Ashis K Das adas@bits-pilani.ac.in Phone(off): 91-1596-245073,273

Completed Masters from Ballygunj Science College, Calcutta, and obtained PhD from National Institute of Immunology New Delhi, India. Worked as Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology and Immunology, SHPH, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA and WHO Fellow at the Malaria Branch, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia USA.

At present I'm working as an Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences Group, BITS, Pilani. My research interests include Molecular and Immuno – Parasitology, Molecular Diagnostics and Industrially oriented projects dealing with different aspects of vector design, cloning and expression and bioinformatics.

Courses taught / teaching

I’m involved in course designing and interactive teaching of both first degree (M.Sc. Hons.) and higher degree (M. E. Biotech) courses. Some of the course titles where I have been the Instructor – incharge/ Instructor are as follows –

• Recombinant DNA Technology
• Molecular Biology and Immunology
• Molecular Immunology
• Developmental Biology
• Introduction to Bioinformatics
• Transgenic Technology
• Experimental Techniques (Laboratory)
• Genetic Engineering (Laboratory)
• General Biology
• Measurement Techniques – I

I also enjoy interacting with and teaching students taking specialized study, computer related, and lab projects. At present I’m guiding four PhD students.

Research

One of the major thrust areas of my group is research into Molecular Biology and Immunology of the human malarial parasites.

• We are investigating polymorphisms in major candidate vaccine antigens like MSP1 and AMA1, which could have implications in vaccine design.
• We are also investigating the Apicoplast of P. vivax from Indian isolates and have initiated preliminary experiments investigating prevalence of putative Drug Resistance markers.
• Another facet of our work deals with formulating diagnostic procedures for the human malarial parasites based on the parasite 18s rRNA and 28s rRNA/ rRNA gene. During this we have also initiated investigations into a novel phenomenon of cerebral malaria caused by P. vivax.
• We are also involved in industry related projects involving prokaryotic vector design and expression of cytokines.

Publications

1)       Ehtesham, N.Z., Das, A.K. and Hasnain, S.E.(1992). A novel probe for human DNA fingerprinting based on Chi-like sequences. Gene 111 : 261-263

2)       Das, A., Holloway, B., Collins, W.E., Sharma. V.P., Ghosh, S.K., Sinha, S., Hasnain, S.E. Talwar, G.P. and Lal, A.A. (1995), Species specific 18S rRNA gene amplification for the detection of P.falciparum and P.vivax malaria parasites. Molecular & Cellular Probes 9(30) : 161 - 165

3)       Das, A., Holloway, B., Collins, W.E., Sharma, V.P., Ghosh,S.K., Sinha, S., Hasnain, S.E., Talwar. G.P. and Lal, A.A.(1997), Field evaluation of oligonucleotide probes targeted to the 18S rRNA of the Plasmodium falciparum - submitted.

4)       Das, A., Altaf A.Lal, Gursaran P. Talwar, Seyed E. Hasnain and Subrata Sinha (1996), A one step lysis procedure for 18S Ribosomal RNA-based diagnosis of infection by Plasmodium sp. Analytical Biochemistry 241, 262-264.

5)       Das, A., Syin, C., Fujioka, H., Hong,Z., Goldman,N., Aikawa, M and Kumar,N. (1997), Molecular characterization and ultra structural localization of Plasmodium falciparum hsp 60. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 88:95-104.

6)       Das, A. (2004) Ribosomal RNA based detection system for Plasmodial infection: An evaluation of field isolates  (submitted)

7)       Vijaya Kumar S., Saxena, V., Rajesh, V., Ranjan, A., Das A (2004). Analysis of C – terminal cysteine rich region of the Merozoite Surface Protein – 1 in the field samples of Plasmodium falciparum from the Indian subcontinent. (submitted)

8)   Kochar, D. K., Saxena, V., Singh, N. V., Kochar, S. K., Vijaya Kumar S., Das, A. (2004). Severe malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax. (submitted)

9)  Shekhawat, S. S., Vijaya Kumar S., Das A (2004). EGF – LD Finder for identification of EGF like domains. (manuscript in preparation)

10)    Saxena, V., Vijaya Kumar S., Ranjan, A., Das, A. (2004) Analysis and Structural comparison of elongation factor Tuf A from Apicoplast genome of Plasmodium vivax (manuscript in preparation).

Other Interests

Playing on the violin, mandolin, painting, photography, shooting.