Shweta Kumari and Abishek Bharadhwaj won the best poster award for their research work on Structural modulation in Smoothened (SMO) upon cholesterol binding at the second edition of student-driven conference Hy-Sci 2020 held virtually from 17 – 18 December.
Research work as explained by Shweta and Abishek:
The Smoothened receptor (SMO), a class F GPCR, plays a crucial role in the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway. SMO is inhibited by the Patched (Ptc) receptor in the presence of Hh ligand via small molecules by an unknown mechanism. The structure of SMO showed a bound cholesterol molecule in the extracellular cysteine-rich domain (CRD) of the receptor. We carried out coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG MD) simulations of SMO in POPC (homogeneous) and primary cilium (heterogeneous) membrane models. Interaction of membrane cholesterols with preferential sites on the transmembrane (TM) domain and the CRD of SMO was observed. The simulations revealed a significant change in the CRD together with a rearrangement of the TM bundle and the conformational disposition of the intracellular-cytoplasmic domain (ICD) when cholesterol was present in the membrane.
Shweta Kumari is a Ph.D student working under the supervision of Prof. Abhijit Mitra, Center for Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics (CCNSB) and Dr. Gopalakrishnan Bulusu, adjunct professor at IIIT Hyderabad and a former principal scientist at TCS Innovation Labs, Hyderabad (May 2003 – August 2020).
Abishek Bharadhwaj is a Ph.D student of CCMB Hyderabad.
In the microcosm of Indian biology research, Hyderabad is a rich hotspot. Regular scientific dialogue and discussions between the students of various research institutes here will not only keep them informed of research happening next door, but also broaden their horizons. To initiate these long overdue discussions, students from CSIR-CCMB had started the Hy-Sci Conference in 2019. In continuation with that, they were back with Hy-Sci 2020. This meet was an enriching experience for the students and will kick start many collaborations and active scientific exchange between different research institutes in Hyderabad, increasing their collective potential and output.
More details at: http://e-portal.ccmb.res.in/hysciconf/