Our People

So here we are!

  1. Pranati Priyadarshnee (MSc dissertation student)
  2. Astha (MSc dissertation student)
  3. Abhishek Mohanty (MSc dissertation student)
  4. Sonali Ghosal (Ph.D. student – CSIR-JRF)
  5. Bimal Jana (Ph.D. student – UGC-JRF)
  6. Archana Samal (Ph.D. student – UGC-SRF)
  7. Surajit Gandhi (Ph.D. student – UGC-SRF)
  8. Ketul Saharan (Ph.D. student – UGC-SRF; writing thesis)
  9. Dharma Rao Tompa (Post-doctoral fellow – project)
  10. Shaikh Nausad Hossain (Post-doctoral fellow – CSIR-SRA)
  11. Purushottam Patnaik (AUC Facility In-charge)
  12. Vicky Kumar (XRD Facility In-charge)
  13. Manoj Kumar Barik (Laboratory technician)
  14. Dileep Vasudevan (Lab head – Scientist E)

Interestingly, many of us didn’t have any plan to do what we are doing now. We are a diverse lot (or a mixed bag) with varying interests; still, we are in a group, cutting the edges, Err! We mean… doing cutting-edge science projects. 😉 We strongly believe in “Unity in Diversity” and come from different parts of the country – Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. People form our strength, and our progress lies in staying happy.

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Pranati Priyadarshnee

  • BSc (Zoology), Mahamayee Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Berhampur, 2021.
  • MSc (Microbiology), College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Berhampur, 2021-2023.
  • Joined our group as an MSc dissertation student in March 2023.
  • Current research interest: Recombinant expression and purification of a bacterial cyclophilin protein

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Astha

  • BSc (Botany) Honors, Ramadevi Womens University, Bhubaneswar, 2021.
  • MSc (Biotechnology), College of Basic Science & Humanities, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, 2021-2023.
  • Summer intern on SERB project SSR scheme with our group (October to December 2022)
  • Joined our group in ILS as an MSc dissertation student in February 2023.
  • Current research interest: Preparation and purification of a recombinant nucleoplasmin protein

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Abhishek Mohanty

  • BSc (Bioinformatics), BJB Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar, 2021.
  • MSc (Bioinformatics), BJB Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar, 2021-2023.
  • Joined our group in ILS as an MSc dissertation student in January 2023.
  • Current research interest: Recombinant expression and purification of a histone chaperone

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Sonali Ghosal

  • BSc (Zoology), Salipur Autonomous College, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, 2018.
  • MSc (Zoology), College of Basic Science & Humanities, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, 2020.
  • Research Intern at inDNA Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd. Bhubaneswar (Mar 2022 – Jun 2022).
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Ph.D. scholar in February 2023.

Sonali has been keen to join our group for a while and made her entry through institutional Ph.D. intake, with a CSIR-JRF. While being a pleasant person, she is a fast learner too.

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Bimal Jana

  • BSc (Zoology), Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, 2018.
  • MSc (Zoology), Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, 2020.
  • MTech (Biotechnology), IIT Guwahati, 2022.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Ph.D. scholar in February 2023.

Bimal joined our group through institutional Ph.D. intake with a UGC-JRF. He has a good amount of computational structural biology experience and is currently learning the various techniques used in the wet lab.  He is a quick learner and a relatively silent soul.

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Archana Samal

  • BSc (Botany) Honors, Shailabala Women’s College, Cuttack, 2016.
  • MSc (Life Sciences), Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, 2018.
  • Project JRF at Utkal University (Feb 2019 – Nov 2019).
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Ph.D. scholar in March 2020.
  • Her Ph.D. is registered with RCB, Faridabad.
  • Current research interest: Immunophilin and Chromatin structural biology

Archana joined our group as a Ph.D. student with UGC-JRF. Before joining us, she worked as a JRF in a Govt. of Odisha DST-funded project with Prof. J. Dandapat at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. Her Ph.D. projects are around the theme of chromatin and infectious disease structural biology. She has taken over the spillover projects from Manas, who recently graduated from our group. She has made good progress with her projects and has carried out XRD data collection at ESRF (France) in person. Moreover, she has been part of our ESRF remote data collection team twice. She has solved the crystal structure for two of her proteins. She has started getting crystals for other proteins too. Her Ph.D. is registered with Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad.

Publication:

  • Ruchir C. Bobde*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Surajit Gandhi, Archana Samal, Rajivgandhi Sundaram, Ashish Kumar, Ajit Kumar Singh, Aritreyee Datta, Dileep Vasudevan. 2021. In vitro characterization of histone chaperones using analytical, pull-down and chaperoning assays. Journal of Visualized Experiments [JoVE] 63218.

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Surajit Gandhi

  • BSc (Zoology), Banwarilal Bhalotia College, Asansol, 2016.
  • MSc (Zoology), University of Burdwan, Purba Bardhaman, 2018.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Ph.D. scholar in February 2020.
  • His Ph.D. is registered with RCB, Faridabad.
  • Current research interest: Immunophilin, chromatin & infectious disease structural biology

Surajit joined our group as a Ph.D. student with UGC-JRF. He has gotten familiarized with the experiments carried out in a structural biology laboratory. His Ph.D. projects are in the interface of chromatin and infectious disease structural biology. He is very agile and always keeps himself busy in the lab. He has been a great help in tying up loose ends from the main project Rajiv has been doing with us. He has completed four crystal structures. He has collected SAXS data from ESRF and took part in our ESRF remote data collection exercise as well. His Ph.D. is registered with Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad.

Publication:

  • Ruchir C. Bobde*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Surajit Gandhi, Archana Samal, Rajivgandhi Sundaram, Ashish Kumar, Ajit Kumar Singh, Aritreyee Datta, Dileep Vasudevan. 2021. In vitro characterization of histone chaperones using analytical, pull-down and chaperoning assays. Journal of Visualized Experiments [JoVE] 63218.

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Ketul Saharan

  • BSc (Biotechnology), Government National College, Sirsa, 2014.
  • MSc (Botany), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, 2016.
  • JRF at School of Life Sciences, JNU, New Delhi, August 2017 – February 2019.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Ph.D. scholar in March 2019.
  • EMBO SEG fellow at NTU, Singapore, September – December 2022.
  • His Ph.D. is registered with RCB, Faridabad.
  • Current research interest: Chromatin, histone chaperones & HDACs

Ketul joined our group as a Ph.D. student with UGC-JRF. Before joining our group at ILS, he was a Junior Research Fellow in the structural biology laboratory at the School of Life Sciences, JNU, New Delhi. He has prior experience with molecular biology, protein chemistry, and SAXS experiments. In the lab, you will find him busy all the time, except during his afternoon ‘power nap’ time. He has completed the crystal structure for two proteins from his Ph.D. project, several SAXS structures, and our first cryo-EM structure and has accumulated plenty of biophysical data. He has gained experience collecting SAXS data from ESRF (France), diffraction data from RRCAT, Indore, and remote X-ray diffraction data collection from ESRF (France). His Ph.D. work is around the broad theme of chromatin, histone chaperones, and histone deacetylases. He got the EMBO Scientific Exchange Grant (SEG) and did cryo-EM work at NTU, Singapore, in Dr. Sandip Basak’s laboratory with this EMBO support. He is a hard worker with no compromise. He has three co-first-author publications with us, and one of them was originally published in the pre-print journal BioRxiv. His Ph.D. is registered with Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad. While working on his major manuscripts, he has started writing his Ph.D. thesis as well.

Publication:

  • Ruchir C. Bobde*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Surajit Gandhi, Archana Samal, Rajivgandhi Sundaram, Ashish Kumar, Ajit Kumar Singh, Aritreyee Datta, Dileep Vasudevan. 2021. In vitro characterization of histone chaperones using analytical, pull-down and chaperoning assays. Journal of Visualized Experiments [JoVE] 63218. [*Co-first author]
  • Ajit Kumar Singh*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Sheng Luan, Dileep Vasudevan.  2022. Crystal packing reveals rapamycin-mediated homodimerization of an FK506-binding domain. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 206: 670-80. [*Co-first author]
  • Ajit Kumar Singh*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Dileep Vasudevan. 2022. The plant nucleoplasmin AtFKBP43 needs its extended arms for histone interaction. bioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2022.04.25.489347. [*Co-first author]
  • Ajit K. Singh*, Ketul Saharan*, Somanath Baral, Dileep Vasudevan. 2022. The plant nucleoplasmin AtFKBP43 needs its extended arms for histone interaction. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 1865(7): 194872.

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Dharma Rao Tompa

  • BSc (Biochemistry), Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, 2009.
  • MSc (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology), Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, 2012.
  • Ph.D. (Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics), SASTRA University, Thanjavur, 2019.
  • Post-doc at ICGEB, New Delhi, 2021-2022.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a post-doc in September 2022.

Dharma joined us as a post-doc in a DBT-funded project in September 2022. His Ph.D. is from SASTRA University in Tamil Nadu, under the guidance of Dr. Kadhirvel Saraboji. His Ph.D. work focused on the biophysical and computational studies of a Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase and its mutants. From SASTRA University, Dharma moved to ICGEB for a post-doctoral position, wherein he worked on the structural and biophysical aspects of a  protein from the malarial parasite. He has gained ample experience in the broad areas of molecular biology, protein chemistry, structural biology, biophysics, and computational biology. With us, he works on chromatin and infectious disease structural biology-themed projects.

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Shaikh Nausad Hossain

  • BSc (Biotechnology), Bangalore University, 2005.
  • Diploma (Genetic Engineering), JIVAS, Bangalore, 2005.
  • Project JRF at PGIMER, Chandigarh, 2005-2006.
  • MSc (Molecular Biology), University of Queensland, Australia, 2008.
  • Research Assistant, University of Queensland, Australia, 2008-2009.
  • Ph.D. (Structural Biology), University of Queensland, Australia, 2013.
  • Post-doc at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan, 2013-2016.
  • Visiting post-doctoral fellow at NISER, Bhubaneswar, 2017-2018.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a post-doc in July 2018 and CSIR- Senior Research Associate in December 2019.
  • Current research interest: Infectious disease structural biology

Nausad joined our group in July 2018. His Ph.D. is from the University of Queensland, Australia, under the guidance of Prof. Glenn F. King and the co-guidance of Prof. Brett Collins. After his Ph.D., he moved to Okinawa, Japan, for a post-doctoral position at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in the Trans-Membrane Trafficking Unit under Prof. Fadel Samatey. He has gained extensive experience in protein crystallography, NMR, and protein biophysics. After a brief stay at NISER, Bhubaneswar as a visiting post-doctoral fellow, Nausad moved to ILS. He was initially an institutional post-doctoral fellow, and later he got his own fellowship – CSIR-SRA. With us, Nausad works on projects dealing with infectious disease structural biology. In addition to his own project, he has been working on WSSV proteins and has gotten two manuscripts on the theme.

Publication:

  • Vipul Panchal*, Sushil Kumar*, Shaikh Nausad Hossain#, Dileep Vasudevan#. 2020. Structure analysis of thymidylate synthase from white spot syndrome virus reveals WSSV-specific structural elements.  International Journal of Biological Macromolecules S0141-8130(20)34996-5. [#Co-corresponding author]
  • Aritreyee Datta*, Shaikh Nausad Hossain*, Chinmayee Mohapatra#, Dileep Vasudevan#.  2022.  Structural insights into proteins from White spot syndrome virus: perspectives on structure-based anti-viral strategies. Reviews in Aquaculture 2022: 1-12. [* Co-first author]

Vicky

Vicky Kumar

  • BSc (Industrial Microbiology) Honors, Langat Singh College, Muzaffarpur, 2019.
  • MSc (Biotechnology), DBT-RGCB, Thiruvananthapuram, 2022.
  • Joined our group in ILS as the XRD Facility In-charge in February 2023.

Vicky is taking care of the XRD facility and actively participating in wet-lab laboratory experiments involving cloning, recombinant expression and purification of proteins for structural and biophysical characterization.

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Purushottam Patnaik

  • BSc (Zoology), Vikram Deb Autonomous College, Jeypore, Berhampur University, 2020.
  • MSc (Microbiology), College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Berhampur, 2022.
  • Joined our group in ILS as the AUC Facility In-charge in February 2023.

Purushottam is taking care of the AUC facility. Moreover, he actively participates in wet-lab laboratory experiments involving cloning, recombinant expression and purification of proteins for structural and biophysical characterization.

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Manoj Kumar Barik

  • DMLT from JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, 2019.
  • Lab Technician in a Pvt diagnostic laboratory, Bhubaneswar, 2019-2021.
  • Trainee Lab Technician from March 2021 to December 2021 in our group.
  • Joined our group in ILS as a Lab Technician in January 2022.

Manoj worked in our lab as a Trainee Lab Technician under the institutional Skill Development Technician Training Program for ten months and then joined as a Lab Technician in January 2022. He is very much involved with the lab chores and wholeheartedly supports other lab members in their laboratory experiments. He is a jovial soul and has been a great asset. 

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Dileep Vasudevan

  • BFSc (Fisheries), College of Fisheries, Cochin, (KAU, Thrissur), 1999.
  • MFSc (Microbiology), College of Fisheries, Mangalore (UAS, Bangalore), 2001.
  • Ph.D. (Protein Crystallography), DBS, NUS, Singapore, 2007.
  • Post-doc (Chromatin Structural Biology), SBS, NTU, Singapore, 2006-2011
  • Post-doc (Infectious Disease Biology), Novartis Institute, Singapore, 2011-2012.
  • Joined ILS as a faculty in December 2012.

At some point in his life, Dileep was keen to do a Ph.D. in Microbiology but was carried away by the charm of Protein Crystallography and jumped in. Dileep did his Ph.D. at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore (NUS), under the guidance of Dr. Swaminathan K. His first postdoc was with Dr. Curt Davey Alexander at the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and his second postdoc from Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), Singapore, with Dr. Christian Noble. As a Fisheries undergrad and a Microbiology postgraduate, he never liked Biochemistry and Physics and had not even heard of crystallography! Ask him, and he will explain how as a new student at NUS, his Ph.D. mentor Dr. Swami saw him totally lost in the department corridor and suggested a lab rotation with his group. Little did he know about the field he was getting himself into. Long story made short, he has stayed on with structural biology since then, and at ILS, he is heading a lab that claims to do Biophysics, Biochemistry & Structural Biology!