Research Highlights Archive

 

• A new phenomenon, stimuli-assisted reversible nano-assembly (SaRNA), is discovered by the team from IISER Kolkata in collaboration with JNCASR Bangalore.

                 

                Exciting results from this work has been published in the prestigious journal Advanced Materials: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202414170

• Microtubule-Targeting NAP Peptide-Ru(II)-polypyridyl Conjugate As a Bimodal Therapeutic Agent for Triple Negative Breast Carcinoma.

                  

                  The findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (Chatterjee el. al, 2025, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c11820), mark a significant step forward in the fight against TNBC.

• Anti-cancer effect of Triazole-Chelated Iridium(III) Complexes in Cervical Cancer Cells Mediating through the Cell Signaling Pathways.
  
  Anushka Mondal, Bishnu Das, Souvik Karmakar, Soumili Pani, Shrabani Khan, Parna Gupta, and Jayasri Das Sarma. (2024). Modulatory Role of Pantropic Cell Signaling Pathways in the Antimigratory and Antiproliferative Action of Triazole Chelated Iridium (III) Complexes in Cervical Cancer Cells. 
  

• Sediment accumulation in the Himalayan river valley induced by the out-of-sequence expansion of the range-bounding fault.

Vaishanavi Chauhan, Sanjay Kumar Mandal, Dirk Scherler, Manoj Kumar Jaiswal, Marcus Christl, Anil D. Shukla (2024). Prolonged sediment aggradation in an internal Himalayan valley due to out-of-sequence lateral fault growth. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 647, 119054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.119054

• Human Beta-coronavirus OC43 infection remodels connexin 43-mediated gap junction intercellular communication in vitro.

Souvik Karmakar, Jayasri Das Sarma. 2024. Human coronavirus OC43 infection remodels connexin 43-mediated gap junction intercellular communication in vitro.

• Imaging the Indian Continent beneath Tibet: High resolution regional scale velocity model.
  
  S. Dey, M. Ghosh, S. Mitra (2024) 3D shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath India, Himalaya and Tibet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129, e2023JB028292.
  
  

• Scavengers in the human-dominated landscape: an experimental study.
  Biswas S, Bhowmik T, Ghosh K, Roy A, Lahiri A, Sarkar S, Bhadra A. 2024 Scavengers in the human-dominated landscape: an experimental study. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 379: 20230179.
  
  

• Removing heavy metals from next generation organic semiconductor production – solution towards a 118-year-old problem.
  Exciting results from this work has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Synthesis: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-024-00590-w
  
     

• Biologically Active Micropatterns of Biomolecules and Living Matter Using Microbubble Lithography.
  Anand Dev Ranjan, Sucharita Bhowmick, Arnab Gupta, Amirul Islam Mallick, and Ayan Banerjee (https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202401127)
  

• Spin-direction-spin coupling of quasiguided modes in plasmonic metamaterials.
  Jeeban Kumar Nayak, Harley Suchiang, Subir Kumar Ray, Shyamal Guchhait, Ayan Banerjee, Subhasish Dutta Gupta, and Nirmalya Ghosh, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 193803 (2023)
  

• Knockdown Experiment Reveals an Essential GTPase CgtA's Involvement in Growth, Viability, Motility, Morphology, and Persister Phenotypes in Vibrio cholerae.
  Das S, Chatterjee A, Datta PP. Microbiology Spectrum. 2023 Mar 14:e0318122. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.03181-22. 

• The teams of Amirul I Mallick & Dipjyoti Das combined experiments and mathematical modeling to show how bacterial predation under environmental stress can lead to predator extinction and host defence.

 

• Hydropool mapping of the highest river in the world (Dudh Kosi, Mt. Everest): (A) Distribution of water isotopes along the Dudh Kosi basin; (B) Surface runoff isoscape derived from multi regression modelling of water isotopes and satellite data for the Dudh Kosi Basin.

Dasgupta, B., Ajay, A., Kumar, A., Thamban, M., & Sanyal, P. (2021). Isoscape of surface runoff in high mountain catchments: An alternate model for meteoric water characterization and its implications. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, e2020JD033950.

• Amyloid-Beta protein regulates cellular trafficking of intercellular gap junction protein Connexin 43 in astrocytes.

In this study, we have determined the cellular mechanisms by which amyloid-beta (A beta) peptide modifies Cx43 channel function, thereby contributing to Alzheimer’s disease pathology. (Maulik M, et. al., J Biol Chem, 2020).

• A new mechanism of self-repairing in piezoelectric materials is discovered by teams from IISER Kolkata in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur.

S. Bhunia, S. Chandel, S. K. Karan, S. Dey, A. Tiwari, S. Das, N. Kumar, R. Chowdhury, S. Mondal, I. Ghosh, A. Mondal, B. B. Khatua, N. Ghosh, C. M. Reddy, Science, 2021, 373, 321–327.

• Retromer retrieves the Wilson disease protein ATP7B from endolysosomes in a copper-dependent manner.

From our study we have determined the molecular mechanism by which Cu-ATPase ATP7B, the Wilson disease protein is recycled to Trans Golgi Network (TGN) from active acid hydrolyase positive endo-lysosomes in a retromer dependent way.

• Leishmania infection triggers hepcidin-mediated proteasomal degradation of Nramp1 to increase phagolysosomal iron availability.

Macrophage cells export iron from the phagosomal/phagolysosomal lumen to the cytosol via the action of Nramp1. While the cells are infected with Leishmania, it stimulates synthesis of iron regulatory peptide hormone hepcidin that eventually binds with Nramp1 causing its degradation via ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway. The loss of Nramp1 results into the accumulation of iron within Leishmania containing phagolysosomal compartment that favours the parasite replication. (Sourav Banerjee and Rupak Datta)

• CD4 deficiency causes poliomyelitis and axonal blebbing in murine coronavirus induced neuroinflammation.

Electron Microscopy exhibits that Lack of CD4+ T cells causes murine ?-coronavirus -induced severe axonopathy and myelinopathy in the CNS, in the form of swollen myelin sheaths with loss of axoplasm, along with cluster of degenerating axon with collapsed myelin sheath. (Chakravarty, D., F. Saadi, S. Kundu, A. Bose, R. Khan, K. Dine, L. C. Kenyon, K. S. Shindler and J. Das Sarma (2020).

• Manganese-Catalyzed Direct Olefination of Methyl-Substituted Heteroarenes With Primary Alcohols.

Barman, Milan K.; Waiba, Satyadeep; and Maji, Biplab. 2018. “Manganese-Catalyzed Direct Olefination of Methyl-Substituted Heteroarenes With Primary Alcohols” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 57, 9126-9130

• Dinuclear PdI Catalysts in Equilibrium isomerizations: mechanistic Understanding, in Silico Casting, and Catalyst Development.

De, Sriman; Sivendran, Nardana; Maity, Bholanath; Pirkl, Nico; Koley, Debasis; Goossen, Lukas, J. 2020. “Dinuclear PdI Catalysts in Equilibrium isomerizations: mechanistic Understanding, in Silico Casting, and Catalyst Development” ACS Catal., 10, 4517-4533.

• Quantum mechanical virial-like theorem for confined quantum systems.

Mukherjee, Neetik; Roy, Amlan K. 2019. “Quantum mechanical virial-like theorem for confined quantum systems.” Phys. Rev. A, 99, 022123-11.

• Mechanophotonics: Flexible Single-Crystal Organic Waveguides and Circuits.

Annadhasan, Mari; Agrawal, Abhijeet R.;Bhunia, Surojit; Pradeep, VuppuVinay; Zade, Sanjio S.; Reddy, C. Malla and Chandrasekar, Rajadurai. 2020. “Mechanophotonics: Flexible Single-Crystal Organic Waveguides and Circuits.” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (Accepted) doi/10.1002/anie.202003820

• AIE-active non-conjugated poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) as a fluorescent thermometer for intracellular temperature imaging.

Saha, Biswajit; Ruidas, Bhuban; Mete, Sourav; Das Mukhopadhyay, Chitrangada; Bauri, Kamal and De, Priyadarsi. 2020. “AIE-active non-conjugated poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) as a fluorescent thermometer for intracellular temperature imaging.” Chem. Sci., 11, 141–147.

• Covalent catalysis by cross beta amyloid nanotubes.

Sarkhel, Baishakhi; Chatterjee, Ayan and Das, Dibyendu. 2020. “Covalent catalysis by cross beta amyloid nanotubes.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 142, 9, 4098-4103.

• Ancient neem plant extract may have therapeutic potential in Fighting with m-Coronavirus.

Azadirachta indica A. Juss ameliorates m-CoV, Mouse Hepatitis virus-induced neuroinflammatory demyelination by modulating cell-to-cell fusion in an experimental model of Multiple Sclerosis’, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, April 2020, doi: 10.3389/fncel.2020.00116. Lucky Sarkar, Ravi Kiran Putchala, Abass Alao Safiriyu, Jayasri Das Sarma, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 2020, doi: 10.3389/fncel.2020.00116)

• Finding receptor-binding-competent spike conformation is crucial for vaccine designing.

Our study decodes the complete conformational landscape of novel coronavirus spike protein by developing a symmetry-information-loaded Hamiltonian-guided computer simulation approach.

• Integrating Organic Lewis Acid and Redox Catalysis: The Phenalenyl Cation in Dual Role

Ahmed, Jasimuddin; Chakraborty, Soumi; Jose, Anex; P, Sreejyothi; and Mandal, Swadhin K. 2018. “Integrating Organic Lewis Acid and Redox Catalysis: The Phenalenyl Cation in Dual Role.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 140, 26, 8330–8339

• Suppressed Blinking Under Normal Air Atmosphere in Toxic Metal Free, Small Sized, InP Based Core/Alloy-Shell/Shell Quantum Dot.

De, Chayan K; Roy, Debjit; Mandal, Saptarshi; and Mandal, Prasun K. 2019. “Suppressed Blinking Under Normal Air Atmosphere in Toxic Metal Free, Small Sized, InP Based Core/Alloy-Shell/Shell Quantum Dot.” J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 4330-4338.

• Tweaking Nickel with Minimal Silver in a Heterogeneous Alloy of Decahedral Geometry to Deliver Platinum-like Hydrogen Evolution Activity.

Majee, Rahul; Kumar, Arun; Das, Tisita; Chakraborty, Sudip and Bhattacharyya, Sayan. 2020. “Tweaking Nickel with Minimal Silver in a Heterogeneous Alloy of Decahedral Geometry to Deliver Platinum-like Hydrogen Evolution Activity.”Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 2881.

• Molecular cobalt corrole complex for the heterogeneous electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide.

Gonglach, Sabrina; Paul, Shounik; Haas, Michael; Pillwein, Felix; Sreejith, Sreekumar S; Barman, Soumitra; De, Ratnadip; Müllegger, Stefan; Gerschel, Philipp; Apfel, Ulf-Peter; Coskun, Halime; Aljabour, Abdalaziz; Stadler, Philipp; Schöfberger, Wolfgang and Roy, Soumyajit.2019 “Molecular cobalt corrole complex for the heterogeneous electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide.” Nat. Commun., 10, 3864.

• A Triazine Functionalized Porous Covalent Organic Framework for Photo-organocatalytic E-Z Isomerization of Olefins.

Bhadra, Mohitosh; Kandambeth, Sharath;K. Sahoo, Manoj;Addicoat, Matthew;Balaraman, Ekambaram and Banerjee, Rahul. 2019. “A Triazine Functionalized Porous Covalent Organic Framework for Photo-organocatalytic E-Z Isomerization of Olefins.” J. Am. Chem. Soc.141, 6152-6156

 

• Metal-like Ductility in Organic Crystals

CM Reddy's group from DCS, shows metal-like ductility in aminoborane based organic single crystals, in which the molecules rotate in solid-state. Such mechanically castable plastic crystals are appealing for applications such as ferroelectrics and soft robotics.

 

• Coronavirus induced cell-to-cell fusion mechanism offers a potential target for antiviral therapy

A proline deletion in the spike glycoprotein of fusion peptide of murine Beta- Coronavirus (m-CoV), strongly alters viral induced cell-to-cell fusion and consecutive neuropathogenesis and neurodegeneration.

 

• Simple Chemical Fuel Driven System
   

Research work from the laboratory of Dibyendu Das recently showed a simple chemical fuel driven system that achieves out-of-equilibrium state by dissipating energy. This mimics the remarkable non-equilibrium structures such as microtubules seen in natural systems.

 

• Recent study of earthquake wave propagation and its decay across eastern India

Recent study of earthquake wave propagation and its decay across eastern India, Himalaya and southern Tibet, reveal (a) strong frequency dependence and (b) lateral variations dependent on the heterogeneity in the underlying crustal structure.

 

• New Mechanism of Arsenic-Induced Toxicity

Chronic exposure to toxic arsenic from ground water is a major health problem in the world, and particularly affects the communities around IISER Kolkata. Researchers from the laboratory of Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma has recently shown (Hussain A. et al., (2018) BBA – Molecular Cell Research, 1865, 1423-1426) that arsenic interacts with the gap junction protein Connexin 43 (Cx43) in cells and disrupts cell-cell communication, leading to cell death. This demonstrates a new mechanism of arsenic-induced toxicity.

 

• Earthquake Hazard in Eastern India

Seismological study reveals that the N20°E motion of the Indian Plate is accommodated across NE India, rather than being confined only to the plate boundaries. This is due to lateral variation in subsurface structure and reactivation of paleo-continent margin faults. Highlights the seismic hazard in eastern India from future major earthquakes.

 

• Removal of Arsenic from Water

Dr. Raja Shunmugam of DCS, IISER Kolkata along with ADO Additives MFG PVT. LTD. has developed a complete solution regarding detection and removal of Arsenic from water and subsequent disposal of Arsenic Contaminated remover.

 

• The First-order Mott Transition in V2O3 has Traits of Second Order Transitions

This work shows that the strongly hysteretic first-order phase transition in V2O3, and possibly other similar materials with long-ranged interactions, can have features usually associated with second-order transitions. One such evidence is presented in the above figure. The latent heat peaks [in (a)] and the sample resistance [in (b)] are measured as a function of temperature for different temperature scanning rates. In (c), the measured shift in the transition temperature with the temperature scanning rate is seen to be a power-law with the scaling exponent approximately having the value predicted by the mean field theory (2/3). Such scale-invariant behavior implied by the power-law relationship is not expected in first-order transitions but is rather the hallmark of continuous second-order transitions.

 

• The Tricks of Thieving Ants

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/the-tricks-of-thieving-ants/article22952945.ece

Scientists at Kolkata’s Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) noticed the behaviour in Indian queenless ants in 2016, they investigated it further

 

• Striking Gold in Cosmic Fireworks

Information for the Media and Public: Link - http://www.cessi.in/cosmicfireworks/ Writeup for homepage: An artistic rendition of the Neutron star merger discovery announced on 16 October 2017. The image shows two Neutron stars about to merge.