Areas of Research:

• Protein dynamics and activation/deactivation mechanism: Use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with advance sampling techniques and protein network analysis to gain detailed insight into the conformational dynamics associated with ligand recognition and activation/deactivation mechanism in proteins. Research will also focus on identifying the local motif(s) that play central role in switching the activation – deactivation dynamics, with an aim of rational drug designing.
• Allostery and structure-based drug discovery: Understanding the protein flexibility is central to the structure-based drug discovery. Our research uses co- solvent MD simulations to incorporate dynamic nature of proteins into the drug discovery pipeline to identify allosteric/cryptic sites, that are potentially druggable.
• Green chemistry and enzyme catalysis

Contributions to Teaching:

At Department of Biotechnology, Kannur University (from November 2020 to present):

MSMBY01E01: Fundamentals of Biostatistics (M Sc course)

Research Projects undertaken

• Developing applications of cosolvent simulations for mapping druggable hotspots on protein surfaces and pharmacophore modelling (University of Michigan, USA)
• In silico investigation of ligand recognition and ion permeation properties of IP 3 receptors (University of Cambridge, UK)
•  Exploring allosteric druggable pockets in nuclear receptors for rational drug designing (Indian Institute of Science, India)

Research experience

•  12-10-2020 – Present: Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology, Kannur University, Kerala, India
• Feb 2019 – Jan 2020: Postdoctoral Fellow, College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
•  Mar 2017 – Dec 2018: Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, India
•  Jan 2018 – Feb 2018: Visiting Researcher (Newton alumnus support grant), Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, UK
•  Feb 2015 – Feb 2017: Royal Society Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
•  Aug 2012 - Jan 2015: Dr. D. S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, India

• J. C. Greenhalgh, A. Chandran, G. Ladds, M. T. Harper, T. Rahman. Proposed model of the Dictyostelium cAMP receptors bound to cAMP. J Mol Graph Model 100, 107662, 2020
• B. Vyhlidalova, K. Krasulova, P. Pecinkova, K. Poulikova, R. Vrzal, Q. Yang, A. P. Li, Z. Andrysik, A. Chandran, S. Mani, Z. Dvorak. Antimigraine drug avitriptan is a ligand and agonist of human aryl hydrocarbon receptor that induces cyp1a1 in hepatic and intestinal cells. Int J Mol Sci 21, 2799, 2020.
• Z. Dvořák, F. Kopp, C. M. Costello, J. S. Kemp., H. Li, A. Vrzalová, M. Štěpánková, I. Bartoňková, E. Jiskrová, K. Poulíková, B. Vyhlídalová, C. Karunaratne, K. Abbott, C. Chaudhury, A. De, S. R. Pondugula, H. Ranhotra, K. S. Mun, N. Anjaparavanda, I. Murray, G. H. Perdew, J. Brtko, L. Toporova, A. Schon, E. Nieves, K. Sun, A. Beck, S. Kortagere, P. Mallick, R. Ghosh, V. Dou, A. Yang, V. DesMarais, M. C. Neary, Q. Liu, A. Akki, J. M. Albanese, Y. Qiu, I. J. Kurland, D. J. Lukin, T. Ullmann, O. C. Aroniadis, B. A. Coffin, M. Longo, Z. W. Mei, J. Hart, A. Chandran, S. Vishveshwara, M. M. Cavalluzzi, G. Lentini, J. Y. Cui, H. Gu , J. C. March, A. P. Li, S. Mani. Targeting the pregnane X receptor using microbial metabolite mimicry. EMBO Mol Med 12, e11621, 2020.
• K. L. Abbott, C. S. Chaudhury, A. Chandran, S. Vishveshwara, Z. Dvorak, E. Jiskrova, K. Poulikova, B. Vyhlidalova, S. Mani, S. R. Pondugula. Belinostat, at its clinically relevant concentrations, inhibits rifampicin induced CYP3A4 and MDR1 gene expression. Mol Pharmacol 95,324-334, 2019.
• A. Chandran*, X. Chee, D. L. Prole, T. Rahman. Exploration of inositol 1,4,5- trisphosphate (IP 3 ) regulated dynamics of N-terminal domain of IP 3 receptor reveals early phase molecular events during receptor activation. Sci Rep 9,2454, 2019.

*Co-corresponding author

• A. Chandran, S. Vishveshwara. Exploration of the conformational landscape in pregnane X receptor reveals a new binding pocket. Protein Sci 25, 1989-2005, 2016.
•  A. Chandran, D.Ghoshdastidar, S. Senapati. Groove binding mechanism of ionic liquids: A key factor in long-term stability of DNA in hydrated ionic liquids? J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 20330−20339, 2012.
• A. Chandran, K. Prakash, S. Senapati. Self-assembled inverted micelles stabilize ionic liquid domains in supercritical CO 2 . J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 12511-12516, 2010.
• A. Chandran, K. Prakash, S. Senapati. Structure and dynamics of acetate anion based ionic liquids from molecular dynamics study. Chem. Phys. 374, 46-54, 2010.
• S.N. Gummadi, S. Kumar, Aneesh CNA. Effect of salts on growth and pectinases production by halotolerant yeast, Debaryomyces nepalensis NCYC 3413. CurrenT Microbiol. 54, 472-476, 2007.