Dr Aswathy Kallazhi

Aswathy currently works within the Tung lab.

With a focus on protein biochemistry and molecular mechanisms of cell division, Aswathy works on two different projects.

Protein folds are structural elements of proteins which can be conserved across several proteins in different organisms and help in its function. Her work investigates the structural and biochemical elements of a conserved fold in the chromosome segregation protein ParB and its homologs that control the specificity of the nucleotide triphosphates (NTPs) bound by the protein.

Survival of microorganisms under extreme conditions requires constant updating of the cellular proteome in response to internal or external signals and is maintained by an arsenal of proteins like proteases, chaperones and their regulators. Aswathy’s work aims to investigate the protein homeostasis in thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius and its role in cell cycle regulation.