Profile
Dr. Vengadesan Krishnan obtained his Ph.D. in Crystallography and Biophysics at the University of Madras, Chennai. He had Postdoctoral research training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, and subsequently joined the Regional Centre for Biotechnology as a faculty member in 2011. His laboratory of structural microbiology majorly focuses on host-microbe interactions in health and disease, microbial adhesion, biofilm, and pili. Microbial attachment to host surfaces is the first and critical step in colonization, regardless of whether it benefits or harms the host. The subsequent events in the pathogenesis or probiosis are highly dependent on the initial interaction or adherence. Hence, Dr. Krishnan’s lab aims to generate structural knowledge by studying key molecules that establish the initial contact between the host and microbes (beneficial and pathogenic). Structural knowledge provides the foundations for the approaches targeting host-microbial interactions to improve health and control infections.
Current Focus Areas
Visualizing the host-microbial interface through structural biology tools at the atomic level to understand how microbes adhere to and interact with the host surface for colonization.
Structural investigation of pili or fimbriae that enable bacteria to establish initial contact with the host surfaces for colonization and biofilm formation.
Selected Publications
Yadav S, Parijat P, Krishnan V. (2023) Crystal structure of the pilus-specific sortase from early colonizing oral Streptococcus sanguinis captures an active open-lid conformation.Int J Biol Macromol. 243:125183.
Yadav RK, Krishnan V. (2022) New structural insights into the PI-2 pilus from Streptococcus oralis, an early dental plaque colonizer. FEBS J, 289:6342
Sharma V, von Ossowski I, Krishnan V. (2021) Exploiting pilus-mediated bacteria-host interactions for health benefits. Mol Aspects Med, 81:1000998
Kant A, Palva A, von Ossowski I, Krishnan V. (2020) Crystal structure of lactobacillar SpaC reveals an atypical five-domain pilus tip adhesin: Exposing its substrate-binding and assembly in SpaCBA pili. J Struct Biol, 211:107571
Chaurasia P, Pratap S, , Palva A, von Ossowski I, Krishnan V. (2018) Bent conformation of a backbone pilin N-terminal domain supports a three-stage pilus assembly mechanism. Commun Biol 1:94