Infectious Diseases Division

Overview

Division of Infectious diseases is involved in various institutional drug discovery programmes with prime focus on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Gram negative and Gram-positive bacteria, Leishmania donovani as well as viruses. Identification of novel drug like molecules followed by hit to lead optimization is the major focus of the division. Mechanism of antibiotic resistance, discovery of new drug targets, development of drug screening assays and diagnostic assays as well as understanding mechanisms of host-microbe interactions, including those of phytopathogens are other interests of the division

Vision & Mission

Identification of novel chemical scaffolds and drug targets for anti-tuberculosis, anti-bacterial, anti-protozoan and anti-viral activity.
Establishing new drug discovery platforms for high throughput screen for finding new and potent drugs against the resistant strains of bacterial pathogens.

Competencies

Screening of chemical libraries for identification of novel chemical scaffold as anti-infective agent.
Identification and characterization of novel drug target for drug discovery.
Assay development

Research Facilities

Biosafety Level-3 facility

Clinical Microbiology Division encompasses a State-of-the-art Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) facility for handling and experimentation with hazard group III pathogens. The facility fully complies with the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) guidelines. This facility consists of two in-vitro experimentation labs and one animal handling (mice & guinea pigs) for in-vivo experimentations.

The facility is fully equipped with Biosafety cabinets, incubators, centrifuges, deep freezers, CO2 incubators and has two double door autoclaves for handlings of the hazardous waste generated while working on pathogens.

Molecular Biology

The facility is well equipped with PCR machines, Real-Time PCR, Electrophoresis systems, Gel Documentation systems, Gene pulsar and other such lab equipment for molecular biology work. PCR amplification, gene cloning, native enzyme purification and differential gene expression are some of the experimentations routinely performed in this facility.

Anti-infective research facility

We are actively working on plant based and synthetic pharmacophores with anti-infective activity against M. tuberculosis, L. donovani, gram negative and gram-positive bacteria. A large collection of bacterial, fungal, protozoan and M. tuberculosis clinical isolates is available for extensive evaluation of compounds.

People/Research Group

Name	Designation
Dr. Sumit G. Gandhi	Head & Sr. Principal Scientist
Dr. Avisek Mahapa	Sr. Scientist
Dr. Kuljit Singh	Scientist
Dr. Rashmi Sharma	Scientist
Mr. Rajinder Kumar	Principal Technical Officer

Ongoing Projects

Development of Nutraceutical Products from Algae
Understanding the physiological role of forskolin in Coleus forskohlii
Deciphering the mechanism(s) of host-endophytes coevolution, enhanced secondary metabolite production and crop productivity
Testing of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in human clinical samples

Publications

Authors	Title	Journal
Rashmi Sharma, Rani Chitra, Mehra Rukmankesh, Nargotra Amit, Chib Reena, Rajput S. Vikrant, Kumar Sunil, Singh Samsher, Sharma R. Parduman, and Khan A. Inshad	Identification and characterization of novel small molecule inhibitors of the acetyltransferase activity of Escherichia coli N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate-uridyltransferase/glucosamine-1-phosphate-acetyltransferase (GlmU)	Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 100, 3071-3085 (2016)
Rashmi Sharma, Lambu Rao Mallikharjuna, Jamwal Urmila, Rani Chitra, Chib Reena, Wazir Priya, Mukherjee Debaraj, Chaubey Asha, Khan A. Inshad	Escherichia coli N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate-uridyltransferase/glucosamine-1-phosphate-acetyltransferase (GlmU) inhibitory activity of terreic acid isolated from Aspergillus terreus.	Journal of biomolecular screening, 21, 342-353, (2016)
Rashmi Sharma and Khan A. Inshad	Mechanism and Potential Inhibitors of GlmU: A Novel Target for Antimicrobial Drug Discovery.	Current Drug Targets (2016)
Kuljit Singh, Krishn Pratap Singh, Asif Equbal, Shashi S. Suman, Amir Zaidi, Gaurav Garg, Krishna Pandey, Pradeep Das and Vahab Ali	Interaction between cysteine synthase and serine O-acetyltransferase proteins and their stage specific expression in Leishmania donovani	Biochimie, 131, 29-44 (2016)
Kuljit Singh, Gaurav Garg and Vahab Ali	Current therapeutics, their problems and thiol metabolism as potential drug targets in leishmaniasis	Current Drug Metabolism, 17, 897-919 (2016)
Kuljit Singh, Vahab Ali, Krishn Pratap Singh, Parool Gupta, Shashi S. Suman, Ayan K. Ghosh, Sanjiva Bimal, Krishna Pandey and Pradeep Das	Deciphering the interplay between cysteine synthase and thiol cascade proteins in modulating Amphotericin B resistance and survival of Leishmania donovani under oxidative stress	Redox Biology, 12, 350-366 (2017).
Archana Katoch, Vijay Lakshmi Jamwal, Mir Mohd. Faheem, Sriram Kumar, Shantibhusan Senapati, Govind Yadav, Sumit G. Gandhi* and Anindya Goswami*	Overlapping targets exist between the Par-4 and miR-200c axis which regulate EMT and proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells	Translational Oncology 14:100879 (2021)
Mohd Asgher, Sajad Ahmed, Zebus Sehar, Harsha Gautam, Sumit G. Gandhi and Nafees A. Khan*	Hydrogen peroxide modulates activity and expression of antioxidant enzymes and protects photosynthetic activity from arsenic damage in rice (Oryza sativa L.)	Journal of Hazardous Materials 401: 123365 (2021)
Mir Mohd Faheem, Narthan D. Seligson, Syed Mudabir Ahmad, Reyaz Ur Rasool, Sumit G. Gandhi, Madhulika Bhagat and Anindya Goswami*	Convergence of therapy-induced senescence (TIS) and EMT in multistep carcinogenesis: currentopinions and emerging perspectives	Cell Death Discovery 6:51 (2020)
Mir Mohd Faheem, Reyaz Ur Rasool, Syed Mudabir Ahmad, Vijay Lakshmi Jamwal, Sauneek Chakraborty, Archana Katoch, Sumit G. Gandhi, Madhulika Bhagat and Anindya Goswami*	Par-4 mediated Smad4 induction in PDAC cells restores canonical TGF-β/Smad4 axis driving the cells towards lethal EMT	European Journal of Cell Biology 99: 151076 (2020)
Vikas kumar, Sonali S. Bharate, Deendyal Bhurta, Mehak Gupta, Sumit G. Gandhi, Deepika Singh, Sundeep Jaglan, Ajay Kumar, Ram A. Vishwakarma and Sandip B. Bharate*	Evaluation of rohitukine-enriched fraction of Dysoxylum binectariferum Hook.f. (leaves) as Anti-arthritic Phytopharmaceutical Candidate: Chemical Standardization, In-vivo validation, Formulation Development and Oral Pharmacokinetics	Journal of Ethnopharmacology 254:112758 (2020)
Ntemafack Augustin, Vijay K. Nuthakki, Mohd Abdullaha, Qazi Parvaiz Hassan, Sumit G. Gandhi and Sandip B. Bharate*	Discovery of Helminthosporin, an Anthraquinone Isolated from Rumex abyssinicus Jacq as a Dual Cholinesterase Inhibitor	ACS OMEGA 5(3):1616-1624 (2020)
Shagun Bali, Vijay Lakshmi Jamwal, Sukhmeen Kaur Kohli, Parminder Kaur, Ruchi Tejpal, Vandana Bhalla, Puja Ohri, *Sumit G.Gandhi,** Renu Bhardwaj, Asma A.Al-Huqail, Manzer H.Siddiqui, Hayssam M.Ali, Parvaiz Ahmad	Jasmonic acid application triggers detoxification of lead (Pb) toxicity in tomato through the modifications of secondary metabolites and gene expression	Chemosphere 235: 734-748 (2019)
Khanna K, Jamwal VL, Sharma A, *Gandhi SG,** Ohri P, Bhardwaj R, Al-Huqail AA, Siddiqui MH, Ali HM, Ahmad P	Supplementation with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) alleviates cadmium toxicity in Solanum lycopersicum by modulating the expression of secondary metabolites	Chemosphere 230:628-639 (2019)
Khanna K, Jamwal VL, Gandhi SG, Ohri P, Bhardwaj R	Metal resistant PGPR lowered Cd uptake and expression of metal transporter genes with improved growth and photosynthetic pigments in Lycopersicon esculentum under metal toxicity	Scientific Reports 9(1):5855 (2019)
Bali S, Jamwal VL, Kaur P, Kohli SK, Ohri P, *Gandhi SG,** Bhardwaj R, Al-Huqail AA, Siddiqui MH, Ahmad P	Role of P-type ATPase metal transporters and plant immunity induced by jasmonic acid against Lead (Pb) toxicity in tomato	Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 174:283-294 (2019)
Praveen Awasthi, Vidushi Mahajan, Vijay Lakshmi Jamwal, Rekha Chouhan, Nitika Kapoor, Yashbir S. Bedi, Sumit G. Gandhi*	Characterization of the gene encoding 4-coumarate:CoA ligase in Coleus forskohlii	Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 28: 203–210 (2019)
Mahajan V, Chouhan R, Kitchlu S, Bindu K, Koul S, Singh B, Bedi YS, Gandhi SG*	Assessment of chemical and genetic variability in Tanacetum gracile accessions collected from cold desert of Western Himalaya	3 Biotech 8: 284 (2018)
Awasthi P, Singh A, Sheikh G, Mahajan V, Gupta AP, Gupta S, Bedi YS and Gandhi SG*	Mining and characterization of EST-SSR markers for Zingiber officinale Roscoe with transferability to other species of Zingiberaceae	Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants Vol. 23(4) Page 925 (2017)
Sharma R, Jamwal VL, Singh VP, Wazir P, Awasthi P, Singh D, Vishwakarma RA, *Gandhi SG,** Chaubey A*	Revelation and cloning of valinomycin synthetase genes in Streptomyces lavendulae ACR-DA1 and their expression analysis under different fermentation and elicitation conditions	Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 253 Page 40 (2017)
Magotra A, Kumar M, Kushwaha M, Awasthi P, Raina C, Gupta AP, Shah BA, Gandhi SG, Chaubey A*	Epigenetic modifier induced enhancement of fumiquinazoline C production in Aspergillus fumigatus (GA-L7): an endophytic fungus from Grewia asiatica L.	AMB Express Vol. 7 Page 43 (2017)
Awasthi P, Gupta AP, Bedi YS, Vishwakarma RA, Gandhi SG*	Mannitol Stress Directs Flavonoid Metabolism toward Synthesis of Flavones via Differential Regulation of Two Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenases in Coleus forskohlii	Frontiers in Plant Sciences Vol 7 Page 985 (2016)