At present, I am actively involved in biomedical research in diseases of national interest including genetic disorders and life-style modification diseases including Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia and Type 2 Diabetes using published GWAS data using systems biology and structural bioinformatics approach. The post-GWAS analysis of genes associated with Type 2 diabetes and effect of non-synonymous SNPs on the structure-function of proteins provides new approach towards underpinning plausible genetic heritability to T2D (Dehury et al., 2017, Current Bioinformatics 12:156-170). In addition, I am also involved understanding the catalytic mechanisms of protein kinases of malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (Dehury et al., 2017; J Mol Graph Model 71:154-166). I am also involved in structure-function, docking, drug designing, site-directed mutagenesis, molecular dynamics simulation and binding free energy estimation of key drug targets of Mycobacterium tuberculosis towards development of isoniazid (INH) derivatives as novel therapy to treat MDR TB. Apart from these, I am also dealing with analysis of NGS data especially RNA-Seq data (cervical cancer) generated at ICMR-RMRC, Bhubaneswar. I have developed few novel therapeutic peptides against Kala Azar (Dikhit et al., 2017; Frontiers in Immunology 8:1763; Dikhit et al., 2017; J Cell Biochem. 9999:1–14), dengue, Japanese encephalitis and other neglected tropical diseases.

Setting up of lab facility for the implementation of the project in the department

Conducting hands-on training programs and workshops related to bioinformatics for the department