Assistant Professor of Biology and Chemistry, Ashoka University
Ph.D. Indian Institute Of Chemical BiologyShubhasis Haldar was born in Suri (West Bengal) and had his early education in Durgapur. After finishing his Master of Science in Chemistry from Burdwan University, he moved to Indian Institute of Chemical Biology for his doctoral studies in the area of single molecule biophysics. After completion of his Ph.D., he joined Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Germany) as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Ulrich Hartl, where he directly measured the chain dynamics of proteins inside molecular chaperonin and confirmed the active cage model. Then he moved to Columbia University (United States) and started working with Prof. Julio Fernandez. In Columbia University, he showed the mechanical role of chaperones by which it assists the translation or translocation processes.
Dr. Haldar came back to India in July, 2018 and joined Ashoka University as the Assistant Professor of Biology. Here, he established the first covalent magnetic tweezers in India. Covalent magnetic tweezers have several applications in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Our lab work in the interface of physics, chemistry and biology – aiming to understand complex biological phenomenon, starting from force sensor proteins to chaperone biology. One of the main focuses of our lab is to understand the mechanics of force sensors and how it is interlinked with cellular signaling or diseases. Furthermore, our lab is developing novel single molecule methodology to understand the unanswered questions in chaperone biology, such as how HSP90 chaperone regulates cancer or why the over-expression of HSP70 blocks toxic protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases.
We are also interested in developing high throughput microfluidics screening assays to effectively detect monitor small sub-population and understanding the change in the thermodynamic properties while biomolecules interact with each other.
As a first step, we have established the first covalent magnetic tweezers in India and produced a movie of such an experiment, which is accessible online.
# These authors contributed equally.
Souradeep Banerjee
Exams qualified:
CSIR-JRF Dec 2018, TIFR-JGEEBILS 2018, ARS-NET 2018, GATE 2017
Souradeep is interested in knowing how under a physiological force regime (dyne/cm 2 ), membrane and ECM proteins are sensing the force without getting damaged. How they are interacting with each other and transducing the mechanic signals through them to inside and outside of the cell. Additionally, how chaperones are playing their part in this mechanosignaling and assisting the mechanosensing proteins to act properly at single molecular level.
Apart from biology and all its awesomeness, he loves music, animals and spending time with his family.
Soham Chakraborty
Exams qualified:
GATE 2018
Soham’s research involves the use of biophysical and cell biological techniques to decode the mechanical
features of proteins that are involved in cellular mechanosensing at cell-ECM and cell-cell junctions.
These adhesion proteins undergo force-dependent conformational changes to regulate their
interactions with other proteins which in turn alter cellular physiology from developmental context
to pathologies including cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
He is also very fond of Bengali sweet dishes and playing cricket.