Muhsin Vannan Chalil
Current Research
Dengue virus membrane fusion.
We study membrane fusion carried out by enveloped RNA virus namely Dengue virus. The membrane fusion and kinetics that happens during the Dengue viral infection in the endosome of the cell is poorly understood. A better understanding of the same can help in future drug discovery, inhibition etc. I work in Prof. Rahul Roy's group at IISc and seek to unravel the mysteries in this realm.
Artificial Model Membrane
The development, characterization and applications of an easy-to-fabricate lipid bilayer membrane platform.
Past Research
Electrocatalytic water splitting
In present times, there is a sharp rise in interest towards eschewing fossil fuels and promotion of clean and sustainable energy. Primarily, to abate effects of anthropogenic CO2 levels driving us towards global warming crisis and an imminent exhaustion of world oil reserves.
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At this point Hydrogen economy comes into the game. Hydrogen is regarded as the next generation of clean fuel considering the storage capabilities, high energy density, ease of handling and transportation and environmental aspects. However, this can only be utilized if there exist clean production methods, wherein, photochemical, photoelectrochemical or electrochemical splitting of water is the most plausible choice. I worked to develop electrode materials for both the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). The work is done under the guidance of Dr. M M Shaijumon at IISER Trivandrum.
Synthesis of tetrazole molecules for potential biological drug applications
A bioisostere is a molecule resulting from the exchange of an atom or of a group of atoms with an alternative. The objective of a bioisosteric replacement is to create a new molecule with similar biological properties to the parent compound with some tweaked properties. In this work I have replaced carboxylic group with tetrazole group. The benefit of such a replacement is that tetrazoles are not found in nature and hence biological breakdown is slow leaving the molecule in active in the system for longer.
In this work I have synthesised 4,6-tetrazol-alpha-methyl-D-glucopyranoside and 4,6-tetrazol-β-methyl-D-glucopyranoside. I am not going into depths and breadths of the synthesis but I hope to point out that I have decent experience in organic synthesis. The work was done in Prof. Kana M Sureshan lab at IISER Thiruvananthapuram.
Study of DNA translocation through glass nanopores for potential sequencing application.
When we have a orifice with a crossectional area through which ions are passing to conduct electricity. A large molecule or any material in its path that obstruct and reduces the available surface area for current to pass then there will be a dip in current corresponding to the effective cross section that is now unavailable this principle is called colter current mechanism.
So what we do is we make conical nanopores by pulling quartz or borosilicate capillaries. Then we allow DNA in KCl solution to migrate through the pore. The aim of conducting the experiment is to measure the difference in current dip patterns over time in forward and reverse translocation of DNA through the nanopore. This project was done under the guidance of Prof. G V Soni in Raman Research institute.