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Department of Veterinary Medicine

Cambridge Veterinary School
 

Biography

Being interested in how the biological machine works, I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Zoology (H) from Calcutta University, India, (2005) and then a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Bangalore University, India, (2007). I then went on to study transcriptional biology of the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis for my PhD from Institute of Microbial Technology-CSIR, India, (2013).

During the next phase of my research career as a post-doctoral fellow, I joined the lab of Dr James Locke in 2013, at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, to study the single cell transcriptional dynamics of cyanobacteria. I joined Prof Clare Bryant’s group in 2017 to study the process of host pathogen interaction in Salmonella infection.

 

Research

My primary research interest lies in deciphering the mechanism of host pathogen interaction in infection. I am interested in understanding how the pathogenic bacteria respond and adapt to the host defences and how the host defends itself from ever evolving bacteria. I am interested in understanding what role phenotypic heterogeneity plays in deciding the fate of infections. I want to study the host pathogen interactions in the light of phenotypic heterogeneity and devise novel intervention strategies.

Publications

Key publications: 

-       Das, AK+, Pathak, A+, Sinha, A., Datt, M., Singh, B., Karthikeyan, S. and Sarkar, D. A single amino acid substitution in the C terminus of PhoP determines DNA binding specificity of the virulence-associated response regulator from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J. Mol. Biol. (2010) 398, 647–656.

-       Goyal R+, Das AK+, Singh R, Singh PK, Korpole S, Sarkar D. Phosphorylation of PhoP plays direct regulatory role in lipid biosynthesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Biol Chem. (2011). 286:45197-208.

-       Das AKKumar VA, Sevalkar RR, Bansal R, Sarkar D. Unique N-terminal arm of Mycobacterium tuberculosis PhoP plays an unusual role in its regulatory function. J Biol Chem. (2013). 288:29182-92

-       Singh R, Kumar VA, Das AKBansal R, Sarkar D. A transcriptional co-repressor regulatory circuit controlling the heat-shock response of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mol Microbiol. (2014).94:450-65.

-       Martins BMC+, Das AK+, Locke JCW.   Frequency doubling in the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Mol Sys Biol (2016). 12 (12) 896.

(+ Equal contribution)

 

Dr Arijit Kumar  Das
Research associate

Contact Details

Email address: 
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Collaborator profiles: 
Classifications: 
Specialities: 
Person keywords: 
Host-pathogen interaction
Host pathogen interaction
Phenotypic heterogeneity
Systems Biology
Salmonella