Dr. Natarajan Kannan

Assistant professor

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Institute of Bioinformatics

Principal investigator.

Dr. Krishnadev Oruganty

Postdoctoral research associate

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Krishna Dev is working towards elucidating the allosteric regulatory mechanisms in protein kinases. The emphasis is on using evolutionary information to delineate regions of a kinase that are unique to a particular family. Molecular dynamics and other biophysical techniques are then used to get clues to how the distinctive features of a kinase family participate in its regulation. Experimentally, these hypothesis are tested using enzyme kinetics and crystallography. He has recently discovered a conformational strain-switch in the catalytic region of all protein kinases using this methodology. The future goals are to design small molecule inhibitors that use the strain-switch features to enhance drug efficacy. Another area of focus for Krishna Dev is analysis of bacterial protein kinases which have not been as well characterized or well studied as the eukaryotic protein kinases. This work might identify new classes of protein kinases which can be targeted for therapeutic intervention, or it would lead to new discoveries in the physiology of many of these bacterial species.

Dr. Smita Mohanty

Postdoctoral research associate

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

I am investigating the evolutionary constraints which prevail in the tyrosine kinases. The analysis involves identification of residues showing contrasting and statistically significant conservation in the tyrosine kinase families against a background of all other kinases. Subsequently these positions have been probed using myriad of structures that have been solved for the various tyrosine kinases, both in the active and inactive forms. This is coupled with molecular dynamic simulations to identify the role played by these residues in the overall stability and regulation of the kinases. The hypothesis formulated in-silico is also validated through experimental analysis. Experimentally these uniquely conserved residues have been mutated individually and in multiple combinations to study the overall effect on catalysis by the tyrosine kinase. This study has enormous implication in understanding the mechanisms underlying the various oncogenic mutations and also in effective design of potential inhibitors against the tyrosine kinases. Apart from this project, I am also involved in analyzing the role of homodimerization and interaction with the regions flanking the kinase domain in the overall regulation of the protein kinases.

Eric Talevich

Graduate research assistant

Ph.D. student, Institute of Bioinformatics

I study evolutionary and structural aspects of protein kinases across the tree of life. Due to their critical role in cell regulation, these proteins are promising drug targets for complex human diseases such as cancer, as well as parasitic diseases including malaria. I also develop open-source software tools for bioinformatics.

Daniel McSkimming

Graduate research assistant

Ph.D. student, Institute of Bioinformatics

Shima Dastgheib

Graduate research assistant

Ph.D. student, Computer Science

Nakul Talathi

Undergraduate research assistant

Major: Genetics

• Aims to elucidate the roles of evolutionary conserved features of the Aurora A kinase, a key player in cell division and prominent in many forms of cancer.
• Studies and compares evolutionary conserved regulatory features of eukaryotic protein kinases using a combination of experimental and computational techniques.

Tuan Nguyen

Undergraduate research assistant

Major: Biochemistry

Tuan seeks to understand the common themes of evolution in various eukaryotic protein kinase families. He's an expert in analyzing these intricate protein kinase molecular machines, teasing apart their nuts and bolts on a daily basis. Tuan would one day like to use the information embedded within the vast genomic data to change the way we combat diseases.

Anish Narayanan

Undergraduate research assistant

Major: Biochemistry

Anish is interested in the study of the fundamental nature of protein kinases. He does comparative analyses across kinase families, studying a variety of trends and characteristics regarding mutations with respect to resulting disease phenotypes. Anish hopes to utilize these comparisons to shed new light on how we understand the complex biochemical pathways that take place in our bodies.