R.sankararamakrishnan

Biography

Dr. Sankararamakrishnan's pre-doctoral studies were at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He received post-doctoral training in computational biology at University of Oxford and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was serving as a Research Assistant Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, before joining the BSBE department in April, 2002.

Research Interest

Dr. Sankararamakrishnan uses various computational techniques to study biomolecules, namely, integral membrane proteins and lipids. These studies are especially important since structural studies on membrane proteins are extremely difficult. Molecular modeling, sequence analysis and molecular dynamics simulations are used to understand the structure-function relationships of pharmaceutically important membrane proteins and proteins involved in programmed cell death. He is also investigating novel interactions in protein structures with particular emphasis on membrane proteins. Some of the ongoing projects in his lab are: Membrane-bound conformations of flexible endogenous peptide hormones that bind to GPCR proteins are being simulated in explicit bilayers. GPCR proteins implicated in obesity and diabetes are being investigated by a combined approach of sequence analysis, molecular modeling and simulation techniques. Comparative studies of water-transporting aquaporin genes in rice, maize and Arabidopsis. Computational studies on pro- and anti-apoptotic protein complexes. Novel interactions involving aromatic amino acids.