Profile
I was introduced to the fascinating field of structural biology during my Ph.D. under the tutelage of Prof. M. Vijayan at MBU, IISc, Bangalore, and gained experience in macromolecular crystallography and biophysics. Then, I did a postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. In the meantime, the resolution revolution began in the Cryo-EM field, and I moved to Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY, USA, for my 2nd post-doctoral fellowship. Where I gained experience in the cutting-edge techniques of single-particle cryo- EM. I joined the RCB, Faridabad, in 2018 after a short stint at CDFD, Hyderabad. Here, our laboratory applies a multidisciplinary approach to structural biology to understand the molecular mechanism of protein synthesis in pathogenic mycobacteria and protozoans and find the unique features of its translation machinery. Further, these features can be exploited to improve the efficacy of known drug molecules and find new drug targets and inhibitors.
Current Focus Areas
Our research focuses on protein synthesis in pathogenic microbes, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which causes the deadliest disease, tuberculosis, and Entamoeba histolytic, which causes amoebiasis. We use cutting-edge techniques, mainly Cryo-EM for high-resolution structure determination, molecular biology, and biochemistry to perform functional assays, and in-silico screening for structure-based drug design.
Selected Publications
Kumar N, Sharma S, Kaushal PS. (2024). Cryo- EM structure of the mycobacterial 70S ribosome in complex with ribosome hibernation promotion factor RafH. Nat Commun. Jan 20;15(1):638.
Prajapat SK, Mishra L, Khera S, Owusu SD, Ahuja K, Sharma P, Choudhary E, Chhabra S, Kumar N, Singh R, Kaushal PS, Mahajan D, Banerjee A, Motiani RK, Vrati S, Kalia M. (2024). Methotrimeprazine is a neuroprotective antiviral in JEV infection via adaptive ER stress and autophagy. EMBO Mol Med. Jan;16(1):185-217.
Pal P, Khan MY, Sharma S, Kumar Y, Mangla N, Kaushal PS, Agarwal N. (2023) ResR/McdR-regulated protein translation machinery contributes to drug resilience in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Commun Biol. Jul 11;6(1):708.
Kumar N, Sharma S, Kaushal PS. (2021). Protein synthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a potential target for therapeutic interventions. Mol Aspects Med. Oct;81:101002.
Koripella RK, Sharma MR, Bhargava K, Datta PP, Kaushal PS, Keshavan P, Spremulli LL, Banavali NK, Agrawal RK. (2020). Structures of the human mitochondrial ribosome bound to EF-G1 reveal distinct features of mitochondrial translation elongation. Nat Commun. Jul 31;11(1):3830.