Deepak T. Nair
Deepak Thankappan Nair (born 25 October 1973) is an Indian Structural Biologist and a scientist at Regional Centre for Biotechnology. He is known for his studies on DNA and RNA polymerases. Deepak was a Ramanujan fellow of the Science and Engineering Research Board (2008–2013) and a recipient of the National BioScience Award for Career Development (Dept. of Biotechnology). The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biological sciences in 2017. Biography His parents are from the southern state of Kerala and he was born in Pune in the western state of Maharashtra on 25 October 1973, Deepak Nair went to school at the Jai Hind High School (Pimpri) and then later to the St. Vincents Junior College (Pune). He graduated with BSc in Chemistry from Fergusson College (1994) and completed his master's in biotechnology from the Savitribai Phule Pune University (1996). Subsequently, he enrolled for his doctoral studies at the National Institute of Immunology, India to secure a PhD in structural immunology in 2001. For his PhD he worked under the supervision of Dr. Dinakar Mashnu Salunke. Later, he moved to the US to complete his post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Prof. Aneel K. Aggarwal at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. He returned to India in 2007 to take up the position of an independent investigator at the National Centre for Biological Sciences . He worked in NCBS as Reader-F (2007–2013) and Associate Professor (2013–2014). In July 2014, he joined the Regional Centre for Biotechnology as an Associate professor, and was promoted to the position of Professor in July 2019. Research Deepak Nair has obtained new insight regarding the molecular mechanisms that determine the fidelity of the replication process in bacteria and flaviviruses. His laboratory has shed new light on the strategy utilized by DNA polymerases to prevent ribonucleotide incorporation (NAR, 2019, 47:10693). In 2018, his laboratory showed that pyrophosphate hydrolysis is an intrinsic and critical step in the DNA synthesis reaction catalyzed by DNA polymerases and this discovery was accorded breakthrough status by the journal Nucleic Acids Chemistry (NAR, 2018, 46:5875). Regarding the piggyBac transposase, his laboratory has shown that the dimerization through the Ring Finger Domain present at the C-terminus attenuates the excision activity of this enzyme (Biochemistry, 2018, 57:2913). He has discovered the mechanism employed by DNA polymerase IV to rescue replication stalled at damaged nucleotides with unprecedented efficiency and accuracy (Structure, 2014, 23:56–67). Nair has provided insight into how specialized DNA polymerases that participate in adaptive mutagenesis ensure achieve function (Nucleic Acids Research, 2013, 41:5104–5014; Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2012 68:960-7, J Nucleic Acids. 2012:285481). His laboratory has shown how GTP binding to the viral RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase ensures accurate initiation of replication of the viral genome (Nucleic Acids Research, 2014, 42:2758–2573). In addition, he has shown that reactive oxygen species do play