Abstract

Novel Drugs for Neglected Diseases

Utpal Tatu, Professor, Indian Institute of Science

My laboratory is interested in examining the role of molecular chaperones in evolution of parasitism. By exploring parasites such as Babesia, Candida, Enatmoeba, Giardia, Plasmodium and Trypanosoma our lab has shown an important link between parasite chaperones and the adaptation of these parasites to the host cell environments. Our studies show a critical role played by chaperones such as heat shock protein 90 in the growth of the above infectious disease causing organisms in their respective hosts. We are currently trying to investigate how evolutionary forces and host cell milieu may have influenced genome organizations, biochemical activities, interactomes as well as cellular localization of parasite chaperones. The focus is on understanding the basis underlying co- evolution of molecular chaperones and parasitism. The study lends itself to translating above findings towards identification of new drug targets and candidate drugs. I will present some experiments on target identification, validation in cell culture models as well as pre-clinical studies in my talk.