Durba Sengupta

Durba Sengupta

Physical and Materials Chemistry Division

About Me

The main objective of our group is to understand Self Organisation and Self Assembly in complex bio-systems, using the tools of physical chemistry. The current focus of our research is Membrane Biology and understanding the structure, dynamics and functions of proteins, lipids, sugars and sterols within the membrane. We use multi-scale simulations, molecular modelling and electrostatic calculations and compare to bio-physical techniques such as FCCS, cyro EM and electrophysiology.

Professional Experience

  • 2011-Current- Scientist Fellow (Ramalingaswami Fellow), National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India
  • 2006-2011 Post Doctoral Research Fellow (with Prof. Dr. Siewert Jan Marrink, University of Groningen, Netherlands)
  • 2001-2005 Ph.D Research (with Prof. Dr. Jeremy C. Smith, University of Heidelberg, Germany )

Selected Publications

  • V Dubey, X Prasanna And D Sengupta, Estimating the lipophobic effect in model membranes, J. Phys. Chem. B., 121, 2111 - 2120 (2017).
  • A Tandale, M Joshi And D Sengupta, Structural insights and functional implications of inter-indi­­­vidual variability in Beta2-adrenergic receptor, Sci. Rep., 6, 24379 (2016).
  • X Prasanna, D Sengupta And A Chattopadhyay, Cholesterol-dependent conformational plasticity in GPCR dimers, Sci. Rep., 6, 31858 (2016).
  • X Prasanna, M. Jafurulla, D Sengupta And A Chattopadhyay, The Ganglioside GM1 Interacts with the Serotonin1A Receptor via the Sphingolipid Binding Domain, BBA – Biomembranes, Biochim. Biophys. Acta (Biomembranes)., 1858, 2818 - 2826 (2016).
  • A Pawar, S Deshpande, SM Gopal, TA Wassenaar, CA Athale And D Sengupta, Thermodynamic and Kinetic Characterization of Transmembrane Helix Association, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 17, 1390 - 1398 (2015).
  • D Sengupta And A Chattopadhyay, Molecular dynamics simulations of GPCR–cholesterol interaction: An emerging paradigm, Biochim. Biophys. Acta (Biomembranes)., 1848, (2015), DOI:doi:10.1016/j.bbamem.2015.03.018.
  • X Prasanna, A. Chattopadhyay And D. Sengupta , Cholesterol Modulates the Dimer Interface of the B2-Adrenergic Receptor via Cholesterol Occupancy Sites, Biophys. J., In Press, (2014).
  • G Shahane, C Parsania, D Sengupta And M. Joshi, Molecular insights into the dynamics of pharmacogenetically important N-terminal variants of the human Beta2-adrenergic receptor, PLoS Comp. Biol., 10, e1004006 (2014).
  • Xavier Prasanna, PJ Praveen And Durba Sengupta, Sequence dependent lipid-mediated effects modulate the dimerization of ErbB2 and its associative mutants, Phys Chem Chem Phys., 15, 19031 - 19041 (2013), DOI:10.1039/C3CP52447G.
  • D Sengupta and A Chattopadhyay, Identification of Cholesterol Binding Sites in the Serotonin 1A Receptor, J. Phys. Chem. B., 116, 12991 - 1299 (2012).
  • D Sengupta , Cholesterol Modulates the Structure, Binding Modes and Energetics of Caveolin-Membrane Interactions, J. Phys. Chem. B., 116, 14556 - 14564 (2012).

Research Interest

  • Structural Biology
  • Biomolecular Chemistry
  • Chemical Biology
  • Physical Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry including Nanomaterials
  • Theory AND Computational Science
  • Mathematical and computational modeling
  • Human Diseases
  • Structure Biology
  • Mathematical & computational modeling
  • Bioinformatics
  • Molecular Informatics
  • Bioinformatics & Computational Chemistry
  • Drug Design and Virtual Screening
  • Biomolecular Crystallography and conformational analysis
  • Molecular modelling and Bioinformatics
  • Protein Chemistry and Proteomics
  • General Physical chemistry
  • Biophysical Science
  • Molecular recognition

Contact Details

Dr. Durba Sengupta


Scientist Fellow (Ramalingaswami Fellow)
Physical Chemistry Division
National Chemical Laboratory
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road
Pune 411008, India
Phone +91 20 2590 2408
E-mail d.sengupta@ncl.res.in