Chittaranjan Das

Title:

Assistant Professor

PhD Granting Institution:

Indian Institute of Science

Contact:

Email Address: cdas@purdue.edu
Office Phone: 765-494-5478

Primary Training Group:

Biomolecular Structure and Biophysics

Secondary Training Groups:

Chemical Biology

Current Projects:

Currently, we are investigating the normal function of the neuronal DUB ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1)- a PD-associated, neuron-specific protein of unknown physiological function. Our efforts in this direction are aimed at developing cell-permeable small molecule inhibitors of UCHL1 that can be used to probe its function (both normal and disease-associated), determining its binding partners by affinity based purification from whole-cell extracts, and defining the molecular basis of how a naturally occurring variant of this enzyme- in which Ser at the position 18 is substituted by Tyr (called the S18Y polymorph)- provides protection from Parkinson's disease (PD). In addition to UCHL1, we are also conducting structural and mechanistic investigations of other related enzymes thought to be involved in fundamental biochemical processes such as DNA repair, histone modification, and endocytosis of plasma membrane proteins.