Viruses are the simplest of life-forms (or as some believe, the most complex of molecular assemblies – the jury is still out on this one). Yet, they can cause severe debilitating human illnesses. A shrinking global community means that outbreaks of emerging viral infections are no longer limited by geographies. Understanding how viruses interact with the host cells, how they disassemble to release their genome and assemble into progeny virions, and how they subvert the host cellular innate immunity system will not only help develop effective anti-virals, but also affords us analyses of many basic biological questions. Our group utilizes a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, molecular dynamic simulations, biochemical and biophysical techniques to decipher the structural, functional and immunological features of macromolecular interactions during viral infections.

Using multidisciplinary approaches, we have identified the membrane-active components in Hepatitis A Virus (Shukla et al, 2014; Shukla et al, 2015), and elucidated the mechanism of host membrane breaching by viral lytic peptide in a model non-enveloped virus Flock House Virus (Bajaj et al, 2016). We are also studying the assembly and disassembly pathways of Chikungunya virus, HAV and FHV, and the interaction of HAV viral proteins with immune components in host cells. Besides investigating viruses in the context of their pathophysiology, we are also interested in exploiting small non-enveloped viruses for use as bionanoparticles for therapeutic delivery.      

In addition to our work in virology, our collaborative efforts with other groups have yielded interesting results, such as the molecular characterization of genetic mutants causing the neurodenegerative disease ALS (Padhi et al, 2014) and the identification of a novel protein component EB1 involved in segregating the chromosomes and linking the kinetochore to the spindle formed during mitosis (Thomas et al, 2016;    ). We are also working towards the development of novel analytical techniques for characterization of biosimilars.

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