Moses Prabu's Biography

Moses Prabu, Group Leader, Protein Sciences, Berg Pharma

Dr. Moses Mohandas Prabu,PhD., is an Assistant Professor of Molecular, Leader of the Crystallography Laboratory, Division of Basic Sciences, The Commonwealth Medical College, USA. He received his B.Sc. & M.Sc. degrees in Physics with specialty in Optics. Dr. Prabu’s graduate work includes the structure function of plant lectins (Thesis mentors: Professors K. Suguna, Ph.D. and M. Vijayan, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, India). He subsequently joined Dr. C. Schiffer at University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA, where he elucidated the structural consequences of molecular recognition and drug resistance of HIV-1 protease and the co-evolution of its substrates in response to drug therapy. Dr. Prabu’s current research focus is in determining the rationale for molecular recognition of enzymes that proteolyze multiple amino acid sequences that share poor similarity. Specifically, his laboratory investigates the aspartyl proteases Plasmodium falciparum plasmepsins and human cathepsin D. In addition, Dr. Prabu’s research also includes the determination of the structural consequences of cell-trafficking and activation of cathepsin D.