Dr. Aloke Das
Professor,Chemistry

IISER Pune

Research Area

  • Gas phase laser spectroscopy, Non-covalent interactions in biomolecules
  • The major focus of the research group is on molecular level understanding of various weak non-covalent interactions which govern the structures as well as the functions of biomolecules and materials.
  • They employ isolated gas phase laser spectroscopy techniques combined with quantum chemistry calculations to obtain intrinsic knowledge on the physical nature, strength, and binding motifs of these weak interactions.
  • Lab is equipped with mass elected Resonant 2-Photon Ionization (R2PI) and IR-UV double resonance spectroscopy in a home-built spectrometer coupled with supersonic jet-cooling, laser desorption, resonantly enhanced multi photon ionization and Time of Flight mass spectrometry. Quantum chemistry calculations are exploited to interpret the data obtained from gas phase spectroscopy.

Dr. Prasad Padmakar Kulkarni
Scientist E

Aghakar Research Institute, Pune

Research Interest

Alzheimer’s disease, Inorganic Biochemistry, Natural products, Chemical Biology

  • The team is working on understanding the role of transition metals especially Cu, Fe, Zn and Pt in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
  • The research focus is to understand the physiologically relevant metal ions with Aβ1-16 peptide to study the oxidation patterns and electrochemical behavior of metallated Aβ peptide. The metal ions are known to bind Aβ peptide modulating the aggregation mechanism and formation of oligomers.
  • The team evaluates effect of a range of bioactive molecules on inhibition of Aβ peptide fibrillization in vitro.
  • The team is also working on hepcidin measurement as a possible indicator to assess the iron status in adolescent girls from socioeconomic class.

Dr. Pratibha Srivastava
Scientist C

Aghakar Research Institute, Pune

Research Interest

Synthetic and natural product chemistry

Research interest is focused on synthetic and natural product chemistry. The group is working in design and synthesize of new bioactive molecules by new routes for anti-diabetic, antioxidant, antiviral, hepatoprotective, antibacterial and anticancer activity. They also deal with isolation, purification and characterization of natural product molecules such as proteins and secondary metabolites. The focus is also on natural product molecules which play important role in biology and medicine, serving as pharmaceutical leads, drugs, and powerful reagents in the area of scientific research. The group is interested to develop new molecules based on naturally active pharmacophores.

Dr. Chetan Kapadnis

Associate Professor & Dean

Vishwakarma University

Research Area

  • Chetan is currently the Director for – Internal Quality Assurance Cell and Dean for 3 disciplines – Humanities & Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary Studies, Media & Communication at VU.
  • Chetan is on a constant Mission to work with students & institutions leading them towards the path of growth & innovation. He has built his expertise in the areas of Teaching, Strategic Planning, Administrative Management, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Research & Innovation across various domains.