Current research projects 

Make your own genes

Broadly speaking, three types of functional DNA sequences exist: one that encode proteins, another that encodes only RNA (non-coding DNA) and third that does not transcribe at all (NOT coding / non expressing DNA). Historically people have paid a lot of attention to the protein coding genes. For the last two decades, non-coding RNA biology has taken the center stage. However, the role of not-coding DNA (the dark matter of genome) is still unknown. 

We asked a simple question: Why did nature allocate protein coding and RNA coding jobs to a specific set of sequences. Did she sample all possibilities, retained good results, retired not-so-relevant results (pseudogenes) and left some genome sequences untouched. To address this issue, we have developed a novel approach for designing lab made genes towards therapeutic applications (anti cancer, anti microbial molecules).

Relevant publications 


5.  P.R.Shidhi, Prashanth Suravajhala, Aysha Nayeema, Achuthsankar S. Nair, Shailja Singh and Pawan K. Dhar.
     Making novel proteins from pseudogenes. Bioinformatics. 2015: 31(1):33-9.

4.  Navya Raj, Agnes Helen, N. Manoj, Harish G., Vipin Thomas, Shailja Singh, Seema Sehrawat, Shaguna Seth,
     Achuthsankar S. Nair, Pawan K. Dhar. In silico study of peptide inhibitors against BACE 1. Sys. Synth.
     Biol. J. 2015 9: 67-72

3. Krishnan R, Vinod Kumar, Vivek Ananth, Shailja Singh, Achuthsankar S. Nair, Pawan K. Dhar. Computational
    identification of novel microRNAs and their targets in the malarial vector. Anopheles stephensi.
    Sys & Synth.Biol J 2015: 9: 11-7.

2. Joshi M, SV Kundapura, T Poovaiah, K Ingle, PK Dhar. Discovering Novel Anti-Malarial peptides from the
    Not-coding Genome - A Working Hypothesis. Curr Synth Sys Biol  2013, 1:1  

1. Dhar PK et al. Synthesizing non-natural parts from natural genomic template. J. Biol. Engg.  2009: 3, 2