Prof. Samudrala Gourinath
Structural Biology Lab
Room 417, School of Life Sciences,
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi-110067, INDIA
phone: 011-26704513; (office),
+91-9818420366(mobile)
Email: sgourinath@mail.jnu.ac.in
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RESEARCH AREA
RESEARCH AREA
Structural and functional Studies of functionally important Proteins of the gastric infectious Organisms (E. histolytica & H. pylori)
Gastric infections are the most common diseases in developing and under developing countries due to unhygienic conditions. These infections are generally caused by Helicobactor pylori and Entameoba histolytica and these pathogens produce serious health effects. According to WHO statistics the number of infections caused by these two organisms put together are the highest number in the world and there are several cases of drug resistance cases emerging for these infections. Our lab is focused on these organisms to study the structure-function relationship of the important functional proteins, and potential drug targets of these pathogens.
i) Cysteine biosynthetic pathway and Sulfur metabolism in E. histolytica Sulfur is an essential nutrient for the growth and development of all organisms and plants, including pathogenic protozoan like Entamoeba histolytica, Leishmania and Trichomonas. In bacterial sulfur assimilation, cysteine biosynthesis plays a central role in fixing inorganic sulfur from host cells. Sulfate activation pathways were shown to be crucial for survival of E. histolytica and M. tuberculosis. Cysteine is crucial for survival of E. histolytica and Trichomonas and it is only thiol in E. histolytica acting as a cellular reducing agent. Serine - Cysteine biosynthetic pathway and sulfate activation pathways are crucial for survival of E. histolytica. We are studying structure and function of all these proteins and also trying to develop inhibitors for these proteins. So far we have determined and reported the structures of Serine Acetyl Transferase (SAT) from E. histolytica and explained the reasons for lack of cysteine synthase complex formation (Kumar et al., 2011). With mutational and kinetic experiments with SAT isoform 3, explained the reasons for differential feedback inhibition for different SAT isoforms (Kumar et al., 2013). We also reported the structure of O-acetyl Serine sulfhydrylase (OASS) from E. histolytica and L. donavani (Chinthalapudi et al., 2008; Raj et al., 2012; Raj 2013) and elucidated the active site difference in these OASS structures explaining LdOASS can form cysteine synthase complex with SAT from any organism. We have also screened the inhibitors for EhOASS up to micro molar binding affinity (Nagpal et al., 2012), which could be potential drugs.
ii) Understanding the phagocytic cup formation in E. histolytica
E. histolytica is highly motile and displays high level of phagocytic activity in the trophozoite stage. Motility and phagocytosis are essential processes for the survival and invasion of host tissues by the parasite. As the parasite lacks channels and transporters, it depends on phagocytosis for survival. Ca2+ and its binding proteins, Cytosketal proteins and several signaling proteins are involved in phagocytic cup formation. We are trying to understand the structure and function of all these proteins and their specific role in phagocytic cup formation.
iii) Replication initiation in H. pylori
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a gram-negative, microaerophilic spiral shaped bacterium that infects more than 50% of the human population globally and is responsible for causing chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. Replication system in H. pylori has unique features compared to other well studied microorganisms like E. coli and Bacillus subtilis. Replication of chromosomal DNA is generally a universal process that requires a high degree of accuracy and precision to maintain fidelity in the transmission of genetic material from one generation to the next. This unique process involves multi-protein complexes that help to check the inevitable errors associated with DNA replication. The structural and functional studies of this replication initiation process are important for future drug development.
AWARDS/ FELLOWSHIPS/ RECOGNITIONS
Academic and Professional Honors
Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, 2023.
SERB-STAR research award - 2021
Visitors Award (Presidents Award)-2016 for Molecular Parasitology group at JNU.
National Bioscience Award for career development 2013 (announced in June 2014), awarded by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
Indo-US science and Technology Forum fellowship for 2010, Visited Prof. Niko Gregorif, HHMI, Brandeis University
Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award for 2006 (IYBA-2006) by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt of India.
Awarded DAAD (German academic exchange service) fellowship for short term, 1998.
1996. Qualified for the JRF/NET Fellowship awarded by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.
1996. Qualified the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (percentile score 95.43).
1993-1995. Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India fellowship for MSc Biotechnology 1993-1995
1987-1989. Awarded the Telugu Vignana Parithoshikam (Andhra Pradesh state merit scholarship) by State Govt. Andhra Pradesh.
1987. Awarded the National merit scholarship by Govt. of India.
Membership of Scientific Organizations:
Elected fellow of Indian National Sciences Academy - 2019
Elected to GRC-2016
Elected Fellow of Telengana Academy of Sciences - 2016
Elected Fellow of AP Academy of Sciences - 2016
Indian Biophysical society
International union of crystallography
Indian Crystallographic Association
Protein Society, India
American chemical society
TEACHING
TEACHING
M.Sc. Courses:
LS 450: Biophysics and Structural Biology
LS 452A: Research Design, Ethics and Scientific publishing
LS 453A: Life Sciences Practicals- III: Biophysics and Structural Biology
LS 580: Research Design, Ethics and Scientific publishing
LS 101A: Physics for Biologists
Ph.D. Courses:
LS 612A: Research and Publication Ethics
LAB MEMBERS
LAB MEMBERS
CURRENT MEMBERS
Avinash Kumar Gautam
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Research Title: Structural and functional characterization of RhoGTpase family proteins from Entamoeba histolytica.
Simra Anees
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Title: Structural and functional characterization of GPI anchored proteins from Entamoeba histolytica
Zenab Kamali
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Title: Optimisation of inhibitors against cysteine synthesis pathway of Entamoeba histolytica and characterisation of O-Acetyl Serine Sulfhydrolase binding partners.
Pinky Chaudhry
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Research Title: Structural and functional characterization of DLP in Entamoeba histolytica.
Sourav Patra
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Title: Structural & Functional characterization of ADF-H domain containing proteins in Entamoeba Histolytica
Varsha Nautiyal
Current Position: PhD Scholar
PhD Research Title:
Structural and Functional characterization of Geminivirus encoded proteins.
Dr. Khushoo Kumari
Current Position: Research Associate
Research Interest: Structural Biology
LAB ALUMNI
Dr. Shivesh Kumar
Present Position: Assistant Professor, Washington University, School of Medicine, St Louis, USA
Email id: 2shivesh@gmail.com Research Interest: Structural biology of transporters and channels
Dr. Tara Kashav
Present Position: Assistant Professor, Central University of Bihar
Email id: tarakashav@cub.ac.in
Dr. Sudhir Kumar
Present Position: Associate Professor SCMM, JNU Email id: sudhir.1685@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology.
Dr. Isha Raj
Present Position: Postdoctoral Fellow Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Email id: isha.life@gmail.com Research Interest: Structural Biology
Dr. S. Arif Abdul Rehman
Present Position: Postdoctoral Research assistant MRC Protein Phosphorylation & Ubiquitylation Unit College of Life Sciences
University of Dundee, Scotland Email id: arif3232@gmail.com
Research Interest: Ubiquitination
Dr. Krishna Chinthalapudi
Present Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, USA
Email id: Krishna.Chinthalapudi@osumc.edu
Research Interest: Physiology and Cell Biology
Dr. Faisal Tarique
Present Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Greehey Children's Cancer Research Institute Department: Biochemistry and Structural Biology Email id: faisaltarique@gmail.com, khajaf@uthscsa.edu
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Nitesh Kumar
Present Position: Scientist - II Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science
Email id: niteshjnu@gmail.com, niteshjovial@yahoo.com
Dr. Rohit Kumar Singh
Present Position: Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Mol. Genetics, University
of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, USA. Email id: rohithpu@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar
Present Position: Drug Discovery Scientist, Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee, USA Email id: sanjeev.b23@gmail.com
Dr. Mohit Mazumder
Chief Executive Officer · OmicsLogic Inc.
Email id: mazumder.mohit@gmail.com
Research Interest: Machine learning algorithms, classification. Structural Bioinformatics.(Molecular Modelling, Molecular Docking simulations, Molecular dynamics simulations).
Dr. Gunjan Gautam
Present position: Research associate, School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol, UK
Email id: gautamgun@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Aruna Murmu
Present Position: Lecturer(Jamshedpur)
Email id: aru4242@gmail.com
Dr. Sudhaker Dharavath
Present Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, NIH, NCI, Bathesda, MD
Email id: sudhakerj9@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural Biologist, RNA Biologist and Protein Biochemist
Dr. Dhakaram Pangeni Sharma
Present position: Postdoctoral visiting fellow at The National Institutes of Health, NC, USA
Email id: dhakapang@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Suneeta Devi
Present position: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Liverpool
Email id: suneeta212@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Poonam Kumari
Present position: Assistant Professor, Amity university, Jaipur
Email id: poonam.bio12@yahoo.co.in
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Pragyan Parimita Rath
Present position: DBT Bhan postdoctoral fellow, ICGEB, New Delhi
Email id: pirsah2025@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural and functional studies of cytoskeletal proteins.
Dr Priya Tomar
Present position: Research Scientist, CIAN Diagnostics, Frederick, Maryland, United States
Email id: priyatomar2011@gmail.com
Research Interest: Cell and Structural Biologist, NGS specialist
Dr. Preeti Umarao
Present position: Researcher II Sci-Communicator II Jigyasa, CSIR
Email id: preeti30_sls@gmail.com, urmila23preeti@gmail.com
Dr. Debrat Kumar
Present position: Postdoctoral research fellow, IIT-Delhi
Email id: devformedico@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Shalini Mishra
Present position: Postdoctoral Fellow - Kenter Lab
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Illunois, USA
Email id: shalinimishra.bhu2017@gmail.com
Research Interest: Structural biology
Dr. Rajesh Pujari
Email id: rajeshpujari1@gmail.com; rajeshpujari@mail.jnu.ac.in
Research Interest: Proteomics (Mass-Spectrometry Based proteomics).
Dr. Preeti Satyawali
Email id: preet_bioinfo@yahoo.co.in
Research Interest: To work in the area of structural biology dealing with analyzing protein structures, various protein-protein, interactions computationally.
Dr. Manish Kumar
Works at AIRF(Advanced Instrument Research Facility), JNU
Email id: kummanish@rediffmail.com
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
1. P Kumari, P Agrawal, P Umarao, V Ramachandran, S Gourinath (2024) Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors Targeting Phosphoserine Phosphatase: A Novel Target for the Development of Antiamoebic Drugs. ACS Omega, June 17, doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c09439.
2. Ekjot Kaur, Ritu Agrawal, Rimpy Arun, Vinoth Madhavan, Vivek Srivastava, Dilip Kumar, Pragyan Parimita Rath, Nitin Kumar, Sreekanth Vedagopuram, Nishant Pandey, Swati Priya, Patrick Legembre, S Gourinath, Avinash Bajaj, Sagar Sengupta (2024). Small molecules that disrupt RAD54-BLM interaction hamper tumor proliferation in colon cancer chemoresistance models. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. E161941.
3. Sinha, BK., Devbrat Kumar, Priyabrata Meher, Shilpi Kumari, Krishna Prakash, Samudrala Gourinath, Tara Kashav (2024) Biophysical and functional characterization of N-terminal domain of Human Interferon Regulatory Factor 6. Mol. Biol. Reports. 51:380
4. Jyoti Verma, Pragyan Parimita Rath, Samudrala Gourinath, Naidu Subbarao (2023) Identification of potential novel inhibitors against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: targeting RBD and ACE2 interaction. JBSD. 111. doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2023.2291161
5. Mohit Mazumder, Sanjeev Kumar, Devbrat Kumar, Alok bhattacharya and S. Gourinath (2023) Machine learning-based modulation of Ca2+-binding affinity in EF-hand proteins and comparative structural insights into site-specific cooperative binding. IJBM, (in press).
6. Idrees D, Naqvi AAT, Hassan MI, Ahmad F, Gourinath S. (2022) Insight into the Conformational Transitions of Serine Acetyl Transferase Isoforms in E. histolytica: Implications for Structural and Functional Balance. ACS Omega. 2022 Jul 7;7(28):24626-24637.doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c02467.
7. S Dharavath, K Kumari, S Kumar, S Gourinath (2022). Structural and functional studies of serine acetyltransferase isoform from Entamoeba histolytica reveals novel role of the C-terminal tail in loss of regulation from feedback inhibition. IJBM, 217, 689-700.
8. D Sarkar, R Vijayan, S Gourinath, AK Sau (2022) A unique aromatic cluster near the active site of H. pylori CPA is essential for catalytic function. Biophysical Journal 121 (2), 248-262
9. N Kumar, PP Rath, P Aggarwal, S Maiti, NS Bhavesh, S Gourinath (2022) Unravelling the Biology of EhActo as the First Cofilin From Entamoeba histolytica. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 10, 785680-785680.
10. P Umarao, PP Rath, S Gourinath (2022) Cdc42/Rac Interactive Binding Containing Effector Proteins in Unicellular Protozoans With Reference to Human Host: Locks of the Rho Signaling. Frontiers in genetics, 13:781885.
11. Khan MZ., Singha B, Ali MF, Taunk K, Rapole S, Gourinath S, Nandicoor VK. (2021) Redox homeostasis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is modulated by a novel actinomycete‐specific transcription factor. The EMBO Journal, e106111.
12. S Devi, P Tomar, KF Tarique, S Gourinath (2021) Inhibiting pyridoxal kinase of Entamoeba histolytica is lethal for this pathogen. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 11, 660466.
13. R Vijayan, S Gourinath (2021) Structure-based inhibitor screening of natural products against NSP15 of SARS-CoV-2 revealed Thymopentin and Oleuropein as potent inhibitors. Journal of proteins and proteomics, 1-10
14. Nagaraja S, Cai MW, Sun J, Varet H, Sarid L, Trebicz-Geffen M, Shaulov Y, Mazumdar M, Legendre R, Coppée JY, Begley TJ, Dedon PC, Gourinath S, Guillen N, Saito-Nakano Y, Shimokawa C, Hisaeda H, Ankri S. (2021) Queuine Is a Nutritional Regulator of Entamoeba histolytica Response to Oxidative Stress and a Virulence Attenuator. mBio. 12(2):e03549-20.
15. Ruhel R, Mazumder M, Gnanasekaran P, Kumar M, Gourinath S, Chakraborty S. (2021) Functional implications of residues of the B' motif of geminivirus replication initiator protein in its helicase activity. FEBS J. PMID: 34092039
16. Kumari P, Vijayan R and Gourinath S (2021) Structural analysis of EhPSP in complex with 3-phosphoglyceric acid from Entamoeba histolytica reveals a basis for its lack of phosphoglycerate mutase activity. IJBM. 178:1-10
17. Singh RK, Kumar D, Gourinath S. (2021) Phosphoserine aminotransferase has conserved active site from microbes to higher eukaryotes with minor deviations. Protein Pept Lett. PMID: 33588715
18. Dutta A, Sarkar D, Murarka P, Kausar T, Narayan S, Mazumder M, Ainavarapu SRK, Gourinath S, Sau AK. (2021) An evolutionary non-conserved motif in Helicobacter pylori arginase mediates positioning of the loop containing the catalytic residue for catalysis. Biochem J. 478, 871-894. PMID: 33480396
19. Kumar S, Vijayan R, Dash AK, Gourinath S, Tyagi RK. (2021) Nuclear receptor SHP dampens transcription function and abrogates mitotic chromatin association of PXR and ERα via intermolecular interactions. Biochim Biophys Acta Gene Regul Mech. 1864(3):194683. PMID: 33444783
20. KF Tarique, S Devi, P Tomar, MF Ali, SAA Rehman, S Gourinath (2020) Characterization and functional insights into the Entamoeba histolytica pyridoxal kinase, an enzyme essential for its survival. J. Struct. Bio. 212 (3), 107645
21. Kumar S, Mishra S, Gourinath S. (2020) Structural and functional diversity of Entamoeba histolytica calcium-binding proteins. Biophys Rev. 12(6):1331-41. doi: 10.1007/s12551-020-00766-6.
22. Rath PP, and Gourinath S. (2020) The actin cytoskeleton orchestra in Entamoeba histolytica. Proteins. 88, 1361-1375. doi: 10.1002/prot.25955.
23. S Dharavath, R Vijayan, K Kumari, P Tomar, S Gourinath (2020) Crystal structure of O-Acetylserine sulfhydralase (OASS) isoform 3 from Entamoeba histolytica: Pharmacophore-based virtual screening and validation of novel inhibitors. Eur. J. of Med. Chem, 192, 112157.
24. Kumari P, Idrees D, Rath PP, Vijayan R and Gourinath S (2020) Biochemical and biophysical characterization of the smallest pyruvate kinase from Entamoeba histolytica. BBA proteins proteom. 1868: 140296.
25. A Ahmad, S Mishra, Somlata, S Gourinath (2020) Role of kinases in virulence and pathogenesis of protozoan parasite E. Histolytica. Frontiers in bioscience, 25, 1617.
26. Verma D, Agarwal S, Keerthi V, Murmu A, Gourinath S, Bhattacharya A, Chary KR. (2020) Ca2+-binding protein from Entamoeba histolytica (EhCaBP6) is a novel GTPase. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 527:631-637.
27. N Sabharwal, K Varshney, PP Rath, S Gourinath, U Das (2020) Biochemical and biophysical characterization of nucleotide binding domain of Trehalose transporter from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. IJBM, 152, 109-116.
28. Rani Komal, Tyagi Mitali, Mazumder Mohit, Singh Akanksha, Shanmugam Annaian, Dalal Krishna, Pillai Manoj, Samudrala Gourinath, Saroj Kumar, Srinivasan Alagiri (2020). Accelerated identification of serine racemase inhibitor from Centella asiatica. Scientific Reports. 10. 4640
29. Tandon S, Manhas R, Tiwari N, Munde M, Vijayan R, Gourinath S, Muthuswami R, Madhubala R. (2020) Deciphering the interaction of benzoxaborole inhibitor AN2690 with connective polypeptide 1 (CP1) editing domain of Leishmania donovani leucyl-tRNA synthetase. J. Biosci. 45,63.
Rani P, Gautam G, Anwar T, Gourinath S, Datta A. (2020) Crystal structure of Gig2 protein from Candida albicans provides a structural insight into DUF1479 family oxygenases. Int J Biol Macromol. 150:1272–1280.
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