Jayant B. Udgaonkar

Jayant B. Udgaonkar
Born	(1960-03-22) 22 March 1960 (age 64) Maharashtra, India
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	St. Xavier's College, Mumbai (University of Mumbai) IIT Chennai Cornell University Stanford University
Known for	Studies on Protein folding
Awards	1996 Birla Biology Award 2000  Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2011  IITM Distinguished Alumnus Award 2011  CSIR G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal
Scientific career
Fields	Physical biochemistry
Institutions	Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune Tata Institute of Fundamental Research National Centre for Biological Sciences
Doctoral advisor	George P. Hess Robert Lesh Baldwin

Jayant Bhalchandra Udgaonkar (born 22 March 1960) is an Indian biochemist, molecular biologist, and academic at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He is the former Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, ^{[1] [2]} and was previously a senior professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. ^[3] A J.C. Bose National Fellow, he is known for his studies on protein folding. ^[4] He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, ^[5] Indian National Science Academy ^[6] and The World Academy of Sciences. ^[7] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2000, for his contributions to biological sciences. ^[8] He is the son of noted scientist Padmabhushan Bhalchandra Udgaonkar. ^[9]

Biography

Results of protein folding.

Jayant Udgaonkar, born on 22 March 1960 in the Indian state of Maharashtra, did his graduate studies in chemistry at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai during 1976–79 and secured his master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai in 1981. ^[10] Moving to Cornell University, he completed his doctoral studies under the guidance of George P. Hess to obtain a PhD for his thesis on acetylcholine receptor in 1986 after which did his post-doctoral studies under Robert Lesh Baldwin at Stanford University during 1986–89. ^[6] Returning to India, he joined National Centre for Biological Sciences of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research as a reader in 1990 and has been serving as a senior professor since 2007. In between, he held the positions of an associate professor (1995–98), Dean (1997–2008), Head of Administration (1997–2008), Head of Research (1997–2008), Head of Technical Services (1998–2000) and a professor (1998–2007) at the institute and served as an honorary faculty member at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in 1999. ^[10] On 1 November 2017, he became the Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, succeeding Prof. Krishna N. Ganesh. ^[11]

Legacy

During his doctoral studies at Cornell University, Udgaonkar is known to have developed a protocol for rapid chemical kinetic studies at the cell surface. ^[6] Later, while pursuing his post-doctoral studies, he developed methodologies for hydrogen exchange using Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for exploring the intermediates populating protein folding pathways. Furthering his Stanford studies on protein folding at NCBS, he propounded the theory that initial hydrophobic collapse is the first stage in protein folding, which he demonstrated using a model protein barstar and elucidated the various transition stages of protein folding and unfolding. ^[12] He has also demonstrated that, contrary to the general understanding that a single dominant barrier slows down the protein folding, several distributed small barriers can also influence the reaction. ^[6] His current work focuses on formation of amyloid fibrils and his research has shown multiple pathways of aggregation in the formation of amyloid fibrils of different morphologies. ^[13]

Udgaonkar has published a number of articles in peer reviewed journals detailing his researches, ^{[note 1]} Google Scholar and ResearchGate, two online repositories of scientific articles, have listed several of them. ^{[14] [15]} A former guest editor of the Current Opinion in Structural Biology of Elsevier (2013 and 2015) and a former editorial board member of Folding and Design (1996–98), he is an associate editor of the Biochemistry journal ^[10] and a member of the editorial board of Protein Engineering, Design and Selection (since 2003), an Oxford journal. ^[16] He is also a member of the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network since 2001 and has mentored several scholars in their doctoral researches. ^[6]

Awards and honors

Udgaonkar, who stood first in the BSc chemistry examinations of the University of Mumbai in 1979, received several scholarships and research fellowships including the National Merit Scholarship of the Government of India, Merit Scholarship of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research fellowship, Biotechnology Career Fellowship of Rockefeller Foundation, Golden Jubilee Biotechnology fellowship of the Department of Biotechnology, Swarnajayanti fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology and Senior Research fellowship of Wellcome Trust and is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology, the tenancy of the fellowship running from 2007 till 2017. ^[10] He received the Birla Award in Biology in 1996 and the Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1997. ^[5] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2000. ^[8] He became an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 2002 and The World Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 2007. ^[7]

Selected bibliography

• Sabareesan Ambadi Thody, Jayant B Udgaonkar (August 2016). "Pathogenic Mutations within the Disordered Palindromic Region of the Prion Protein Induce Structure Therein and Accelerate the Formation of Misfolded Oligomers". Journal of Molecular Biology. 428 (20): 3935–3947. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2016.08.015. PMID   27545411.
• Pooja Malhotra, Jayant B Udgaonkar (August 2016). "How cooperative are protein folding and unfolding transitions?: Cooperativity in protein folding/unfolding reactions". Protein Science. 25 (11): 1924–1941. doi:10.1002/pro.3015. PMC   5079258 . PMID   27522064.
• Rama Reddy Goluguri, Jayant B Udgaonkar (June 2016). "Microsecond Rearrangements of Hydrophobic Clusters in an Initially Collapsed Globule Prime Structure Formation during the Folding of a Small Protein". Journal of Molecular Biology. 428 (15): 3102–3117. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2016.06.015. PMID   27370109.
• Singh, Jogender; Kumar, Harish; Sabareesan, Ambadi T.; Udgaonkar, Jayant B. (3 December 2014). "Rational Stabilization of Helix 2 of the Prion Protein Prevents Its Misfolding and Oligomerization". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 136 (48): 16704–16707. doi:10.1021/ja510964t. ISSN   0002-7863. PMID   25407394.
• Zaidi, Faisal N.; Nath, Utpal; Udgaonkar, Jayant B. (December 1997). "Multiple intermediates and transition states during protein unfolding". Nature Structural Biology. 4 (12): 1016–1024. doi:10.1038/nsb1297-1016. ISSN   1072-8368. PMID   9406552. S2CID   1692527.
• Vishwas R Agashe, Jayant B Udgaonkar (March 1995). "Thermodynamics of denaturation of barstar: evidence for cold denaturation and evaluation of the interaction with guanidine hydrochloride". Biochemistry. 34 (10): 3286–99. doi:10.1021/bi00010a019. PMID   7880824.
• Ritu Khurana, Jayant B Udgaonkar (January 1994). "Equilibrium unfolding studies of barstar: evidence for an alternative conformation which resembles a molten globule". Biochemistry. 33 (1): 106–115. doi:10.1021/bi00167a014. PMID   8286327.
• Jayant B Udgaonkar, Robert L Baldwin (November 1990). "Early folding intermediate of ribonuclease A." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 87 (21): 8197–8201. Bibcode:1990PNAS...87.8197U. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.21.8197 . PMC   54922 . PMID   2236032.

See also

• Protein folding
• Amyloid
• Barstar
• Acetylcholine receptor

• India portal
• Biology portal

Notes

1. Please see Selected bibliography section

References

1. Nair, Ardhra. "New IISER director points at lack of funding for research". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
2. "Government clears appointment of top officials of four IIMs, IISER". Hindustan Times. 19 September 2017.
3. "Prof. Jayant B. Udgaonkar on NCBS". National Centre for Biological Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
4. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
5. "Fellow profile - Udgaonkar". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
6. "Indian fellow - Udgaonkar". Indian National Science Academy. 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
7. "TWAS fellow". TWAS. 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
8. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
9. Phondke, Bal; Sheth, Parul R.; Naik-Satam, Suhas; Deshpande, A.P. (2007). B.M. Udgaonkar: Eminent Scientist and Educationist (PDF). Mumbai: National Center for Science Communication; Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Communication.
10. "Profile on NCBS" (PDF). National Centre for Biological Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
11. "Director". IISER Pune. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
12. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
13. "Summary of Achievements" (PDF). SERB. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
14. "Jayant Udgaonkar on Google Scholar". Author profile. Google Scholar. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
15. "Jayant Udgaonkar on ResearchGate". Author profile. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
16. "Editorial Office". Oxford Journals. 2016. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.

External links

• "Jayant Udgaonkar, Ph.D. on Chemistry Tree". Scientist profile. Chemistry Tree. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.