Dhanasekaran Shanmugam

Dhanasekaran Shanmugam

Biochemical Science Division

About Me

Research work in my laboratory is focused on studying cellular metabolism in apicomplexan parasites such as P. falciparum and T. gondii. Carbon and energy metabolic pathways in these parasites contain some unique features and in many instances are divergent or different from host species such as humans. Our interest is to understand various aspects of metabolic adaptation evolved by these parasites to sustain a parasitic life style and exploit unique and essential aspects of these metabolic features for identifying novel chemical inhibitors as leads for drug discovery. The approaches employed by our group will include a combination of genomic, biochemical, genetic and metabolomic techniques.

Professional Experience

  • 2018 on wards: Senior Principal Scientist (F), CSIR-NCL, Pune, India.
  • 2015 on wards: Associate Professor, AcSIR, Ghaziabad, India
  • 2013 - 2018: Principal Scientist (EII), CSIR-NCL, Pune, India.
  • 2012 - 2013: Quick Hire Fellow Scientist, CSIR-NCL, Pune, India.
  • 2004-2011: Post Doctoral Research Fellow (Mentor, Prof. Dr. David S. Roos), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
  • 1997-2004 Ph.D. (Mentors Prof. G. Padmanaban and Prof. P. N. Rangarajan), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Selected Publications

  • Lionel Urán Landaburu, Ariel J Berenstein, Santiago Videla, Parag Maru, Dhanasekaran Shanmugam, Ariel Chernomoretz And Fernán Agüero, TDR Targets 6: driving drug discovery for human pathogens through intensive chemogenomic data integration, Nucleic Acids Research ( NAR )., , (2019), DOI:10.1093/nar/gkz999.
  • Shivapurkar R, Hingamire T, Kulkarni AS, Rajamohanan PR, Reddy DS And Shanmugam D, Evaluating antimalarial efficacy by tracking glycolysis in Plasmodium falciparum using NMR spectroscopy, Scientific Reports., , (2018), DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-36197-3.
  • Reid J. A, Vermont J. S, Cotton A. J, Harris D, Hill-Cawthorne A. G And Ko, Comparative genomics of the apicomplexan parasites Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum: Coccidia differing in host range and transmission strategy, PLOS Pathogens., 8(3):e1002567, (2012).
  • Magarinos MP, Carmona SJ, Crowther GJ, Ralph SA, Roos DS, Shanmugam D And Van Voorhis WC, Aguero F. TDR Targets: a chemogenomics resource for neglected diseases, Nuc. Acid Res. 40:D1118-27. ., , (2012).
  • Shanmugam D, Ralph SA, Carmona SJ, Crowther GJ, Roos DS And Ferna, Integrating and mining helminth genomes to discover and prioritize novel therapeutic targets. (2012). In Press ? ? titled Chemo- and Immuno-therapeutic advances for treatment and control of helminthic infections. , Wiley Book Series (Vol 4) on ?Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases., , (2012).

Research Interest

  • Enzymology AND Microbiology
  • Chemical Biology
  • Human Diseases
  • Genetics and Evolution

Contact Details

Dr. Dhanasekaran Shanmugam


CSIR Senior Principal Scientist (F)
AcSIR Associate Professor
1908, Biochemical Sciences Division
National Chemical Laboratory
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road
Pune 411008, India
Phone  +91 20 2590 2719
Fax +91 20 2590 2648
E-mail d.shanmugam@ncl.res.in