Principal Investigator:

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Neelanjana Sengupta

Associate Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Adjunct Faculty Member, Dept. of Chemical Sciences
IISER Kolkata
Ph.D (Chemical & Materials Physics): Univ. of California, Irvine, USA
Formerly: Scientist, Physical Chemistry Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India


PhD Students:

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Sneha Menon

Education: M.Sc (Bioinformatics) at Univ. of Pune
Fellowship: BINC, DBT
Email id: sv.menon@ncl.res.in
Interests: The broad aim of my PhD research is to apply computational techniques like molecular dynamics simulations to understand various aspects of protein misfolding, self-assembly and amyloidogenesis. My research is mainly focused on the structural and dynamical behavior of intrinsically disordered or amyloidogenic proteins and their assemblies (prion protein, amyloid β, ⍺B-crystallin) and the triggers (such as mutation, crowding, temperature etc.) that drive structural transitions of relevance to pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Brataraj Ghosh

Education: Integrated PhD student at IISER Kolkata
Fellowship: UGC (NET)
Email: bg14ip014@iiserkil.ac.in
Interests:
- Interplay between solvation dynamics and conformational transition in nucleic acid.
- Effect of glucose crowding induced solvation dynamics on Amyloid β dimerization.
- Nucleic acid induced structural changes in Intrinsically disordered protein.

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Priti Roy

Education: M.Sc (Botany), Univ. of North Bengal
Fellowship: CSIR (NET)
Email: pr16rs003@iiserkol.ac.in
Interests: My work of interest is the mechanistic aspect of the protein-protein and lipid-protein interactions of higher order oligomers or assemblies in a bottoms-up manner. Besides this I am also looking into the solvation dynamics around biomolecules or biomolecule analogues in understanding of cellular behaviour.

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Amit Kumar

Education: Integrated PhD student at IISER Kolkata
Fellowship: IISER Kolkata
Email: ak17ip030@iiserkol.ac.in
Interests: My current project is focused on comparison of two non-taxonomical IDPs, Heat Shock Protein 12 (HSP12) and α-Synuclein, mechanism of action of co-solvent on HSP12 and α-Synuclein as well as their interaction.



BS-MS Students:

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Abhijith E K

Education: BS-MS, IISER Kolkata
Email: aek14ms115@iiserkol.ac.in
Interests: My current work focuses on studying the conformational rearrangements of tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins (TDPs) and their interaction with water in a range of environments using atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.


Post-doctoral Associates:

Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta

Dr. Saikat Dutta Chowdhury

Education: Ph.D (2018, Univ. of Calcutta)
Fellowship: CSIR-RA
Email: saikatdc@iiserkol.ac.in
Interests: I worked in the field of peptide conformations with a focus on studying the conformational/structural and equilibrium properties of signalling peptides in plants. Currently, my main focus is to understand the mechanism of actions of plant anti-microbial peptides. I use computational modelling approaches like molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in combination with advanced sampling protocols (e.g. REMD, CpHMD) to understand the role of these small peptides.


Alumni:

Dr. Asis K. Jana

Ph.D 2016 from AcSIR (NCL Pune)
Thesis title: “Modulation of the Intrinsic Properties of Alzheimer’s Amyloid Beta Peptide with Nanosurfaces and Chemical Modifications: A Computational Approach”
Presently: Post-doctoral associate with Prof. Eric May, Univ. of Connecticut

Dr. Prathit Chatterjee

Ph.D 2016 from AcSIR (NCL Pune)
Thesis title: “Protein Thermal Stability, Conformational Dynamics and Solvent Properties: Insights with Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations”
Presently: Research Associate, Advance Polymer Lab and Ado Additives Mfg. Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Jaya C. Jose

Ph.D 2015 from AcSIR (NCL Pune)
Thesis title: “Conformational Dynamics and Solvent Interactions of Amyloidogenic Peptides in Biologically Relevant Environments: Insights with Molecular Dynamics Simulations”
Presently: Employee, State Govt. of Kerala.

Dr. M. K. Sarath Josh

SERB-National Postdoctoral Fellow, (2016-18)

Dr. Nupur Bansal

MS thesis (2012) from AcSIR (NCL Pune)
Ph.D (2018), Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI, USA), Advisor: Prof. Kenneth Merz
Presently: Post-doctoral associate at Biogen, Cambridge, MA, USA