Dr. Raja Banerjee

Dr. Raja Banerjee, an organic chemist by training, has been working for ~22 years in the area of structural biology towards understanding the sequence-structure-function relationship of proteins and their relevance. With the combined expertise of experimentation (using complementary spectroscopic tools) and computation directed towards answering specific biological questions of interest, his work includes design and characterization of peptides for assessing the ‘protein engineering’ concepts, and the ‘protein folding’ principles. The concepts and observations acquired in his lab have been extended through development of new ideas for structure, function and interaction study with an effort to understand how local motifs (especially ‘anion binding’) contribute to the global function of protein utilizing non-covalent interactions. The central theme of his research expertise is designing therapeutic leads for diseases usually caused by protein folding/misfolding using the structure-based drug design strategy utilizing peptide based motifs.
Dr. Banerjee acted as Visiting Professor in several reputed Institutes within and outside the country (viz. University of Padova, Italy; University of Pune; IBSD, Manipur) and Visiting Scientists in several Premier Research Institutes (viz. Visiting Fellow of JNCASR, Bangalore, IISc, Bangalore, TIFR, Bangalore). He chaired the academic sessions in several International conference and delivered invited lectures in several international, national Conference/Seminar/Workshops within and outside the country. He has published number of research articles in reputed international journals with high impact factor. He is the Coordinator Bioinformatics infrastructural facility, WBUT recognized by DBT since 2008; executive committee member Indian Peptide Society since 2011 and acted as a Member, Coordination Apex Committee: Bioinformatics National Certificate Examination (BINC) (conducted by Department of BioTechnology, Govt. of India) 2009-2012.

Publications: view at Google Scholar

Expertise:
Structural Biology;
Molecular Spectroscopy and Proteomics

Visiting Faculty:
• Department of Chemistry, University of Padova, Italy (April-May, 2012)
• IBSD (a DBT institute), Imphal, Manipur, India (Nov-2012)
• Bioinformatics Centre, University of Pune, India (2008 – 2011)
• Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Kalyani, India (2002-2005)

Visiting Scientist:

 Department of Chemistry, University of Padova, Italy (September, 2016)
 Visiting Fellow of JNCASR, Bangalore, at MBU, IISc, Bangalore 2008-2009
 Indian Academy of Science-INSA-NASI nominated research fellow at Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc, Bangalore, 2008 (June-July) associated with Prof. P. Balaram
 Visiting scientist in the Dept. of Chemical Sciences, TIFR, Mumbai, 2006 (June-July)

Collaboration:
a) Department of Chemistry. University of Padova, Italy
b) Molecular Biophysics Unit; CDS Department and Bioinformatics Centre, IISc, Bangalore
c) Department of Chemical Science, TIFR, Mumbai
d) Department of Biophysics, Bose Institute, Kokata, India
e) HGU and ASU at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata
f) NCCS, Pune
g) Department of Chemical Science, S.N. Bose Institute, Kokata, India


Research Projects

On-going Project as Principal Investigator
i. Title: Understanding protein folding and ligand binding through study of peptide motif “NEST”
Sanctioned amount: Rs. 25.66 lakhs; Funding agency: Dept of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India

ii. Title: Study of recognition of arsenite and arsenate by designed anion-binding peptide scaffolds – implication towards removal of arsenic contamination
Sanctioned amount: Rs. ~15 lakhs (Status: Fund to be received); Funding agency: West Bengal State Council of Science &Technology (Recipient of Swami Vivekananda Research Grant Award for 2014)

iii. Coordinator of BIF-DBT at WBUT under BTIS net progremme (amount between Rs. 8- 15 lakhs, sanctioned yearly) Thrust area: Structural Biogy



Completed Project as Principal Investigator:
Title: Design of ‘anion recognition’ short peptide motifs: an approach towards designing ‘model scaffolds’ for binding. (Thrust Area: Structural Biology)
Sanctioned amount: Rs. 24 lakhs; Funding agency: Dept of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. (2008-2012)



Number of student awarded PhD: Two
Number of student pursuing PhD Thesis: Five
Number of students completed MSc/MTech project : Eleven

Service to professional publications: Acted as reviewer for number of peer reviewed journals

Coordinator
BIF-DBT (Bioinformatics infrastructural facility, WBUT) since 2008

Member
Coordination Apex Committee: BINC Exam (conducted by DBT) 2009-2010

Contact
: ban_raja@yahoo.com