Bio-macromolecular form and function: Insights from NMR

Abstract : Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has, during the last three decades, emerged as one of the most powerful techniques for elucidating high resolution structures of biological macromolecules, on the one hand, and for unraveling structure function relationships, on the other. NMR provides detailed information on internal dynamics in the molecules, which is crucial for executing specific functions. Our group has been engaged in various aspects of this research, and this talk will summarize the important accomplishments over the years.

About the speaker : Prof. Ramakrishna V. Hosur is the Director of UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai, an autonomous institution under DAE and university of Mumbai, and is a Senior Professor at Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. He received his PhD from TIFR in 1978 and worked with Nobel laurites like Prof. Ernst and Prof. Kurt Wuthrich in ETH Zurich. His research interests are focused at the Chemistry-Biology interface, and in particular, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and its application to structure, dynamics and interaction of biological macromolecules. Prof. Hosur’s research covers development of NMR pulse sequences, development of software algorithms for NMR data analysis, protein-DNA recognition, structure and dynamics of DNA quadruplexes, protein folding, structure and dynamics of proteins and their complexes with specites/inhibitors. Prof. Hosur has published over 205 research articles and secured several national and international patents. He has contributed to 3 books. He is the fellow of all three-science academies and is also a fellow of TWAS. He has to his credit, Young Scientist award, B.M. Birla award Prof. G.N. Ramachandran Gold medal and Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Memorial Award, among others. Currently, he is also a JC Bose national fellow.