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Faculty Profile : Dr. Bhaswati Chatterjee Thakur

Name: Dr. Bhaswati Chatterjee Thakur


Young Scientist
bhaswati.niperhyd@gov.in


BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Bhaswati had done her B.Sc (Hons) Chemistry and M.Sc (Specialization in Organic Chemistry) from Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U) in the year 1997 and 1999 respectively. This was followed by Ph.D (Organic Chemistry) from B.H.U in the year 2006 that involved studies on peptides bearing Diproline templates and α, α-dialkylated amino acids. Subsequently, between the years 2006-2009, she was a post-doctoral fellow under Prof. P. Balaram, Former Director of Indian Institute of Science and Professor in Molecular Biophysics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where she worked on synthesis of unnatural amino acids and its incorporation into the peptides and studying their conformation by using 2D-NMR and X-ray crystallography. Then in the year 2009, she moved to Prof. Matthias Mann lab, Director, Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany as a post-doctoral fellow to study mass spectrometry based quantitative proteomics and protein-protein interactions. Currently, she has joined NIPER-Hyderabad in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.



AWARDS & QUALIFICATIONS

Ph.D Organic Chemistry that involved Peptide Synthesis and its Conformation studies (2006), Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U), Varanasi, India.
Post-Doctoral Fellow (2006-2009), Molecular Biophysics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Post-Doctoral Fellow (2009-2011), Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany
Worked as Tutor in MaxQuant Summer School (2011) in Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany.
Young Scientist and Principal Investigator under SERB-Start Up Research Grant (2014- present)
Post-doctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany (2009-2011).
Dr. D. S. Kothari, University Grants Commission (UGC) Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Sciences, Medical and Engineering Sciences (India).
Senior Research Fellowship of Joint CSIR-UGC NET, India, (2004-2006) for pursuing doctoral research program.
Junior Research Fellowship and Lectureship (Joint CSIR-UGC NET, India) in year 2001 for pursuing doctoral research program and eligibility for lectureship.
GATE qualified in year 2000. This exam is conducted by Indian Institute of Technology, India.
Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U) Scholarship (2001) for pursuing Doctoral Program in Chemistry at B.H.U.
Life member of Proteomics Society of India

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Her doctoral work involved Studies on Peptides Bearing Diproline Template and alpha, alpha - Dialkylated Amino Acid. It involves synthesis of unnatural amino acids and conformational studies of the peptides using different tools such as Mass Spectrometry, 2D-NMR and X-ray Crystallography. During her post-doctoral work at Prof. P. Balaram’s lab at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, among several interesting research work, she got first time x-ray crystallographic structure of three residue alpha turn in short peptides. She was able to entrap the water wire in a hydrophobic peptide channel with an aromatic lining using x-ray crystallography. This serendipitous discovery of water wire in the crystal structure provides insights into possible models for proton conduction through single file water arrays. She also designed peptides as synthetic models for hairpins containing three residue loop and also as models for helix-hairpin conformational transition. Her post-doctoral work at Prof. Matthias Mann, Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany involved development of technology where in one single LC-MS/MS run, more than 5000 human proteins were identified. This was followed by high-throughput protein interactome mapping in Human cell line (cancerous-HeLa and embryonic stem cells) and comparison of phosphoproteome of cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines. Her research interest is at the interface of chemistry and biology that involves peptide chemistry, synthesis and development of anti-diabetic and anti-cancer peptide drugs along with mass spectrometry based quantitative proteomics, conotoxins, stem cells, human interactome mapping and System biology. The peptides would be made using both solid and solution phase synthesis. This work involves cell culture that is labelled with Stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and label free approach in addition to animal models to develop anti-cancer and anti-diabetic peptide drugs along with discovering biomarkers for these diseases at different stages.



SOURCE OF FUNDING

Science and Technology Resarch Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India



PUBLICATIONS

Chatterjee B, Makarov A, Clemmer DE, Steen H, Steen J, Saffell-Clemmer W, Moghekar AR, Mohan Rao C, Bradshaw RA, Thakur SS. Proteomics in India: A Report on a Brainstorming Meeting at Hyderabad, India. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2016 Jul;15(7):2229-35
Chatterjee B, Thakur SS Tribute: India's inspiring former president. Nature. 2015 Aug 20;524(7565):291.
Pichumani K, George G, Hebbar S, Chatterjee B, Raghothama S, Effects of hydrogen bonding on amide-proton chemical shift anisotropy in a proline-containing model peptide. Chemical Physics Letters. 2015 May 1; 627: 126–129.
Chatterjee B, Thakur SS Microbial profiling: extend ethnicity of human microbiome. Nature. 2012 Jul 4; 487(7405):39.
Thakur SS, Geiger T, Chatterjee B, Bandilla P, Froehlich F, Cox J, Mann M. Deep and highly sensitive proteome coverage by LC-MS/MS without pre-fractionation. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2011, Aug; 10(8):M110.003699. Most read paper of August 2011 in Mol Cell Proteomics
Raghavender, U.; Chatterjee, B.; Saha, I; Rajagopal, A.; Shamala, N.; Balaram P. Entrapment of a water wire in a hydrophobic peptide channel with an aromatic lining. J Phys Chem B. 2011 Jul 28; 115(29):9236-43.
Jayanthi, S.; Chatterjee, B.; Raghothama, S. Natural Abundant Solid State NMR Studies in Designed Tripeptides for Differentiation of Multiple Conformers. Biopolymers 2009, 91, 851-60.
Chatterjee B, Saha I, Raghothama S, Aravinda S, Rai R, Shamala N, Balaram P. Designed peptides with homochiral and heterochiral diproline templates as conformational constraints. Chemistry- A European Journal. 2008; 14(20):6192-204.
Saha, I.; Chatterjee, B.; Shamala, N.; Balaram, P. Crystal Structures of Peptide Enantiomers and Racemates: Probing Conformational Diversity in Heterochiral Pro-Pro Sequences. Biopolymers. (Peptide Sci.) 2008, 90, 537-43.