Department of Biophysics
The biophysics department was one of the first to be formed in a medical setup in India and continues to be at the top of India's academics and research. The academic curriculum of the department includes doctoral (Ph.D.) and postgraduate (M.Sc., M.D.) courses. The department receives extramural research funding from various government agencies like DST, DBT, ICMR, DHR, CSIR, etc. as well as intramural funding.
The department focuses on several key research areas: Protein structure and drug designing, Biomarker discovery, pathophysiology, and novel diagnostics & therapeutics of different diseases.
Protein structure-function relationships to gain detailed insights into their biological roles and use the relevant protein structures as targets for designing new drug molecules using a rational structure-based approach. The understanding of molecular and biophysical mechanisms of various pathologies utilizing cutting-edge technologies. The roles of p53 and alike key molecular pathways; electrophysiological studies in drug-resistant epilepsy; understanding the roles of exosomes in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and cancers; and infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss are some of the key areas where the department emphasizes understanding underlying pathophysiology. The research emphasis is on finding novel diagnostics and therapeutics approaches for various pathologies e.g., Cancer, Neurological and Heart diseases, Infectious diseases, Infertility, etc. In finding novel diagnostics strategies, research work in the department focuses on Biomarker Discovery by Comparative Proteomics analysis including Multi-Omics Analyses, and Exosomes based early detection of various diseases. Also, in search of new therapeutics, foremost is Drug Discovery and Designing including specific and potent small molecules and Aptamer inhibitory molecules, Antibody-like inhibitors (Nanobodies)
The department has a state-of-the-art X-ray crystallography facility with other scientific instrumentations like SPR-based technologies for protein-protein interactions, Peptide Synthesizer, Robotic Nano Dispenser for Crystallization, AKTA Pure Chromatography System, CD Spectroscopy, Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscope with Microscope, Cellular electrophysiology facility, etc.
