through millions of years to come up with these aesthetic particles. Inspired by this, our group interest is to modify structure of globular proteins that would lead of self assembly of protein molecules to make synthetic virus particle. The structure property relationship studies of this macromolecular entity should shed light on design principles of artificial virus particles
2. Developing New Technologies for Accurate and Specific Detection of "Active Enzymes" Vivo :
Enzymes are fundamental to all biological phenomenons. Without enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions, no living forms can survive. No wonder, from development to differentiation, from metabolism to physiology and from cell division to cell death, all biological processes are dependent on the functions of "active" enzymes. In spite of decades of research on enzymes, in vivo monitoring of an enzyme function at single molecule resolution with very high substrate specificity is still a technical challenge. While enzymes have been studied at physiological concentrations and in both purified and in cell/tissue lysates, no technique is available to monitor the function of "active" enzymes in their native conditions in the milieu of all other components of living cells with very high resolution and exquisite specificity. Such studies will help us understand precise chemistry behind enzyme-substrate interactions and thereby to study regulation of complex biochemical reactions under various conditions. Technology to study enzyme function in vivo at very high temporal resolution and substrate specificity will have immense application to understand diseases and also to test the efficiency of targeted drugs
