Virander Singh Chauhan

Virander Singh Chauhan obtained his Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees in chemistry from University of Delhi. He completed his Ph.D. degree in 1974 and won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study for a Ph.D. at Oxford University, UK, in 1977. After a postdoctoral stint at University of Georgia, USA, Professor Chauhan returned to India and taught at St. Stephen’s College. In 1980, he joined Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, as an Assistant Professor, but returned to his Alma Mater at the Chemistry Department, University of Delhi. At University of Delhi, he established a leading research group in designing and synthesis of small peptides and studied their structure and was soon promoted to professorship. In 1988, he was chosen to head the Malaria and Structural Biology Research Group at the newly created International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) at New Delhi and became the Director of the centre in 1998. Professor Chauhan’s research interests are in malaria vaccine and the drug development research. His group has developed procedures to prepare recombinant vaccine target antigens and with industrial partner, vaccine formulation has been developed for clinical trial, in India. Professor Chauhan’s work on understanding the mechanism of actions of antimalarial drugs like chloroquine and artemisinin has led to the development of high throughput screens for malaria drug discovery. Another research interest of Professor Chauhan is in the area of design, synthesis, and utility of conformationally defined peptides. This work has proved useful in the design of antibiotic peptide, antiamyloid, and more recently in peptide-based self assembling systems. During his scientific career, he has guided about thirty Ph.D. students, and trained a large number of students in their research. Professor Chauhan has published more than 160 research papers in peer reviewed internationally reputed journals.

Biography Updated on 21 March 2007

Articles in Scholarly Journals [Incomplete List]

  1. Self-Assembly of a Dipeptide- Containing Conformationally Restricted Dehydrophenylalanine Residue to Form Ordered Nanotubes
    Advanced Materials, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 858–861, 2007
  2. a,ß-Dehydrophenylalanine containing cecropin–melittin hybrid peptides: conformation and activity
    Journal of Peptide Science, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 253–262, 2007
  3. Characterization and localization of Plasmodium falciparum homolog of prokaryotic ClpQ/HslV protease
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 152, no. 2, pp. 139–148, 2007
  4. Comparison of cellular and humoral responses to recombinant protein and synthetic peptides of exon2 region of Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein1 (PfEMP1) among malaria patients from an endemic region
    Parasitology International, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 51–59, 2007
  5. Immunogenicity of Plasmodium vivax combination subunit vaccine formulated with human compatible adjuvants in mice
    Vaccine, vol. 25, no. 28, pp. 5166–5174, 2007
  6. Falcipain-1, a Plasmodium falciparum Cysteine Protease with Vaccine Potential
    Infection and Immunity, vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 2026–2034, 2007
  7. Transcriptional analysis of an immune-responsive serine protease from Indian malarial vector, Anopheles culicifacies
    BMC Molecular Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 33, 2007
  8. BMC Bioinformatics, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 336, 2006
  9. Immune Responses to Asexual Blood-Stages of Malaria Parasites
    Current Molecular Medicine, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 187–203, 2006
  10. Epidemiology of malaria transmission in forest and plain ecotype villages in Sundargarh District, Orissa, India
    Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, vol. 100, no. 10, pp. 917–925, 2006
  11. Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of Escherichia coli expressed Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein-142 using human compatible adjuvants
    Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 2007–2016, 2006
  12. Interaction of Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein II with human lymphocytes leads to suppression of proliferation, IFN-? release, and CD69 expression
    Parasitology Research, vol. 100, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 2006
  13. Plasmodium vivax dihydrofolate reductase point mutations from the Indian subcontinent
    Acta Tropica, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 174–180, 2006
  14. Stabilization of unusual structures in peptides using a,ß-dehydrophenylalanine: Crystal and solution structures of Boc–Pro–?Phe–Val–?Phe–Ala–OMe and Boc–Pro–?Phe–Gly–?Phe–Ala–OMe
    Biopolymers, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 298–309, 2006
  15. Thermal Stability of Dehydrophenylalanine-Containing Model Peptides as Probed by Infrared Spectroscopy: a Case Study of ana-Helical and a310-Helical Peptide
    Chemistry & Biodiversity, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 284–295, 2006
  16. Helix packing motif common to the crystal structures of two undecapeptides containing dehydrophenylalanine residues: Implications for the de novo design of helical bundle super secondary structural modules
    Biopolymers, vol. 80, no. 5, pp. 617–627, 2005
  17. A role of falcipain-2, principal cysteine proteases of in merozoite egression
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 336, no. 4, pp. 1062–1068, 2005
  18. A novel ?DEAD-box? DNA helicase from is homologous to p68
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 140, no. 1, pp. 55–60, 2005
  19. DNA helicase 60 is a schizont stage specific, bipolar and dual helicase stimulated by PKC phosphorylation
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 144, no. 2, pp. 133–141, 2005
  20. Isolation and Characterization of Type I Signal Peptidase of Different Malaria Parasites
    Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, vol. 2005, no. 4, pp. 301–309, 2005
  21. Cyclo(L-leucyl-a,ß-dehydrophenylalanine): the first diketopiperazine containing an a,ß-dehydrophenylalanine residue
    Acta Crystallographica Section C Crystal Structure Communications, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. o174–o176, 2005
  22. Identification of karyopherin beta as an immunogenic antigen of the malaria parasite using immune mice and human sera
    Parasite Immunology, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 197–203, 2005
  23. A Meccano set approach of joining trpzip a water soluble beta-hairpin peptide with a didehydrophenylalanine containing hydrophobic helical peptide
    Journal of Peptide Research, vol. 65, no. 5, pp. 475–484, 2005
  24. Reaction of artemisinin with haemoglobin: implications for antimalarial activity
    Biochemical Journal, vol. 385, no. 2, p. 409, 2005
  25. Comparison of Immunogenicities of Recombinant Plasmodium vivax Merozoite Surface Protein 1 19- and 42-Kilodalton Fragments Expressed in Escherichia coli
    Infection and Immunity, vol. 72, no. 10, pp. 5775–5782, 2004
  26. Exploring the role of putative active site amino acids and pro-region motif of recombinant falcipain-2: a principal hemoglobinase of Plasmodium falciparum
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 317, no. 1, pp. 38–45, 2004
  27. Malaria Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 1, 2004
  28. Peptide design using ?,?-dehydro amino acids: From ?-turns to helical hairpins
    Biopolymers, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 150–161, 2004
  29. De Novo Design and Characterization of a Helical Hairpin EicosapeptideEmergence of an Anion Receptor in the Linker Region
    Structure, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 389–396, 2004
  30. Applying malaria parasite's heme detoxification system for screening potential antimalarial drugs
    Analytical Biochemistry, vol. 312, no. 2, pp. 258–260, 2003
  31. Replication fork-stimulated eIF-4A from Plasmodium cynomolgi unwinds DNA in the 3' to 5' direction and is inhibited by DNA-interacting compounds
    Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, vol. 414, no. 1, pp. 108–114, 2003
  32. Hemozoin formation in malaria: a two-step process involving histidine-rich proteins and lipids
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 308, no. 4, pp. 736–743, 2003
  33. Cloning and characterization of Plasmodium falciparum homologs of nuclear import factors, karyopherin a and karyopherin ß
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 199–203, 2003
  34. Role of a two-residue spacer in an ?,?-didehydrophenylalanine containing hexapeptide: crystal and solution structure of Boc-Val-?Phe-Leu-Ala-?Phe-Ala-OMe
    Journal of Peptide Science, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 54–63, 2003
  35. In vivo gene silencing in Plasmodium berghei—a mouse malaria model
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 309, no. 3, pp. 506–511, 2003
  36. Malaria Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 1, 2003
  37. Third meeting on Novel Adjuvants Currently in or Close to Clinical Testing
    Vaccine, vol. 21, no. 25-26, pp. 3503–3524, 2003
  38. DNA prime–protein boost immunization in monkeys: efficacy of a novel construct containing functional domains of Plasmodium cynomolgi CS and TRAP
    FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 241–250, 2003
  39. Heme-Artemisinin Adducts Are Crucial Mediators of the Ability of Artemisinin to Inhibit Heme Polymerization
    Chemistry & Biology, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 321–332, 2002
  40. Novel genetic mapping tools in plants: SNPs and LD-based approaches
    Plant Science, vol. 162, no. 3, pp. 329–333, 2002
  41. Double-stranded RNA-mediated gene silencing of cysteine proteases (falcipain-1 and -2) of Plasmodium falciparum
    Molecular Microbiology, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 1245–1254, 2002
  42. Dehydrophenylalanine zippers: strong helix-helix clamping through a network of weak interactions
    Protein Engineering Design and Selection, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 331–335, 2002
  43. Malaria Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 1, 2002
  44. Specific and instantaneous one-step chemodetection of histidine-rich proteins by Pauly's stain
    Analytical Biochemistry, vol. 308, no. 2, pp. 405–408, 2002
  45. Amino terminus of Plasmodium falciparum acidic basic repeat antigen interacts with the erythrocyte membrane through band 3 protein
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 122, no. 1, pp. 45–54, 2002
  46. Isolation and characterization of an eIF-4A homologue from Plasmodium cynomolgi
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 0, no. 1, p. 0, 2002
  47. Immunogenicity of recombinant fragments of Plasmodium falciparum acidic basic repeat antigen produced in Escherichia coli
    Parasite Immunology, vol. 23, no. 8, pp. 435–444, 2001
  48. De novo design and characterization of an apolar helical hairpin peptide at atomic resolution: Compaction mediated by weak interactions
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 98, no. 3, pp. 870–874, 2001
  49. Mechanism of malarial haem detoxification inhibition by chloroquine
    Biochemical Journal, vol. 355, no. 2, p. 333, 2001
  50. Expression and characterisation of Plasmodium falciparum acidic basic repeat antigen expressed in Escherichia coli
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 106, no. 2, pp. 213–224, 2000
  51. Mice immunised with synthetic peptide from N-terminal conserved region of merozoite surface antigen-2 of human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum can control infection induced by Plasmodium yoelii yoelii 265BY strain
    Vaccine, vol. 18, no. 9-10, pp. 920–930, 1999
  52. Assay of ß-hematin formation by malaria parasite
    Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, vol. 20, no. 1-2, pp. 203–207, 1999
  53. Artemisinin, an Endoperoxide Antimalarial, Disrupts the Hemoglobin Catabolism and Heme Detoxification Systems in Malarial Parasite
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 274, no. 27, pp. 19383–19388, 1999
  54. Heme binding and polymerization by Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein II: influence of pH on activity and conformation
    FEBS Letters, vol. 459, no. 2, pp. 267–271, 1999
  55. A Colorimetric Assay for Heme in Biological Samples Using 96-Well Plates
    Analytical Biochemistry, vol. 268, no. 1, pp. 159–161, 1999
  56. RNA Helicase-Related Genes ofPlasmodium falciparumandPlasmodium cynomolgi,
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 255, no. 2, pp. 312–316, 1999
  57. Plasmodium falciparum:Variations in the C-Terminal Cysteine-Rich Region of the Merozoite Surface Protein-1 in Field Samples among Indian Isolates,
    Experimental Parasitology, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 12–18, 1999
  58. IR investigation on dehydrophenylalanine containing model peptides in helical conformation deposited on a crystal surface
    Biopolymers, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 595–601, 1999
  59. Role of two consecutive a,ß-dehydrophenylalanines in peptide structure: Crystal and molecular structure of Boc-Leu-?Phe-?Phe-Ala-Phe-NHMe
    Biopolymers, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 373–382, 1997
  60. Cloning and sequence analysis of a gene encoding an erythrocyte binding protein from Plasmodium cynomolgi
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 89, no. 2, pp. 301–306, 1997
  61. Synthetic peptides corresponding to a repetitive sequence of malarial histidine rich protein bind haem and inhibit haemozoin formation in vitro
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 281–287, 1997
  62. Cloning and sequence analysis of the thrombospondin-related adhesive protein (TRAP) gene of Plasmodium cynomolgi bastianelli
    Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 371–376, 1997
  63. Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 119, no. 14, pp. 3205–3211, 1997
  64. Solution structure of dehydropeptides: A CD investigation
    Biopolymers, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 97–108, 1996