Research Groups

Mammalian Biology: Structural and Computational Biology

Group Leader

Research Interests and Description
Group Members

Amit Sharma

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg
110 067 New Delhi, India

E-mail: asharma@icgeb.res.in
Office tel: +91-11-26742357/60, 26741358, 26741361
Office fax: +91-11-26742316

Education

Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, PhD (Protein Crystallography), 1995
Oxford University, UK, Postdoctoral Fellow (Structural Biology), 2000

Career History

Since 2004, Group Leader, Structural and Computational Biology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India
2001-2006, Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellow, Indiaia Research Group of the ICGEB in New Delhi.
2001-2004, Research Scientist/Principal Investigator, Malaria Research Group, ICGEB New Delhi.
1995–2000, Lecturer and Junior Research Fellow, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Genomic Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1996–1998, Lecturer in Biochemistry, Trinity College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1993–1995, National Institute of Health National Research Scholar, Northwestern University, Evanston USA
1989-1990, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Summer Research, Awardee, Purdue University, USA

Teaching Activity

Teaching faculty at ICGEB, New Delhi for Ph. D. course in Bioinformatics and for ICGEB workshops.
In charge of the PhD examination and admissions committee at ICGEB, New Delhi, India.

Scientific Activity

My laboratory takes a multi-disciplinary approach towards understanding malaria parasite proteins. We aim to highlight the principles that govern biological function of some key parasite proteins. Towards this end, we rely extensively on bioinformatics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, parasitology and protein crystallography. The current focus of research includes critical parasite processes like invasion of liver and red blood cells, nucleosome assembly, gametocytogenesis and cytoadherence. The laboratory has elucidated crystal structures of key proteins from the sporozoite, asexual and sexual parasite stages.

Selected publications

Akhouri, R.R., Sharma, A., Malhotra, P., Sharma,  A. 2008. Role of Plasmodium falciparum thrombospondin-related anonymous protein in host-cell interactions.Malar J 7, 63

Garg, A., Gupta, D. 2008. VirulentPred: a SVM based prediction method for virulent proteins in bacterial pathogens.BMC Bioinformatics 9, 62

Sharma, A.,Yogavel, M., Akhouri, R.R., Gill, J., Sharma, A. 2008. Crystal structure of soluble domain of malaria sporozoite protein UIS3 in complex with lipid. J Biol Chem. 283, 24077-24088 Yogavel, M., Mishra, P.C., Gill, J., Bhardwaj, P.K., Dutt, S., Kumar, S., Ahuja, P.S., Sharma, A. 2008. Structure of a superoxide dismutase and implications for copper-ion chelation.Acta Crystallographica. Section D, Biological Crystallography 64, 892-901

Chandra, B.R., Yogavel, M., Sharma, A. 2007. Structural Analysis of ABC-family Periplasmic Zinc Binding Protein Provides New Insights Into Mechanism of Ligand Uptake and Release. J Mol Biol. 367, 970-982

Yogavel, M., Gill, J., Mishra, P.C., Sharma, A. 2007. SAD phasing of a structure based on cocrystallized iodides using an in-house Cu Kalpha X-ray source: effects of data redundancy and completeness on structure solution. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 63, 931-934

Ramasamy, G., Gupta, D., Mohmmed, A., Chauhan, V.S. 2007. Characterization and localization of Plasmodium falciparum homolog of prokaryotic ClpQ/HslV protease. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 152, 139-148

Navagi, V.M., Mishra, P.C., Chandra, B.R., Sharma, A. 2006. Phosphorylation enhanced histone binding and in vitro relay of histones by the two nucleosome assmelbvhy proteins from P. falciparum. J. Biol. Chem. 23, 281(25), 16978-16984.

Singh, S., Hora, R., Belrhali, H., Chitnis, C.E., Sharma, A. 2006. Structural basis for recognition of Duffy receptor by malaria parasite Duffy-binding-like domain. Nature 439(7077), 741-744.

Kalita, M.K., Ramasamy, G., Duraisamy, S., Chauhan, V.S., Gupta, D. 2006. ProtRepeatsDB database of amino acid repeats in genome. BMC Bioinformatics 7, 336