Biennial Report 2005-2007 - Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics

6 Biophysical SciencesResearch activities in this area can be broadly classified into two groups. In structuralproteomics and genomics in human health and diseases, proteomics studies of red bloodcells identified 10 new proteins in the red cell cytosol among 60 proteins annotated. Lossof phospholipid membrane asymmetry and sialylated glycoconjugates from erythrocytesurface in HbEβ-thalassemia has been established. Roles of several proteins that interactwith Huntingtin (HTT), whose mutation causes Huntington’s disease, in aggregate formationand cell death, have been established. HIPPI, an interactor of HTT-interactingprotein HIP-1 posseses a novel transcription regulation ability, while HYPK, a novelprotein posseses chaperone like activity. Regulation of gene expressions by microRNAand large-scale protein identification and characterization in leukemia have been initiated.Several proteins/ domains involved in Alzheimer’s disease have been cloned,expressed and are being characterized. Crystal structures of various proteins like Ldcyp,different mutants of Ervatamins and papain mutants have been determined thatprovide functional basis of these proteins. Mutational studies of chymotrypsin inhibitorwere carried out to convert chymotrypsin inhibitor to trypsin inhibitor.In other studies bioinformatics and computational tools are used to establish conformationalspecificity of non-canonical base pairs in RNA. Role played by flexibility in DNAin recognizing specifically the TATA box binding protein is established. In the areasof chemical cellular and molecular biology, GTP binding sites of T7 RNA polymeraseand structural alterations of chromatin by DNA binding antibiotics have been identified.Chronic heat shock resulted in activation of key signaling elements and the downstream effectors. Roles of mitogen activated protein kinase, p21 activated kinase invarious cellular processes in Entamoeba histolytica have been investigated. The mRNAcycling sequence binding protein, cyclin LdCyc2 and ORCS/CdC6 have been clonedfrom Leishmania donovani and characterized. Various spectroscopic tools were usedto study the interactions of flavonoids and isoflavonoids with cell membranes and liposomes.Interactions of quinone, drug like molecules, indole derivatives and 4NQO withDNA, amino acids and proteins have provided mode of actions of these compounds.Characterization of alternate mode of actionfor genericdrugs like some non-steroid antiinflamatorydrugs and anticancer drug plicamycin has been done.Minuscule quantity of supernova produced long-lived radionuclide 53 Mn from its naturalisobar 53 Cr was separated. In green chemistry progress has been made for species specificstudies on toxic metals like chromium or arsenic using greener reagents like Baker’syeast, iron doped calcium alginate and polyethylene glycol. For the first time radioactivegold nanoparticle has been reported, which was synthesized using environmentallybenign polyethylene glycol. Halophilic bacteria were isolated from natural sources and197