Post-Doctoral Research (at Massachusetts General Hospital)

^ indicates undergraduate researcher

Frontiers in Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments

Ulrich F. Muller, James Elsila,  Dustin Trail, Saurja DasGupta, Claudia-Corina Giese, Craig R. Walton, Zachary R. Cohen, Tomislav Stolar, Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Timothy W. Lyons, Karyn L. Rogers, Loren D. Williams 

Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 2022, 52, 165-181. LINK

REVERSE: a user-friendly web server for analyzing next-generation sequencing data from in vitro selection/evolution experiments

Zoe Weiss^ and Saurja DasGupta

Nucleic Acids Research, 2022, 50, W1, W639–W650. LINK

Molecular Crowding and RNA Catalysis

Saurja DasGupta

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2020, 18,7724-7739. LINK

Natural soda lakes provide compatible conditions for RNA and membrane function that could have enabled the origin of life

Zachary R. Cohen, Dian Ding, Lijun Zhou, Saurja DasGupta, Sebastian Haas, Kimberly P.  Sinclair, Zoe R. Todd, Roy A. Black, Jack W. Szostak, and David C. Catling

PNAS Nexus, 2024, 3, 1-9. LINK

* indicates joint first authors  ^indicates co-corresponding authors

RNA-catalyzed RNA ligation within prebiotically-plausible model protocells

Saurja DasGupta*, Stephanie J. Zhang*,  Merrick P. Smela, and Jack W. Szostak

Chemistry - A European Journal, 2023, e202301376. LINK

Molecular crowding facilitates ribozyme-catalyzed RNA assembly

Saurja DasGupta^, Stephanie J. Zhang, and Jack W. Szostak

ACS Central Science, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.3c00547. LINK

* indicates joint first authors 

Nonenzymatic assembly of active chimeric ribozymes from aminoacylated RNA oligonucleotides 

Aleksandar Radakovic*, Saurja DasGupta*, Tom H Wright, Harry RM Aitken and Jack W Szostak 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U. S. A., 2022, 119, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2116840119. LINK

Structural basis for substrate binding and catalysis by a self-alkylating ribozyme

Daniel Krochmal, Yaming Shao, Nan-Sheng Li, Saurja DasGupta, Sandip A. Shelke, Deepak Koirala, Joseph A. Piccirilli

Nature Chemical Biology, 2022, 18, 376-384. LINK

^indicates co-corresponding authors

The hammerhead self-cleaving motif as a precursor to complex endonucleolytic ribozymes

Saurja DasGupta, Kamila Nykiel and  Joseph A. Piccirilli

RNA, 2021, 27, 1017-1024. LINK

The Varkud Satellite Ribozyme: A Thirty-Year Journey through Biochemistry, Crystallography, and Computation

Saurja DasGupta^ and  Joseph A. Piccirilli^

Accounts of Chemical Research, 2021, 54, 2591-2602. LINK

*indicates joint first authors

In vitro selection of ribozyme ligases that use prebiotically plausible 2-aminoimidazole–activated substrates

Travis Walton*, Saurja DasGupta*, Daniel Duzdevich, Seung Soo Oh, Jack W. Szostak

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U. S. A., 2020, 117, 5741-5748. LINK. Eureka Alert.

*indicates joint first authors

Hachimoji DNA and RNA: A genetic system with eight building blocks

Shuichi Hoshika*, Nicole A. Leal*, Myong-Jung Kim*, Myong-Sang Kim, Nilesh B. Karalkar, Hyo-Joong Kim, Alison M. Bates, Norman E. Watkins, Holly A. SantaLucia, Adam J. Meyer, Saurja DasGupta, Joseph A. Piccirilli, Andrew D. Ellington, John SantaLucia, Millie M. Georgiadis, Steven A. Benner

Science, 2019, 363, 884-887. LINK. Media Impact.

*indicates joint first authors

Affinity maturation of a portable Fab–RNA module for chaperone-assisted RNA crystallography

Deepak Koirala*, Sandip A. Shelke*, Marcel Dupont, Stormy Ruiz, Saurja DasGupta, Lucas J. Bailey, Steven A. Benner, Joseph A. Piccirilli

Nucleic Acids Research, 2018, 46, 2624-2635. LINK. 

Structural basis for substrate helix remodeling and cleavage loop activation in the Varkud Satellite ribozyme

Saurja DasGupta, Nikolai B. Suslov, Joseph A. Piccirilli

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2017, 139, 9591-9597. LINK. 

Laboratory evolution of artificially expanded DNA gives redesignable aptamers that target the toxic form of anthrax protective antigen

Elisa Biondi, Joshua D. Lane, Debasis Das, Saurja DasGupta, Joseph A. Piccirilli, Shuichi Hoshika, Kevin M. Bradley, Bryan A. Krantz, Steven A. Benner

Nucleic Acids Research, 2016, 44, 9565-9577. LINK. 

*indicates joint first authors

Crystal structure of the Varkud satellite ribozyme

Nikolai B Suslov*, Saurja DasGupta*, Hao Huang, James R, Fuller, David M. J. Lilley, Phoebe A. Rice, Joseph A. Piccirilli

Nature Chemical Biology, 2015, 11, 840-846. LINK. News & Views.

Spinach RNA aptamer detects lead (II) with high selectivity

Saurja DasGupta, Sandip A. Shelke, Nan-Sheng Li, , Joseph A. Piccirilli

Chemical Communications, 2015, 51, 9034-9037. LINK.