Our understanding of most biological processes comes from ensemble studies of the molecules carried out in a tube or using reporters in cells and organisms. Such mechanistic understanding of biological phenomena is complicated by
the heterogeneity among biomolecules (due to modifications or conformational dynamics) ,
the transient nature of interactions (activating action of molecule maybe limited to a fraction of its lifetime) and
the limits on detection of small number of molecules.
How do events taking place at the level of single molecule translate to biologically significant phenomena?
Our lab leads an interdisciplinary research program that aims to innovate and engineer technologies to help understand this basic question. We primarily focus on long-standing questions in infectious diseases caused by positive strand RNA viruses and pathogenic bacteria using single molecule detection, quantitative genomics and high-resolution imaging.
Such understanding of pathogen biology and host-pathogen interactions will help us design new drugs, vaccines and intervention strategies against several infectious diseases including Dengue.
To learn more, please read our research interests.
Our laboratory is located in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. We are also associated with the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering at IISc. Directions to the lab can be found here.
Latest Lab News
Rahul started his sabbatical at EPFL Lausanne. He will be working with Matteo Dal Peraro Lab on biological nanopores and developing new single molecule methods. (09/2023)
Suraj successfully defended his thesis on 'Understanding the interplay between immune response and virus evolution'. (09/2023)
Ratnasri described how heterogeneity in bacterial population can give rise to diverse outcomes that critical for biotechnology and antimicrobial action in her BioE thesis colloquium. (07/2023)
Harsh presented his thesis colloquium on 'Integrating Computational Tools and Models to Study RNA Virus Lifecycle Dynamics'. (04/2023)
Latest Publications and Preprints
If you care about designing your experiments well, check out PARSEC, a new model based DoE framework developed by Harsh Chhajer (BioE PhD student). (10/2023)
Check out this new work in Biophysical Journal from Avijeet Kulshrestha where he demonstrates how cholesterol helps in 'melting' of ClyA membrane binding region to facilitate its insertion and stabilization in the lipid membranes (10/2023)
Suraj and co-workers show how the dengue virus evolution in India is driven by immune selection pressure and interaction between the serotypes. Now accepted at PLoS Pathogens. Read it on BioRxiv! (09/2022)