Dr. Prasad Dandekar
Assistant Professor
Overview
Dr. Prasad completed M. Sc. in Biotechnology in 2010 followed by qualifying CSIR-NET (Lectureship) in the same year. He isolated 11 new, and chemo-taxonomically characterized 4 unclassified endophytic bacterial isolates (with initiation of large scale process optimization of a antibacterial peptide from endophyte Bacillus spp. From Anthocephalus spp. – Kadamba tree) from medicinal plants for a project at Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology, Baramati. As a Lecturer at Nowrosjee Wadia college, he taught, examined and supervised undergraduate Biotechnology students. His special achievements at the college included supervising blind students and contributing in an extra credit course as a visiting faculty. He joined Prof. Ameeta Ravikamar’s laboratory at Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2013 and received PhD in Biochemistry in 2021. During his PhD, he elucidated the human pancreatic amylase inhibition mechanism of a phytochemical using enzyme kinetics, binding thermodynamics, and molecular docking. He has published a process patent on the purification process. He continued as a Project Consultant after his PhD followed by assisting on an ICMR project in the Hepatitis Group at the National Institute of Virology alongwith assistance in Computational Data Analysis of Sars-Cov-2 sequences. His research at NIV led to identification of a few potential antiviral drug candidates through RNA-seq data analysis and computational drug repurposing approaches.
His research interests include metabolic disorders, pharmaceutically important natural products and their purification and characterization, preservation and chemotaxonomic analysis of bacteria; bioassays and culturing and preservation of plant and animal cells; multi-omics analysis, RNA sequencing, molecular docking, 2D and 3D Qualitative structure-activity relationship with relevant Bioinformatic approaches.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. Biochemistry | Savitribai Phule Pune University Maharashtra: 2013-2021
- M.Sc.Biotechnology | Shivaji University, Kolhapur: 2008-2010
- BSc Biotechnology | Shivaji University, Kolhapur: 2006-2008
Experience
Career Highlights
Publications
- Patent: Glycosidase Inhibitor, Process For Its Preparation, And Applications Thereof, Published in The Patent Office Journal, issue no. 12/2021 dated 19/03/2021, page 14490.
- Research Article: Dandekar P.; Kotmale, A.; Chawan, S.; Kadlag, P.; Sawant, S.; Dhavale, D.; Ravikumar, A. “Insights into inhibition mechanism of human pancreatic α-amylase, a Type 2 Diabetes target, by dehydrodieugenol B isolated from Ocimum tenuiflorum” American Chemical Society ACS Omega 2021, 6, 1780−1786. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c00617
- Book Chapter: Dandekar P., Ramkumar S. Ravikumar A.“Structure-Activity Relationships of Pancreatic α-amylase and α-glucosidase as anti-diabetic targets”, Studies in Natural Products Chemistry (Bioactive Natural Products), 70, 381-410 edited by Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS, Elsevier Science Publishers, The Netherlands, Vol. 70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819489-8.00014-4
Awards and Honors
- A recipient of Sakal India Foundations’s Oka Research Fellowship for his impressive research and competence improvement and knowledge enrichment in his research area.
- Qualified CSIR NET LS DEC 2010 (AIR-205) in Life sciences
Projects
- Computational Drugs repurposing approaches for the development of therapeutics against Hepatitis E Virus
- Multi-Omics studies in animal models for analyzing the effects on the omics of the diabetic animals to evaluate safety, efficacy and interactions of medicinal compounds, plant extracts, and purified bio-chemicals.
- Characterization and mode of inhibition of pancreatic α-amylase inhibitors isolated from medicinal plants as a source of anti-diabetic agents
- In vivo, in vitro and in silico studies on the endophytic microorganisms
- Partial purification of fruit bromelain from Ananas comosus raw fruit and its proteolysis
- Comparison of antimicrobial effects of common household liquids
Conferences, Workshops and study excursions
Paper and poster presentation:- ‘Protein Structure and Drug discovery’ at School of Life Science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India: August 2017
- National symposium on ‘Biomedicine: unfolding the secrets from nature’ at Institute of bioinformatics and biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University’ January 2014
- Faculty improvement program/workshop on the elements of next generation sequencing by Amrita school of biotechnology January 2022
- Drug Discovery Hackathon-2020 jointly organized by AICTE, CSIR, Ministry of Education and MoE’s Innovation Cell, Government of India.
- ‘Omics’ approaches in Plant Sciences’ at Botany Department, Savitribai Phule Pune University: September 2019;
- Presented a poster in ‘Protein Structure and Drug discovery’ at School of Life Science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India: August 2017;
- Workshop on Biosafety in Teaching and Research organized by Institutional Biosafety Committee, Savitribai Phule Pune University, October 2017
- Workshop on Size Exclusion Chromatography/Gel Permeation Chromatography at NCL Venture Center, Pune: September 2012;
- ‘Current Trends in Epigenetics’ at IBB, Savitribai Phule Pune University: February 2016
- Serum Institute of India Ltd. Pune; Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Manjri; ICAR-National Research Center For Grapes, Manjiri, Pune; Katraj Dairy, Pune
- Regional Wheat Rust Station, Mahabaleshwar, Dist. Satara; Chitale Dairy, Bhilavadi, Dist. Sangli; Vaishnavi Pathological Laboratory, Sangli;
- Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., (Amul) Anand, Gujarat; Intas Biopharmaceuticals, Vadodara-Ahmedabad, Gujrat
- Krishna River Bank Sangli: 2008,
- Malvan & Tarkarli (Zoological specimen),
- Mahabaleshwar, Wai, Pachgani, (Botanical Samples)
