Sankar Mahesh

About

My research focuses on engineering plant metabolic pathways in microbes. Specifically, I study why plant enzymes fail in microbes and how plasmid based introduction is detrimental to cells.

I'm a fifth-year PhD student from Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, India, where I'm funded by the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (2023 - 2026).

I use crystallography as a method to study the rate-limiting enzyme, Chalcone synthase, its protein partner Chalcone isomerase like protein and Directed evolution mutants of Chalcone synthase. I specifically use a method called Room Temperature crystallography to model the dynamics of this enzyme.

I use flux balance analysis as a method to model flux distribution across pathways to map metabolic burden.

I received a Bachelor's of Technology in Biotechnology prior to my PhD, where I worked on understanding and distinguishing thermostable proteins from mesostable proteins using Machine Learning.

Outside of research, I like running on Gulmuhar Marg.

Employment

• Indian Institute of Science Bangalore PhD Student
  2021 - Present

Education

• SASTRA University B.Tech Biotechnology
  2017 - 2021

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (4)

• Design of a tunable bacterial gene expression system using engineered σ factors
  Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2024 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00021-24
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• Surface exposed and charged residues drive thermostability in fungi
  Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics 2023 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26623
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• Experimental and computational studies of cellulases as bioethanol enzymes
  Bioengineered 2022 DOI: 10.1080/21655979.2022.2085541
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• Comparative analysis of Lysine and Arginine biosynthesis pathway in Deinococcus genomes
  2021 DOI: 10.1101/2021.12.28.474397
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