Research

Phd Project

Towards enhancing electron transfer between electroactive microorganisms and electrodes My PhD research primarily centers on discovering new materials suitable for electrode fabrication in a range of bioelectrochemical systems (BES), such as microbial three-electrode systems or microbial fuel cells. This involves enhancing conventional electrode materials with conductive polymers, employing patterning techniques to generate diverse surface designs, and facilitating the self-assembly of nanoparticles on the electrode. These efforts aim to boost the electrode's conductivity, hydrophilicity, and surface area. Exploring different BES systems using computational tools and mathematical modelling to determine optimising parameters theoretically before implementing them in practical systems. I will employ various software tools, such as COMSOL, Material Studio, and bioinformatics tools like molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, to better understand the extracellular electron transfer mechanism and the associated proteins. This knowledge can help me identify new directions to enhance electron transfer pathways.

Other Phd Projects

I have been involved in two subprojects:

1. Boosting the bio-electrode: electroactive biofilms enhanced with electrochemically deposited nanomaterials (Hebrew University of Jerusalem-IITD collaborative funded project)
2. Design of self-assembled electrodes for enhanced microbial electron transfer in bioelectrochemical systems (DBT-funded project)

Master's Project

Understanding and characterization of BlaA beta-lactamase from

Yersinia enterocolitica

The accidental discovery of the antibiotic penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming was termed a significant breakthrough in the history of humanity. What started as a revolutionary approach to treating diseases is now a cause for concern. Antimicrobial resistance is predicted to become one of the leading causes of death worldwide by 2050. One of the fundamental mechanisms responsible for antimicrobial resistance is the production of beta-lactamases. Therefore, understanding these enzymes and characterising them becomes of utmost importance for developing new drugs against them. This project involves in-vitro as well as in-silico characterization of two of these beta-lactamases: BlaA from Yersinia enterocolitica and MAB from Mycobacterium abscessus. BlaA was purified, followed by biochemical and biophysical characterization using steady-state kinetics, inhibition kinetics, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and structure determination through X-ray diffraction.

Summer Internship Project

In-silico characterization of MAB beta-lactamase from Mycobacterium

abscessus

In-silico techniques were used for sequence analysis, structure-based analysis, phylogenetic analysis, molecular docking, and dynamic studies for MAB beta-lactamase variants to get a better understanding of how the different variants evolve and the conservative residues that can be targeted to render these enzymes ineffective so as to improve our combating strategies for developing novel antibiotics against them.