Dr. Shubhendu Palei

Assistant Professor




Profile


Personal Website
spalei@chem.iitkgp.ac.in
Dr. Shubhendu Palei Assistant Professor & Ramalingaswami Fellow Room HP-204, High Pressure Building Department of Chemistry Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur Kharagpur-721302 West Bengal, India

Education


  • Ph.D in Chemical Biology, University of Muenster, Germany (magna cum laude plus) (10/2012 – 08/2017)
  • M.Sc in Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, India (07/2010 – 06/2012)
  • Integrated B.Sc B.Ed (4 year), Regional Institute of Education (RIE) (Affiliated to NCERT, New Delhi), Utkal University, Bhubaneswar (07/2006 – 06/2010)
  • +2 Science, Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha (2003 - 2005)
  •  10th, Board of Secondary Education, Odisha (2003)

Experience


  • Assistant Professor (Grade-I), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur (04/2024 – present)
  • Senior Scientist, Athebio AG (Biotech Start-up Company), Zurich, Switzerland (01/2023 – 10/2023)
  • Post-doctoral researcher (Chemical Biology and Genetic code expansion), Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB), ETH Zürich, Switzerland (10/2021 – 12/2022) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kathrin Lang
  • Post-doctoral researcher (Epigenetics Chemical Biology of TET enzymes), Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB), TU Dortmund, Germany (01/2018 – 05/2021)                                Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Daniel Summerer
  • Bridging Post-doc (Cyclic peptides, Bacterial display, Inteins), Institute of Biochemistry, University of Muenster, Germany (09/2017 – 12/2017)                                                             Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Henning. D. Mootz
  • Ph.D. in Chemical Biology (Cyclic peptides, Bacterial display, Inteins), Institute of Biochemistry, University of Muenster, Germany (10/2012 – 08/2017)                                                 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Henning. D. Mootz.
  • MSc Dissertation (Amyloid peptide aggregation), Department of Chemistry & Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur, India (12/2011– 04/2012)                              Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sandeep Verma (Dept. of Chemistry), Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ashwani Kumar Thakur (Dept. of Biological Science and Bioengineering)


Research Statement


Our research focuses on developing chemical and synthetic biology tools for molecular level understanding of the histone code with implications in fundamental science and drug discovery. My group will develop cyclic peptide-based ligands to modulate specific epigenetic PTM states of histones both in vitro and in vivo. We aim to mimic the epigenetic modifications of histones e.g. methylation, acetylation, ubiquitination using genetic code expansion technique to understand the molecular basis of crosstalks and their roles in controlling the chromatin landscape. We aim to rescue the loss-of-function effect of oncohistone mutations by site specifically introducing specific PTM by genetic code expansion. We want to incorporate photocrosslinker AA in histones to study PTM readers and erasers.


Projects



Developing chemical biology and therapeutics toolbox to understand the molecular basis of the histone code
Client :   DBT
Consultant :   PI
Co-Consultant(s) :   


Awards and Recognition


  1) Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship 2023 from DBT, India

Awarded Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship 2022-23 worth 83 lakhs INR by DBT, India for three years or up to five years (1.37 crores INR) to establish own research lab

  2) ERC post-doctoral fellowship

ERC post-doctoral fellowship (1/2018-5/2021) at TU Dortmund and (10/2021-12/2022) at ETH Zürich.

  3) EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme Fellowship

Awarded EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme Fellowship to attend EMBO Chemical Biology 2016 conference in Heidelberg, Germany

  4) Best poster award

Best poster award in Muenster Conference for Biomolecule Analysis-2014 from Springer Nature

  5) International Graduate School of Chemistry (GSC-MS), Muenster fellowship

Awarded prestigious International Graduate School of Chemistry (GSC-MS), Muenster fellowship 2012-2014 from Ministry of Science and Education of the federal state of Northrhine Westphalia (NRW)

  6) Best Poster award

Best Poster award in Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excellence (SURGE), 2011, IIT Kanpur

  7) Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excellence (SURGE) Fellowship

Awarded prestigious Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excellence (SURGE), 2011 Fellowship, IIT Kanpur

  8) CSIR NET-2011 (JRF)

Qualified CSIR NET-2011 in Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) category with all India rank 10 conducted by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India

  9) Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering (GATE) 2012

Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering (GATE) 2012 conducted by IIT Delhi with all India rank 20 (percentile: 99.78)

  10) JAM-2010

Placed within top 3% (AIR 104) in Joint Admission Test to M.Sc.(JAM-2010) conducted by Indian Institute of Technology (IITs)

  11) Best Student Award

Awarded Best Student Award at P.S. College, Barsahi during 2004-2005

  12) National Rural Talent Search Scholarship (NRTS)

Awarded the Prestigious National Rural Talent Search Scholarship (NRTS) by State Government of Odisha from 1999 to 2003

Courses Taught


  CHEMISTRY LABORATORY (CY19003)

  DRUG DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS (CY61213)


Patents


No Patents Added Yet!

Research Area



1) Developing chemical biology and therapeutics toolbox to understand the molecular basis of the histone code
Download Research File

Our research focuses on developing chemical and synthetic biology tools for molecular level understanding of the histone code with implications in fundamental science and drug discovery. My group will develop cyclic peptide-based ligands to modulate specific epigenetic PTM states of histones both in vitro and in vivo. We aim to mimic the epigenetic modifications of histones e.g. methylation, acetylation, ubiquitination using genetic code expansion technique to understand the molecular basis of crosstalks and their roles in controlling the chromatin landscape. We aim to rescue the loss-of-function effect of oncohistone mutations by site specifically introducing specific PTM by genetic code expansion. We want to incorporate photocrosslinker AA in histones to study PTM readers and erasers.


Group Members


  Arun Biswas
Topic: Synthetic Biology for Targeted Delivery
Email: ARUN891.24@kgpian.iitkgp.ac.in

  Souvik Sasmal
Topic: Developing chemical biology and therapeutics toolbox to understand the molecular basis of the histone code
Email: souvik322001.24@kgpian.iitkgp.ac.in


Group Alumni