Dr. Rajkishor Rai

Dr. Rajkishor Rai

Senior Scientist

Natural Products & Medicinal Chemistry Division

CSIR – Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Canal Road, Jammu – 180001
Email: raj @iiim.res.in

Profile

Bio Sketch

Dr. Rajkishor Rai received his Ph.D. degree at the Department of Chemistry, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and did postdoctoral research at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Before joining the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine in August 2009, he was an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar, followed by Senior Research Scientist at Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Pune. His research interests are in the area of structural chemistry of peptides incorporating non-protein amino acids, peptidomimetics, bioactive peptides and self-assembled peptides as therapeutic agents.

Education

Degree Subjects University Qualifying Year
Ph .D Chemistry Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.) 2002
M.Sc. Chemistry Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur (U.P) 1996
B.Sc. Chemistry & Botany Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur (U.P) 1994

Position Held

Position Held

Position Held Period Organization
Senior Scientist 06/2010-Present CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu
Scientist Fellow 08/2009 -06/2010 CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu
Senior Research Scientist 01/2008-08/2009 Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Pune.
Assistant Professor 06/2006 -12/2007 Indian Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar
Post-doctoral Fellow 12/2002 – 07/2006 Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

(Advisor: Prof. P. Balaram)

Area of Expertise

Area of Expertise

  • Peptide Chemistry

Project Involved / Ongoing Projects

Projects

  • Development of b-Hairpin Peptidomimetics and Self Assembled Ultra short Hybrid Peptide Nanostructures as Anti-infective Agents.
  • Design and Synthesis of Novel Antimicrobial Peptides under 12th Five Year Plan Network Project “Centre for Biotheurapautic Molecule Discovery Program” funded by CSIR. (Completed).
  • Designer peptides based on b-amino acids funded by IIIM under Major Lab projects. (Completed)
  • Investigation of the Role of Melanin Co-polymers and Antioxidant Peptides in Skin Biology:  A Semi-synthetic Approach Funded by CSIR under EMPOWER Scheme. (Completed)

 

Publications and Patents

Publications

  • S. Shankar, J. Ur Rahim, R. Rai. Self-Assembly in Peptides containing b-and g-amino acids. Current Protein & Peptide Science 2020, 21, 584-597.
  • Shankar, G. Singh, J. Ur Rahim, A. Qayum, P. R. Sharma, M. Katoch, R. Rai. Investigation of α/γ hybrid peptide self-assembled structures with antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties. J. Pept. Sci. 2020, (DOI: 10.1002/psc.3243).
  • Malhotra, S. Shankar, R. Rai, Y. Singh. Broad-spectrum antibacterial activity of proteolytically stable self-assembled αγ-hybrid peptide gels. Biomacromolecules. 2018, 19,782-792.
  • Shankar, M. M. Faheem, D. Nayak, N. A. Wani, S. Farooq, S. Koul, A. Goswami, R. Rai. Cyclodipeptide c(Orn-Pro) Conjugate with 4-Ethylpiperic Acid Abrogates Cancer Cell Metastasis through Modulating MDM2. Bioconjugate Chemistry 2018, 29,164-175.
  • A. Wani, G. Singh, S. Shankar, A. Sharma, M. Katoch, R. Rai. Short Hybrid Peptides Incorporating b- and g-Amino Acids as Antimicrobial Agents. Peptides 2017, 97, 46-53.
  • A. Wani, S. Raghothama, U.P. Singh, R. Rai. C11 /C9 -Helical Folding in αβ Hybrid Peptides Containing 1-Amino-cyclohexane acetic acid (β3, 3 -Ac6 c). Chem. Eur. J. 2017, 23, 8364-8370.
  • Amin, N. A. Wani, S. Farooq, D. Nayak, S. Chakraborty, S. Shankar, R. ur Rasool, S. Koul, A. Goswami, R. Rai. Inhibition of Invasion in Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Conjugate of EPA with β3,3-Pip-OH via PI3K/Akt/NF-kB Pathway. ACS Med. Chem. Lett., 2015, 6(10), 1071-1074.
  • Chhabra, A. S. Haque, R. K. Pal, A. Goyal, R. Rai, S. Joshi, S. Panjikar, S. Pasha, R. Sankaranarayanan  and R. S. Gokhale. Nonprocessive [2+2]e- Offloading Reductase Domains from Mycobacterial Non-ribosomal Peptide Synthetases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2012, 109, 5681-5686.
  • S. Raghavender, S. Aravinda, N. Shamala, Kantharaju, R. Rai, P. Balaram. Characterization of Water Wires inside Hydrophobic Tubular Peptide Structures. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 15130-15132.
  • Rai, S. Raghothama, P. Balaram. Design of a Peptide Hairpin Containing a Central Three Residue Loop. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 2675-2681.
  • Aravinda, N. Shamala, R. Rai, H.N. Gopi, P. Balaram.  A Crystalline b-Hairpin Peptide Nucleated by a Type I’ Aib-DAla b-Turn: Evidence for Cross –Strand Aromatic Interactions. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2002, 41, 3863-65.

 

Patents

Manika Vij, Ritika Grover, Vishwabandhu Gotherwal, Naiem Ahmad Wani, Prashant Joshi, Munia Ganguli, Rajkishor Rai, Vivek Tirunelveli Natrajan, Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale. Synthetic melanin nanoparticles for skin pigmentation. (NFNO 0218NF2015/IN).

Awards / Honours

Awards and Honours

NIL

Group

Students

Photo Name Area of Interest  Education
Junaid Ur Rahim UGC-SRF
Rubina Chowdhary CSIR-JRF