Molecules are lifeless, yet appropriate assembly of molecules (although it is very complex) can compose life. Now the molecules which are responsible for the functioning of life are commonly known as biomolecules (e.g. lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids etc.). The physical and chemical behaviour of all the biomolecules (mainly composed of C, H, N and O and tiny amount of trace metals) along with their differential presence throughout evolutionary processes across various life forms are responsible for this spectacular diversity, intensity and complexity of biology.
Towards this infinite horizon, we will try to keep little footsteps by understanding the chemistry of those biomolecules and how their selective and specific interactions among themselves as well as with their surroundings impose dynamicity to the whole ensemble.
Research Interests
Since centuries, chemistry as a subject is mainly focused on the challenges of making, purifying and studying compounds. However, for the chemists, still there remains a large void in terms of understanding and mimicking the chemistry of autonomous functioning of cell and eventually life. This led to develop a new branch of chemistry named systems chemistry where the challenges are to create a synthetic organism (de novo form of life) both for better understanding the inner functioning of biology and also to create engineered life forms. Overall, the research area will be multidisciplinary, encompassing the area of (bio)organic chemistry, colloidal chemistry, nanotechnology and flow chemistry. Our prime research activities are in the following directions –
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Dynamic self-assembly: In this context it is worthy to mention that one of the fundamental feature
of life is that it operates out-of-equilibrium and it needs constant influx of energy to remain in a dynamic state. This inspires us to to develop synthetic system (involving enzymes) which are chemical fuel-responsive and transient in nature.
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Chemotaxis of biomolecules: Directional movement of bioorganism either toward or away from a specific chemical gradient is known as chemotaxis. Understanding this phenomenon at molecular scale is gaining importance not only for the interpretation of transport at cellular level but also towards engineering nanoscale objects. Herein, we will investigate the migratory and assembly behavior of different biomolecules.
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Biocatalysis driven microscale flow in confined space: Catalytic energy can be converted to mechanical energy to drive the flow of a surrounding fluid which can be achieved by surface-bound enzymatic catalysis in microchambers.
We are also interested to investigate biocatalysis in self-organized media to understand the behavior of surface- and volume-confined enzymes in cellular environment.
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