any good results?!
2023
- We end our year with Madhurima presenting her work at the EMBO Structure, Dynamics and Interactions in Biomolecular Systems using NMR spectroscopy (December 2022) at Berhampur, India. Congrats to Madhurima on giving an oral talk at the conference!
- Madhurima won the NMRS-Jharana Rani Samal Research Scholar Award for her academic excellence in her recently published paper in Science Advances which can be found here. Congratulations Madhurima!
- This year saw a lot of visits from eminent scientists from different parts of the world. In early February, we were so elated to have Dr. Ranjith Muhandiram visit us from the University of Toronto. He shared his expertise in designing pulse sequences for NMR assignment and relaxation studies of proteins. We ended the fruitful scientific discussions with a memorable day trip to Mysore.
- In August, we were privileged to have Prof. Haribabu Arthanari from Harvard University conduct a workshop on NUS sampling at our department. We had the opportunity to hear about the interesting research his lab has been doing in recent times.
- In late October, we had the privilege to interact and talk with Prof. Edwin Sibert from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As an accomplished physical chemist with years of experience mentoring graduate students, he shared his philosophy of doing science and pursuing research. It was so enriching to spend time with him as a group to learn from his journey and scholarship.
- We had the opportunity to meet and discuss our research with Prof. Markus Zweckstetter from MPI, Gottingen. His work on biomolecular NMR has pushed the boundaries in our molecular understanding of proteins implicated in diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
- Ashok, Bodhisatwa and Claris attend ISMAR 2023 in Sydney, Australia (October 2023). Each of them gave oral talks at the five-day conference and got to meet and chat with eminent scientists from across the world, who are at the forefront of research in biomolecular NMR. We share in their joy to see our research recognized and appreciated by many!
- Paulomi flies to Paris to present her work at the 13th NMR: A Tool for Biology International Conference (May 2023). Congrats Paulomi on getting selected and sharing your research findings with the international NMR community!
- Hot off the press! Madhurima, Bodhisatwa and Ashok’s paper in collaboration with Prof.Athi from IIT-Madras on the functional regulation of CytR goes public! Read the interesting findings here! They report, for the first time, folding before binding in the DNA-binding domain of an intrinsically disordered region of an E.coli transcription factor. Their findings employ sophisticated NMR techniques such as CEST, and CPMG in conjunction with RDCs. Congrats to everyone involved in the paper published in Science Advances!
- New publication out in Methods! Ajith. et. al reports a novel CEST pulse sequence to specifically probe H-alphas in folded as well as disordered proteins. They employ spin-selectivity with triple resonance transfer to determine excited state chemical shifts. Read the findings here! Congrats to all involved!
- This year our post-doc, Ajith presents his work in the annual NuBS symposium organized in-house at MBU. His oral talk focused on his recent research findings in enzyme function and kinetics. Congrats, Ajith!
- We celebrate six years of ASK lab (November 2023)! Our group is expanding and the research outputs are on an exponential rise, here’s to new scientific discoveries and happiness to each and everyone who is part of the ASK lab family!
- We bid goodbye to Akhila who worked as a post-doc in our lab. Wishing Akhila the best in what is to come! We will miss you!
- We had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Sekhar Ragahvan who has been a lone crusader in Chennai for almost three decades, promoting rainwater harvesting (RWH). His efforts have helped the Tamil Nadu government in framing RWH guidelines, and his NGO has helped establish RWH systems in many homes across the state. We also have a personal connection with Dr. Raghavan who is Dr. Ashok’s father, so it was double the honour to meet with him.
- Bhuvaneshwari was selected to attend a workshop on Liquid-liquid phase separation at IIT-Madras (December 2023). It was a wonderful opportunity to learn from and discuss with pioneering scientists who are at the forefront of LLPS research across the world.
- Ashok, Bodhisatwa and Claris attend the 28th annual NMRS symposium and conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biomolecules and Biomedicine (February 2023).
- Sreevarsha joins our lab as a Project Assistant. Welcome Sreevarsha!
- After completing her Master's project in our lab, Kalyani returns to our lab as a Project Associate. Welcome back, Kalyani!
- Paulomi presented her work at NCBS, Bangalore in the 45th Indian Biophysical Society Meeting (March 2023). Congrats Paulomi!
- We end our year with Madhurima presenting her work at the EMBO Structure, Dynamics and Interactions in Biomolecular Systems using NMR spectroscopy (December 2022) at Berhampur, India. Congrats to Madhurima on giving an oral talk at the conference!
- We had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Malcolm Levitt from the University of Southhampton with expert knowledge in spin physics. It was indeed a privilege to see the author of the NMR textbook which is no stranger to any student pursuing NMR.
- Ashok, Bodhisatwa and Claris travel to Hampi, India to attend the 5th NMR Meets Biology Meeting (December 2022). The meeting was filled with research talks and lecture sessions highlighting the use of NMR spectroscopy to understand complex biological systems.
- Vaishali and Madhurima go international for the first time to present their research at the 8th Murnau conference in Germany! It was a fruitful time of listening and learning from other scientists about advances in the field of structural biology happening in different parts of the world. Congrats to the both of you! Here’s to more opportunities!
- We have new students in our lab! Krithignan and Kalyani join as project assistants, hoping they have a rewarding learning experience as they work on protein biophysics.
- Our lab is now five years and counting! We celebrated this small milestone with a dinner together, reminiscing memories since our lab started. Onto greater things in the years to come!!
- Bodhisatwa presents his work on characterizing “invisible” minor states in a metamorphic protein in the NUBS In-House symposium at IISc (September 2022). Congrats on giving a wonderful oral presentation, it piqued the curiosities of many!
- Aseish joins the lab as a PhD student! Welcome Aseish!
- Shefali and Bhuvaneshwari successfully completed their comprehensive exams. Congrats to the both of you! Wishing you the very best for your research!
- Vaishali’s first research article is out in Biochemistry! The work was carried out in collaboration with Prof. Surolia from MBU. They have used NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with XRD to dissect the binding between a lectin and its cognate glycan. Using 2D NMR lineshape analysis, they have shown evidence for allosteric communication between the two binding pockets. Read the findings here!
- Shefali and Ashok wrote a review article for JMR Open. The review highlights case studies that have employed strategies available from NMR spectroscopy to examine the nature of multi-site conformational exchange. Read the paper here!
- Diksha, our lab alumnus visited us during New Year’s and we celebrated the end of a fruitful year together over good food after a brainstorming session on the circadian clock.
- Our lab celebrates 4 years (Nov 30, 2021)! We have come thus far with hard work, our commitment to one another and our research. We shared our happiness over a commemorative lab dinner.
- Ahallya presented a talk at the MBU In-House symposium on the development of a B1 calibration method using small molecule CEST. Bodhi and Shefali presented their work on metamorphic proteins in the poster sessions. Our group is beginning to expand its repertoire!
- Congratulations to ABC (Ahallya, Bodhi, Claris)! They have successfully completed their comprehensive exams and defended tricky projects to the committee. Here’s to an exciting PhD ahead!
- Ajith, our post-doc secures the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Early Career Fellowship! Ajith's successful application has been the result of a year's worth of effort in the wet lab, formulating the proposal, as well as a gruelling interview. Expecting big things from Ajith now!
- Paulomi successfully completes her comprehensive exam! Congrats Paulomi, wishing you interesting results and a fruitful research experience!
- The first research article from the lab is out! Ahallya and Claris’ work on B1 calibration of low fields using selective 1D CEST is published in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance. The CONDENZ method can measure the magnitude of B1 fields as well as B1 inhomogeneity with high precision and accuracy. The link to the paper is here.
- Our second review publication on metamorphic proteins is freshly printed! This review was published in Openbiology. Madhurima, Bodhi and Ashok describe structure-function relationships in metamorphic protein systems where functional residues are rearranged in the two folds of a protein. Read the paper here.
- Ahallya presents a short talk in the ICMRBS-ECR webinar series. Her work carried out along with Claris shows a neatly developed method to calibrate very low B1 fields in NMR using selective 1D CEST. Good talk, Ahallya!
- Diksha and Motilal bid us goodbye to pursue their respective PhDs in the US. We wish them both the very best and an enriching scientific experience out there!
- We are all back on campus and are looking forward to carrying out work at the bench after remotely working during the pandemic.
- Vaishali presents her work in the MBU In-House symposium. Her work involves understanding the structural and binding properties of a lectin with its cognate sugar-binding partner, mannose, using NMR and XRD. Well done, Vaishali!
- Congratulations to Vaishali and Madhurima for successfully completing their comprehensive examinations. We hope to see exciting research from both!
- Bhuvaneshwari joins the lab as a join-PhD student with Prof. Srinivasan from MBU. Welcome Bhuvaneshwari!
- The group size increases with Shefali joining the lab after a one-month rotation. Welcome Shefali!
- Ashok instates a new course at MBU, MB316: Relaxation Theory and Applications to Solution State Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy.
- We were all very glad to attend the EMBO conference (Intrinsically disordered proteins: From molecules to systems) happening on our home turf, IISc! Ashok gave a talk titled “Regulation of IDP function via conformationally excited states”. Ajith, Vaishali and Madhurima presented their research in the poster sessions. The conference was a great foray for us as a young lab to meet new people and listen to diverse talks.
- Paulomi joins the lab for her PhD, Welcome Paulomi!
- Ajith, Vaishali and Ashok submit the first review from the lab! Their review highlights NMR methods that can detect site-specific covalent modifications such as phosphorylation, acetylation and glycosylation and details NMR studies that have mapped conformational changes resulting from these PTMs. Read our paper here to know how the NMR toolbox is constantly expanding, spearheading the study of biomolecular structure and dynamics.
- Madhurima presents her work on characterizing a low population state in the energy landscape of CytR at the MBU In-House Symposium. Congratulations to Madhurima for winning the award for the best talk! Ajith and Vaishali presented their research in the poster sessions.
- Our collaborative work on CytR with Prof. Athi Narayanan’s group from IIT-M gets published in Biochemistry! Congrats Madhurima and Ashok! Read the paper here.
- Ahallya, Bodhi and Claris join the lab for their PhD! Welcome ABC!
- Ashok has proven himself to be thoroughly inadequate at maintaining this website! The lab has unanimously voted him out of website responsibility and Vaishali is the new one in charge (November 7, 2021).
- July 25, 2018: Madhurima joins the lab as the first regular PhD student. Welcome!
- May 15, 2018: Vaishali (Int PhD 2017) joins the lab as the first integrated PhD student. Welcome!
- April 3, 2018: Our research on metamorphic proteins is now supported by the DST/SERB Ramanujan Fellowship.
- April 2, 2018: Dr. Ajith Kumar joins as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome Ajith!
- February 15, 2018: Vaishali (Int PhD 2017) joins the lab as a rotation student. Welcome Vaishali!
- November 30, 2017: Ashok joins MBU; currently he is his own postdoc and even has a sample to play with, thanks to Athi (IITM)!
