Garikapati Narahari Sastry Explained

Garikapati Narahari Sastry
Birth Place:Andhra Pradesh, India
Nationality:Indian
Field:Chemistry, theoretical chemistry, Computer Aided Drug Design
Work Institution:IIT-Hyderabad
North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat
Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
Pondicherry University
Alma Mater:Osmania University, University of Hyderabad
Doctoral Advisor:Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis,
Academic Advisors:Sason Shaik
Known For:Molecular Modeling and Computer-Aided Drug Design
Website:https://neist.res.in/gnsastry/

Garikapati Narahari Sastry is an Indian Chemist and a Professor at the Department of Biotechnology at IIT-Hyderabad.[1] He served as Director of CSIR- North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat[2] Jorhat, Assam from 19 February 2019 and served there till 10 January 2024.[3] [4] After taking charge as the Director, he has worked towards converting knowledge in the areas of computational modelling and Artificial intelligence from basic to translational research, by working closely with society and industry. Ultimately, revitalizing the strength of science and technology is essential in achieving the self-reliant and strong India. In the era of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, combining our traditional wisdom with modern science appear to be indispensable in the sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Industrial and Societal development at large. Prior to joining as the Director, he headed the Molecular Modelling Division at the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, India. Sastry has made pioneering contributions in the areas of computational chemistry and computational biology.

He was awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2011, the highest science award in India, in the chemical sciences category.[5]

Early life and education

G. N. Sastry completed his BSc (1985) and MSc (1988) from Osmania University. He earned his PhD from University of Hyderabad in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. E. D. Jemmis in 1995. Subsequently, he moved to Israel to carry out his first postdoctoral studies (1994 – 1996) with Prof. Sason Shaik in Hebrew University where he majorly focused on valance bond modelling and electronic transfer reactions. In 1996, he moved to Switzerland and did his second postdoctoral studies with Prof. Thomas Bally in University of Fibourg, Switzerland. In Switzerland he worked in Molecular modelling and theoretical and physical organic chemistry.

Career

After two postdoctoral stints, he moved to India and he has served as Assistant Professor in Pondicherry University for five years (1997 – 2002). There majorly focused on Molecular modelling and theoretical and physical organic chemistry. In 2002 he moved to CSIR – Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad where he served for almost two decades and made fundamental contributions in supramolecular chemistry which itself is a highly interdisciplinary areas. On 19 February 2019, he took charge as a Director in CSIR – North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam and served their till 10 January 2024. Currently, he is serving as Professor at Department of Biotechnology at IIT-Hyderabad.

Scientific contributions

Sastry's group is highly interdisciplinary with diverse background that include chemistry, biology, material science, and computer science. With more than 300 research papers, which received over ~11000 citations, and an h-index of 52, he is one of the most prolific scientist in India making contributions in areas like noncovalent interactions,[6] [7] computer aided drug design,[8] [9] [10] [11] bucky bowl chemistry,[12] [13] and applications of machine learning in computational drug discovery.[14] [15] He is also interested to unravel ~5000 years of traditional knowledge with 100 years of modern science. DISHA (Development of Informatics for Societal Health Advancement) has been conceived by Dr. G.N. Sastry with the aim to leverage the activities of data driven approaches in healthcare.

In the last decade, his group is involved in developing an indigenous software, Molecular Property Diagnostic Suite (MPDS),[16] [17] [18] which aims to strengthen the computational drug discovery, and thereby working towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Dr. Sastry is also involved in a number of outreach programs and widely traveled across the globe and has visited over 25 countries. His stays as a visiting professor (faculty) in Japan, USA, Germany and Switzerland, besides several short visits to attend and organize meetings abroad has established a strong relationship in building international collaborations across the disciplines.

Fellowships and memberships

Prizes and honours

Leadership activities

As the Director, Dr. Sastry has shown outstanding leadership with many major programs and creating facilities contributing to the northeast region as well as nation.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: G. Narahari Sastry . 2024-03-30 . IIT Hyderabad . en.
  2. Web site: CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat. www.rrljorhat.res.in. 2019-03-26.
  3. Web site: Assam: CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology gets new director. 2019-02-19. Northeast Now. en-US. 2019-03-26.
  4. News: IICT scientist to head CSIR's only north east lab. Geetanath. V.. 2019-03-04. The Hindu. 2019-03-26. en-IN. 0971-751X.
  5. "11 scientists selected for Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award" ibn live, Sep 26,2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110929193539/http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/11-scientists-selected-for-shanti-swarup-bhatnagar-award/836081.html
  6. Cooperativity in Noncovalent Interactions . 10.1021/cr500344e . 2016 . Mahadevi . A. Subha . Sastry . G. Narahari . Chemical Reviews . 116 . 5 . 2775–2825 . 26840650 .
  7. Towards developing a criterion to characterize non-covalent bonds: A quantum mechanical study . 10.1039/D0CP05689H . 2021 . Kumar . Nandan . Saha . Soumen . Sastry . G. Narahari . Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics . 23 . 14 . 8478–8488 . 33876011 . 2021PCCP...23.8478K . 233308675 .
  8. Sequence, Structure, and Active Site Analyses of p38 MAP Kinase: Exploiting DFG-out Conformation as a Strategy to Design New Type II Leads . 10.1021/ci100340w . 2011 . Badrinarayan . Preethi . Sastry . G. Narahari . Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling . 51 . 1 . 115–129 . 21141877 .
  9. 10.1371/journal.pone.0113773 . free . Specificity Rendering "Hot-Spots" for Aurora Kinase Inhibitor Design: The Role of Non-Covalent Interactions and Conformational Transitions . 2014 . Badrinarayan . Preethi . Sastry . G. Narahari . PLOS ONE . 9 . 12 . e113773 . 25485544 . 4259475 . 2014PLoSO...9k3773B .
  10. Dynamics Based Pharmacophore Models for Screening Potential Inhibitors of Mycobacterial Cyclopropane Synthase . 10.1021/ci500737b . 2015 . Choudhury . Chinmayee . Priyakumar . U. Deva . Sastry . G. Narahari . Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling . 55 . 4 . 848–860 . 25751016 .
  11. Drug repositioning for anti-tuberculosis drugs: An in silico polypharmacology approach . 10.1007/s11030-021-10296-2 . 2022 . Madugula . Sita Sirisha . Nagamani . Selvaraman . Jamir . Esther . Priyadarsinee . Lipsa . Sastry . G. Narahari . Molecular Diversity . 26 . 3 . 1675–1695 . 34468898 . 237372892 .
  12. Conjugate acene fused buckybowls: Evaluating their suitability for p-type, ambipolar and n-type air stable organic semiconductors . 10.1039/C3CP44673E . 2013 . Purushotham . Uppula . Sastry . G. Narahari . Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics . 15 . 14 . 5039–5048 . 23450210 . 2013PCCP...15.5039P .
  13. Buckybowls as adsorbents for CO2, CH4, and C2H2: Binding and structural insights from computational study . 10.1002/jcc.24242 . 2016 . Hussain . M. Althaf . Vijay . Dolly . Sastry . G. Narahari . Journal of Computational Chemistry . 37 . 3 . 366–377 . 26519620 . 461837 .
  14. Chemoinformatics and Machine Learning Approaches for Identifying Antiviral Compounds . 10.1002/minf.202100190 . 2022 . John . Lijo . Soujanya . Yarasi . Mahanta . Hridoy Jyoti . Narahari Sastry . G. . Molecular Informatics . 41 . 4 . e2100190 . 34811938 . 244490227 .
  15. 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.105419 . A machine learning-based approach to determine infection status in recipients of BBV152 (Covaxin) whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for serological surveys . 2022 . Singh . Prateek . Ujjainiya . Rajat . Prakash . Satyartha . Naushin . Salwa . Sardana . Viren . Bhatheja . Nitin . Singh . Ajay Pratap . Barman . Joydeb . Kumar . Kartik . Gayali . Saurabh . Khan . Raju . Rawat . Birendra Singh . Tallapaka . Karthik Bharadwaj . Anumalla . Mahesh . Lahiri . Amit . Kar . Susanta . Bhosale . Vivek . Srivastava . Mrigank . Mugale . Madhav Nilakanth . Pandey . C.P. . Khan . Shaziya . Katiyar . Shivani . Raj . Desh . Ishteyaque . Sharmeen . Khanka . Sonu . Rani . Ankita . Promila . Sharma . Jyotsna . Seth . Anuradha . Dutta . Mukul . Computers in Biology and Medicine . 146 . 105419 . 35483225 . 9040372 . 245261536 . 1 .
  16. 10.1007/s12039-017-1268-4 . Assessing therapeutic potential of molecules: Molecular property diagnostic suite for tuberculosis MPDS TB . 2017 . Gaur . Anamika Singh . Bhardwaj . Anshu . Sharma . Arun . John . Lijo . Vivek . M Ram . Tripathi . Neha . Bharatam . Prasad V. . Kumar . Rakesh . Janardhan . Sridhara . Mori . Abhaysinh . Banerji . Anirban . Lynn . Andrew M. . Hemrom . Anmol J. . Passi . Anurag . Singh . Aparna . Kumar . Asheesh . Muvva . Charuvaka . Madhuri . Chinmai . Choudhury . Chinmayee . Kumar . D Arun . Pandit . Deepak . Bharti . Deepak R. . Kumar . Devesh . Singam . ER Azhagiya . Raghava . Gajendra PS . Sailaja . Hari . Jangra . Harish . Raithatha . Kaamini . Tanneeru . Karunakar . Chaudhary . Kumardeep . Journal of Chemical Sciences . 129 . 5 . 515–531 . 199377264 . 1 . free .
  17. Molecular property diagnostic suite (MPDS): Development of disease-specific open source web portals for drug discovery . 10.1080/1062936X.2017.1402819 . 2017 . Nagamani . S. . Gaur . A. S. . Tanneeru . K. . Muneeswaran . G. . Madugula . S. S. . Consortium . Mpds . Druzhilovskiy . D. . Poroikov . V. V. . Sastry . G. N. . Sar and Qsar in Environmental Research . 28 . 11 . 913–926 . 29206500 . 2017SQER...28..913N . 22904128 .
  18. 10.1016/j.jbi.2018.08.003 . Molecular property diagnostic suite for diabetes mellitus (MPDSDM): An integrated web portal for drug discovery and drug repurposing . 2018 . Gaur . Anamika Singh . Nagamani . Selvaraman . Tanneeru . Karunakar . Druzhilovskiy . Dmitry . Rudik . Anastassia . Poroikov . Vladimir . Narahari Sastry . G. . Journal of Biomedical Informatics . 85 . 114–125 . 30092360 . 51952429 . free .
  19. Web site: FNA. www.insaindia.res.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  20. Web site: FASc. www.ias.ac.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  21. Web site: FNASc. www.ias.nasi.nic.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  22. Web site: FBRSI. www.brsi.in. 10 July 2021 . en. 2022-07-02.
  23. Web site: FTAS. www.tasc.org.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  24. Web site: FAPAS. www.aphrdi.ap.gov.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  25. Web site: J C Bose Fellowship. www.serb.gov.in. 2019-03-26.
  26. Web site: JC Bose fellowship for IICT scientists. @businessline. 28 November 2015 . en. 2019-03-26.
  27. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/organisms-objects-&-ocean-are-their-work/852772/2 Organisms, objects and ocean are their work
  28. Web site: Dr. G. Narahari Sastry . humboldt-foundation.de . 2020-07-07.
  29. Web site: Swarnajayanti Fellowship. www.dst.gov.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  30. Web site: Archived copy . 25 October 2011 . 25 April 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120425091706/http://dbtindia.nic.in/PreviousYrAwardee.doc . dead .
  31. Web site: BC Deb Memorial Award. www.sciencecongress.nic.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  32. News: New flowering plant discovered in Arunachal Pradesh . NORTHEAST NOW . 5 March 2024.
  33. Web site: SRTP. www.vigyanprasar.gov.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  34. Web site: CSIR lab to organise nationwide summer research training programme . 4 June 2020 .
  35. Web site: Drug Discovery Hackathon. www.csir.res.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  36. Web site: Drug Discovery Hackathon. www.vigyanprasar.gov.in. en. 2022-07-02.
  37. Web site: Indore: Aastha soni selected for Drug Discovery Mentorship and Training Program .
  38. Web site: COVID-19 testing laboratory inaugurated in CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat .
  39. Web site: A COVID-19 testing laboratory established at Jorhat campus of NEIST in Assam . . 2 June 2020 .
  40. Web site: Assam scientist bags Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for pioneering work . 28 September 2021 .
  41. Web site: Infomar 2019 . 2 July 2022 . 19 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220319195944/http://www.rrljorhat.res.in/infowatch/infomar2019.pdf . dead .
  42. Web site: CSIR-NEIST signs MoU with BCPL .
  43. News: Genome surveillance for north east region begins . The Hindu . 20 July 2021 . Geetanath . V. .
  44. Web site: Assam: Jorhat-based NEIST signs pact with National Medicinal Plants Board for setting up facilitation Centre . April 2021 .
  45. Web site: CSIR-NEIST BioNEST, Jorhat – East & Northeast Region BioNEST Cluster .
  46. Web site: Itanagar: CSIR and CMERI set up 'centre for post harvest processing and research Arunachal24 . 20 August 2019 .
  47. News: CSIR research unit set up in Arunachal Pradesh for post-harvest processing Itanagar News - Times of India . . 21 August 2019 .
  48. Web site: CSIR Director General visits Northeast to trigger scientific temper - Sentinelassam . 21 October 2021 .