Ashim Rai, Assistant Professor in the Biological and Life Sciences division of Ahmedabad University's School of Arts and Sciences, has received the highly prestigious DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Intermediate Award supporting his research on Structure-function mapping of Salmonella-host cytoskeleton interactions for five years. Professor Rai is among the few researchers from private research institutions to have been awarded. He said, "I am delighted to receive this prestigious award. My proposed research aims to tackle host-pathogen interactions by implementing biophysical platforms that I have developed with the key goal of understanding the impact of pathogenic factors on cytoskeletal remodelling and transport."
This award to Professor Rai will augment Ahmedabad University's effort in accelerating research in the cluster, Emerging Infectious Diseases. The University has established key clusters of research to address societal problems in a focused manner. Driven by multidisciplinary teams, these clusters impact research, generate new knowledge, facilitate the creation of new teaching programmes, and contribute to student training and outreach in niche areas.
Why the Research is Critical
Impact of the Proposed Research
The key rationale of the project is that the reconstitution and protein conformational biosensors will allow Professor Rai to tease apart the Salmonella-cytoskeleton protein interactions that are key to the hijack of the cytoskeletal network. This project would impact the pathogen biology field by providing an experimental paradigm to dissect structure-function mechanisms of cytoskeletal hijack by any bacterial or viral pathogens.
Understanding host-pathogen interactions remains one of the grand challenges in biology that directly contributes to therapeutic development in addition to deepening our knowledge of biological processes. Professor Rai explained the impact of the research, "Through my proposed research, I aim to bridge the gap between pathogen and cytoskeletal biology fields by building biophysical systems that allow for a single-molecule level dissection of mechanisms invoked by pathogenic factors to modulate host cytoskeletal proteins."