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- Education: Post-Doctoral Fellow (Harvard University, U.S.A.), Ph.D. (Carnegie-Melon University, Pittsburgh, U.S.A.), M.Sc. (IIT Kanpur)
- Email: pb@iisc.ac.in
- Area of Specialization/Interest: Balaram has made outstanding contributions towards the understanding of the structure and function of voltage gated transmembrane peptide channels. His major contributions may be classified into three areas: (i) studies on transmembrane peptide channels, (ii) conformational models for peptide folding and (iii) biophysical and chemical studies on membranes and model systems. He has elucidated the structural chemistry of -aminoisobutyric acid peptides related to alamethicin. He has carried out detailed studies on synthesis, conformational analysis and biological activity of channel peptides and has provided the basis for postulating the helix dipole model for these channels. Dr Balaram has made valuable contributions in the general area of design and synthesis of model peptides, particularly disulfides. These studies have provided a means for developing bioorganic models for redox proteins containing active disulfide loops. Balaram's contributions in the area of biological membranes and in developing fluorescent probe methodology for examining membrane structure are highly significant. This aspect is exemplified by work establishing regional differentiation of sperm plasma membranes. In his most recent work, he has demonstrated the use of disulfide crosslinking as a means of thermally stabilizing multimeric proteins, using thymidylate synthase as a model.
IRINS Profile
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