Dr. Manish Datt is an assistant professor at Division of Biological & Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University since April 2015. For the doctoral research, he joined Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, in 2004 to do research in the field of Bioinformatics. After completing his interdisciplinary education in life science and computational science, he moved to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA to acquire post-doctoral training from 2010 to 2012. In 2012 he returned to join as a research scientist at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He has been a visiting assistant professor at Olin College of Engineering from Jan-May 2017. Dr. Datt is actively involved in development and implementation of project-based courses at Ahmedabad University. 
Dr Datt has broad training in life sciences, bioinformatics, and computational biophysics. He has extensive experience in simulating dynamics of macromolecules and their complexes using all-atom molecular mechanic force-fields. He has strong expertise in protein structure analyses and modeling interaction of proteins with other biomolecules. During postdoctoral research, he assiduously investigated pharmaceutically important proteins using molecular modeling and docking methods. He has successfully completed project on Hidden Markov Model based genome annotation for identification of potential drug targets in fungal pathogens. In addition, he has developed an algorithmic workflow for annotation of disease-associated mutations in human proteins. He has proficiency in scientific programming and high performance computing under different platforms. Dr Datt has authored 20 publications in international journals and also has one US patent.
Dr Datt’s research is focused on the application and development of in silico tools for translational therapeutic research. One of the thrust areas of the lab is to understand structure and dynamics of proteins using structural bioinformatics and computational biophysics methods. Development of tools for annotation of disease-associated mutations in the human genome is also being pursued in his lab.

• Molecular modelling and docking
• Bioinformatics
• Data Science

1. Datt M and Sharma A. Evolutionary and structural annotation for disease-associated mutation in human aminoacyltRNA synthetases. BMC Genomics. 2014 Dec 4;15:1063.
2. Datt M and Sharma A. Novel and unique domains in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases from human fungal pathogens Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. BMC Genomics. 2014 Dec 5;15:1069.
3. Datt M and Sharma A. Conformational landscape of the ATP recognition loop in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. J Struct Funct Genomics. 2014 Jun;15(2):45-61.
4. Aneja R, Datt M, Yadav S, Sahni G.Multiple Exosites Distributed across the Three Domains of Streptokinase Co-Operate to Generate High Catalytic Rates in the Streptokinase-Plasmin Activator Complex. Biochemistry.2013 Dec 10;52(49):8957-68.
5. Mbonye UR, Gokulrangan G, Datt M, Dobrowolski C, Cooper M, Chance MR, Karn J. Phosphorylation of CDK9 at Ser175 enhances HIV transcription and is a marker of activated PTEFb in CD4(+) T lymphocytes. PLoS Pathog. 2013;9(5):e1003338.
6. Kumar S, Kasturia N, Sharma A, Datt M, Bachhawat AK. Redox-dependent stability of the γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase enzyme of Escherichia coli: a novel means of redox regulation. Biochem J. 2013 Feb 1;449(3):783-94.
7. Anand S, Singh V, Singh AK, Mittal M, Datt M, Subramani B, Kumaran S. Equilibrium binding and kinetic characterization of putative tetracycline repressor family transcription regulator Fad35R from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. FEBS J. 2012 Sep;279(17):3214-28.
8. Biswas D, Datt M, Aggarwal M, Mondal AK. Molecular cloning, characterization and engineering of Xylitol Dehydrogenase from Debaryomyces hansenii. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2012 Apr 11.
9. Kiselar JG, Datt M, Chance MR, Weiss MA. Structural analysis of proinsulin hexamer assembly by hydroxyl radical footprinting and computational modeling. J Biol Chem. 2011 Dec 23;286(51):43710-6.
10. Yadav S, Aneja R, Kumar P, Datt M, Sinha S, Sahni G. Identification through combinatorial random and rational mutagenesis of a substrate-interacting exosite in the gamma domain of streptokinase. J Biol Chem. 2011 Feb 25;286(8):6458-69.
11. Kaur H, Datt M, Ekka MK, Mittal M, Singh AK, Kumaran S. Cys-Gly specific dipeptidase Dug1p from S. cerevisiae binds promiscuously to di-, tri-, and tetrapeptides: Peptide-protein interaction, homology modeling, and activity studies reveal a latent promiscuity in substrate recognition. Biochimie. 2011 Feb;93(2):175-86.
12. Biswas D, Datt M, Ganesan K, Mondal AK. Cloning and characterization of thermotolerant xylitol dehydrogenases from yeast Pichia angusta. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2010 Dec;88(6):1311-20.
13. Das AK, Pathak A, Sinha A, Datt M, Singh B, Karthikeyan S, 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 May 21;398(5):647-56.
14. Aneja R, Datt M, Singh B, Kumar S, Sahni G. Identification of a new exosite involved in catalytic turnover by the streptokinase-plasmin activator complex during human plasminogen activation. J Biol Chem. 2009 Nov 20;284(47):32642-50.
15. Yadav S, Datt M, Singh B, Sahni G.Role of the 88-97 loop in plasminogen activation by streptokinase probed through site-specific mutagenesis. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2008 Sep;1784(9):1310-8.
16. Saxena R, Kanudia P, Datt M, Dar HH, Karthikeyan S, Singh B, Chakraborti PK. Three consecutive arginines are important for the mycobacterial peptide deformylase enzyme activity. J Biol Chem. 2008 Aug 29;283(35):23754-64.
17. Kapoor D, Kumar V, Chandrayan S, Ahmd S, Sharma S, Datt M, Singh B, Karthikeyan S, Guptasarma P. Replacement of the active surface of a thermophile protein by that of a homologous mesophile protein through structure-guided ‘protein surface grafting’. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2008 Nov;1784(11):1771-6.

Courses taught at DBLS:
Basics of Bioinformatics 
Computational Structural Biology
Introduction to programming
Course(s) taught at SEAS:
Bioinformatics
Course(s) taught across AU:
Human Microbiome - Friendly Bacteria
Independent Study Program