Biography:

Professor Krishna Ganesh is the first Director of the newly established Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Pune. He obtained his Ph.D degrees from Delhi University (1977) and Cambridge University,UK (1980). He joined Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad in 1981 and moved to National Chemical Laboratory, Pune in 1987, where he was the Head of Organic Chemistry Division till July 2006. He has made creative contributions in the area of DNA and peptide therapeutics, in particular, design of potential therapeutic agents based on chemically modified DNA, PNA and modified collagen analogues. He has employed an imaginative combination of bioorganic and medicinal chemistry concepts along with synthetic organic chemistry and biophysics to address some of the challenging problems in DNA therapeutics. Recently he has been working on use of DNA as a template for creating nonfunctional assemblies. He has published 150 research papers and supervised 22 students for their doctoral degree. Prof Ganesh is a recipient of prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical sciences for the year 1998, TWAS (Trieste, Italy) Prize in Chemical Sciences for 2005 and was awarded JC Bose Fellowship (2006) of Department of Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore), Indian National Science Academy (Delhi), National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad) and Academy for Developing World Trieste (FTWAS). Professor Ganesh is also the secretary of Biomolecular Chemistry Division of International Union of Pure and applied Chemistry (IUPAC) since 2005 and is a member of the editorial Board of Chemistry, an Asian Journal published by Wiley Interscience.

Abstract:

1)Introduction to Nanobioscience - Concepts and Tools:

Much of the biological functions occur in nanometer dimension within the cellular space and mediated by specific molecular recognition and self assembly. The latter process drives the creation of multicomponent nanoparticles which drive the biological processes. Nanobioscience is concerned with understanding the scientific basis of such nanophenomena in biological systems. The special properties of nanoparticles arise from their surface characteristics which become predominant in smaller dimensions and the synergy of surface science and molecular biochemistry is the essence of nanobioscience. This lecture introduces the concepts of nanoscience in biosystems and the analytical tools to study their structure and interactions

2) Nano DNA - From Molecular Assembles to Materials and Devices:

DNA carries all the genetic information for life. Knowledge of structure of DNA has enabled scientists to understand and deceipher the dynamics of molecular mechanisms that are central to life. However, DNA, the genetic material can also be transformed to a generic material by taking advantage of its self complementarity, periodicity and diversity in its secondary structures. These can lead to interesting self assemblies and nanostructures. DNA can be conjugated with a variety of performing ligands to generate molecules that have highly useful properties such as sensor, electrical conduction etc and having potential to construct devices. This lecture illustrates the recently expanding horizons in material sciences based on DNA nanoassemblies.