Group Leader, Structural Parasitology
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg
110 067 New Delhi, India
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +91-11-26742357/60, 26741358, 26741361
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
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.
Teaching Activity
Teaching faculty at ICGEB, New Delhi for Ph. D. course in Physical and Computational Biology.
Selected publications
Banday, M.M., Rahlfs, S., Becker, K., Belrhali, H., Sharma, A. 2014. Atomic resolution crystal structure of Glutaredoxin 1 from Plasmodium falciparum and comparison with other glutaredoxins. Acta Cryst D. 70, 91-100 PubMed link
Bansal, A. Singh, S. More, KR. Hans, D. Nangalia, K. Yogavel, M. Sharma, A. Chitnis, CE. 2013. Characterization of Plasmodium falciparum calcium dependent protein kinase 1 (PfCDPK1) and its role in microneme secretion during erythrocyte invasion. J. of Biol Chem. 3, 1590-602
Braun, L. Brenier-Pinchart MP, Yogavel M, Curt-Varesano A, Curt-Bertini RL, Hussain T, Kieffer-Jaquinod S, Coute Y, Pelloux H, Tardieux, I. Sharma, A. Belrhali, H. Bougdour, A. Hakimi, MA. 2013. Toxoplasma protein modulates the early immune response to infection by promoting a direct and sustained host p38 MAPK activation. J. Experimental Medicine. 10, 2071-86
Khan, S. Garg, A. Camacho, N. Van Rooyen, J. Kumar, AP. Belrhali, H. Ribas de Pouplana, L. Sharma, V. Sharma, A. 2013. Structural analysis of malaria parasite lysyl-tRNA synthetase provides platform for drug development. Acta Cryst D. 69, 785-95
Khan, S. Garg, A. Sharma, A. Camacho, N. Picchioni, D. Saint-Léger, A. Ribas de Pouplana, L. Yogavel, M. Sharma, A. 2013. An appended domain results in an unusual architecture for malaria parasite tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase. PLos One. 6, e66224
Pihlajamaa, T. Kajander, T. Knuuti, J. Horkka, K. Sharma, A. Permi, P. 2013. Structure of Plasmodium falciparum Thrombospondin-Related Anonymous Protein (TRAP) A Domain Highlights Distinct Features in Apicomplexan von Willebrand Factor A Homologues. Biochem Journal. 450, 469-76
Balasubramaniam, D. Arockiasamy, A. Kumar PD. Sharma, A. Krishnaswamy, S. 2012. Asymmetric pore occupancy in crystal structure of OmpF porin from Salmonella typhi. J. Structural Biology. 3, 233-44
Eeshita, GD. Dastidar, EG. Dayer, G. Holland, ZM. Dorin-Semblat, D. Claes, A. Chêne, A. Sharma, A. Hamelin, R. Moniatte, M. Lopez-Rubio, JJ. Scherf, A. Doerig, C. 2012. Involvement of Plasmodium falciparum protein kinase CK2 in the chromatin assembly pathway. BMC biology. 10, 5
Gowri, VS. Ghosh, I. Sharma, A. and Madhubala, R. 2012. Unusual domain architecture of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases and their paralogs from Leishmania. BMC Genomics.13, 621
Kumar, A., Kashyap, M., Bhavesh, N. S., Yogavel, M., Sharma, A. 2012. Structural delineation of histone post-translation modifications in histone-nucleosome assembly protein complex J. Struct. Biol. 180, 1-9 PubMed link
Sharma, A. Yogavel, M. Sharma, A. 2012. Utility of anion and cation combinations for phasing of protein structures. J. Structural and Functional Genomics. 3,135-43
Sharma, A., Sharma, A. 2011. Fatty acid induced remodeling within the Human liver fatty acid binding protein. J Biol Chem. 286, 31924-31928 PubMed link
Bhatt, T. K., Khan, S., Dwivedi, V. P., Banday, M. M., Sharma, A., Chandele, A., Camacho, N., de Pouplana, L. R., Wu, Y., Craig, A. G., Mikkonen, A. T., Maier, A. G., Yogavel, M., Sharma, A. 2011. Malaria parasite tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase secretion triggers pro-inflammatory responses. Nat Commun 2, 530 PubMed link
Jackson, KE. Habib, S. Frugier, M. Hoen, R. Khan, S. Pham, JS. Ribas de Pouplana, L. Royo, M. Santos, MA. Sharma, A. Ralph, SA. 2011. Protein translation in Plasmodium Parasites. Trends in Parasitology.10, 467-476
Sharma, A., Sharma ,A., Dixit, S., Sharma, A. 2011. Structural insights into thioredoxin-2: a component of malaria parasite protein secretion machinery. Sci Rep 1, 179 PubMed link
Khan, S., Sharma, A., Jamwal, A., Sharma, V., Pole, A. K., Thakur, K. K., Sharma, A. 2011. Uneven spread of cis- and trans-editing aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase domains within translational compartments of P. falciparum. Sci Rep 1, 188 PubMed link
Bhatt, T.K., Yogavel, M., Wydau, S., Berwal, R., Sharma, A. 2010. Ligand-bound Structures Provide Atomic Snapshots for the Catalytic Mechanism of D-Amino Acid Deacylase. J Biol Chem 285, 5917-5930 PubMed link
Bhatt, T.K., Kapil, C., Khan, S., Jairajpuri, M.A., Sharma, V., Santoni, D., Silvestrini, F., Pizzi, E., Sharma, A. 2009. A genomic glimpse of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. BMC Genomics 10, 644-674 PubMed link
Gill, J., Yogavel, M., Kumar, A., Belrhali, H., Jain, S.K., Rug, M., Brown, M., Maier, A.G., Sharma, A. 2009. Crystal structure of malaria parasite nucleosome assembly protein: distinct modes of protein localization and histone recognition. J Biol Chem 284, 10076-10087 PubMed link
Hora, R., Bridges, D.J., Craig, A., Sharma, A. 2009. Erythrocytic Casein Kinase II Regulates Cytoadherence of Plasmodium falciparum-infected Red Blood Cells. J Biol Chem 284, 6260-6269 PubMed link
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