Chanchal DasGupta

Professor
Dept: Biological Sciences
E-mail: chanchaldg [at] iiserkol.ac.in
Complete CV:Click Here


Research Interest:

Research in Ph.D. and post doctoral level was on the involved of E.coli RecA protein  in SOS and recombination  function. Showed the involvement of RecA  in Weigle reactivation of single stranded DNA phage ØX-174 irrespective of damage chemistry of DNA in 1971, before SOS repair was postulated. Proposed and demonstrated the DNA single-strand transfer followed by paranemic heteroduplex  and Holliday crossover formation by the RecA protein in the laboratory of Prof. Charles Radding. Since 1990, working on ribosome mediated protein folding and nascent protein mediated ribosomal subunit dissociation during translation. Both of these phenomena were proposed and demonstrated in this laboratory. The protein folding activity has been shown to be located at the peptidyl transferase center of the largest  ribosomal RNA (23S rRNA in E.coli) in bacterial, plant and animal cells and mitochondria. The peptidyl transferase center works as a universal protein folding mould. The nascent (or unfolded) protein mediated ribosome dissociation (in cis) to subunits is faster and more complete than the ribosome recycling factors mediated subunit dissociation shown from various other laboratories.


Academic Background:
  1. M.Sc. Physics, Calcutta University
  2. Ph.D. :  Biophysics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, 1974


Positions:
  1. Post Doctoral Research : Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  2. Professor, Department of Biophysics and Molecular Biology in Calcutta University during 1989-2009.
  3. Professor and Chairman, Department of Biological sciences, IISER-Kolkata since June 2009.


Awards and Honors:
  1. Elected Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.
  2. Elected Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
  3. Elected Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad.


Selected Publications:
  1. R.K.Poddar and C.K.Das Gupta (1973) Ultraviolet reactivation of single stranded DNA phage  ?X 174, Genetics, 74, Jun Supp., 214
  2. C.K.Das Gupta and R.K.Poddar (1975) Ultraviolet reactivation of single stranded DNA phage ?X 174, Mol.Gen.Genet., 139, 77-91
  3. C.K.Das Gupta, A Vrancic and A.Guha (1977) Isolation of biotin operon of Escherichia coli, Gene, 1, 331-339