Gaurav Kumar
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Protein biophysics
- Biochemistry
- Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDP)
- Phase separation
- Compartmentalisation and self-assembly
Biography
Before joining Azim Premji University, he was a postdoctoral research associate at University of York. His project was to investigate the role of linker proteins in the assembly of Rubisco enzyme in Algal Pyrenoids.
He completed his PhD from Institute of Nanoscience and Technology, Mohali and IISER Mohali, where he studied bacterial compartment in Salmonella, the role of shell proteins and their interaction with the encapsulated enzymes.
He loves reading books (philosophy, historical fictions, non-fiction). He enjoys moments with a good book and a cup of good coffee.
Publications
Journal articles
- Kumar G, Barrett J, Van der Stappen P, Payne-Dwyer A, Nam O, Shepherd J, Frame L, Howard J, Malis V, Dégut C, Hodgkinson MR, Richter RP, Schaefer C, Plevin MJ, Hondele M, Leake MC, Engel BD, Mackinder LCM. (2026). Sticker number modulates pyrenoid condensate assembly to support algal fitness. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.27.701992
- Payne-Dwyer A, Kumar G, Barrett J, Gherman LK, Hodgkinson M, Plevin M, Mackinder L, Leake MC, Schaefer C. (2024). Predicting Rubisco-Linker Condensation from Titration in the Dilute Phase. Physical Review Letters. 132(21):218401.
- Kumar G, Sinha S. (2023). Self-assembly of shell protein and native enzyme in a crowded environment leads to catalytically active phase condensates. Biochemical Journal. 480(8):539 – 53.
- Kumar G, Bari NK, Hazra JP, Sinha S. (2022). A Major Shell Protein of 1, 2‐Propanediol Utilization Microcompartment Conserves the Activity of Its Signature Enzyme at Higher Temperatures. ChemBioChem. e202100694.
- Kumar G, Hazra JP, Sinha S. (2022). Disordered regions endow structural flexibility to shell proteins and function towards shell – enzyme interactions in 1, 2‑propanediol utilization microcompartment. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics. 23:1 – 1
- Bedi S, Kumar G, Rose SM, Rakshit S, Sinha S. (2022). Barrier-free liquid condensates of nanocatalysts as effective concentrators of catalysis. Chem Commun (Camb). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC03111F
- Bari NK, Hazra JP, Kumar G, Kaur S, Sinha S. (2020). Probe into a multi-protein prokaryotic organelle using thermal scanning assay reveals distinct properties of the core and the shell. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects. 1864(10):129680.
- Bari NK, Kumar G, Hazra JP, Kaur S, Sinha S. (2020). Functional protein shells fabricated from the self-assembling protein sheets of prokaryotic organelles. Journal of Materials Chemistry B.2020;8(3):523 – 33.
- Bari NK, Kumar G, Bhatt A, Hazra JP, Garg A, Ali ME, Sinha S. (2018). Nanoparticle fabrication on bacterial microcompartment surface for the development of hybrid enzyme-inorganic catalyst. ACS Catalysis. 8(9):7742 – 8.
Book chapters
- Kumar G, Sinha S. Biophysical approaches to understand and re-purpose bacterial microcompartments. (2021). Current Opinion in Microbiology. 63:43 – 51.
- Bari NK, Kumar G, Sinha S. (2021). The Wrappers of the 1, 2‑Propanediol Utilization Bacterial Microcompartments. Biochemical and Biophysical Roles of Cell Surface Molecules. 333 – 44.