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Recent contributions in ligand design, virtual screening and antibiotic resistance evolution

Recent contributions in ligand design, virtual screening and antibiotic resistance evolution

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Recent contributions in ligand design, virtual screening and antibiotic resistance evolution
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<strong>School of Computational and Integrative Sciences (SCIS)</strong> a seminar by <strong>Dr. Soumi Sengupta</strong> on <strong>Recent contributions in ligand design, virtual screening and antibiotic resistance evolution</strong> <strong>18h February, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract : </strong>Mycobacterium tuberculosis (mtb), a gram positive bacillus, is the causative agent of the dreadful disease, tuberculosis (TB). It is claiming alarming number of lives with the emergence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) strains and its co-infection with human immunode?ciency virus (HIV). The speaker has extensively worked on drug design algorithms and techniques with a focus on mtb. Three dimensional homo-dimeric structure of maltosyl transferase of mtb (mtb GlgE), a potential drug target, is modelled and analysed. Interestingly its monomer contains two unique inserts. Further other potential drug targets of mtb along with mtb GlgE have been studied using both virtual screening and de novo ligand design techniques and their probable lead molecules are predicted and reported. However there are several aspects to drug discovery research other than lead molecule design, one of them being drug resistance. Therefore, development of a framework for finding out probable mutable structures of existing drug targets has been initiated. The approach involves construction of protein networks based on structural similarity. Based on this network it is possible to analyse naturally occurring variants on any active site of a protein which can be helpful while studying drug resistance.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.