Mr. Prateek Kumar is a Ph.D. Candidate at School of Basic Science, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. He works on different systems of viral proteins to study their folding/unfolding behaviour, disordered property, protein-protein interaction, and structure-based inhibitor designing. His research is based on understanding the protein dynamics in different environments, modulation upon interaction with lipids, and identification of inhibitors against specified targets using in-silico as well as in-vitro approaches. He has published his research works in reputed and peer-reviewed international journals.
Mr. Kumar earned an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He did his B.Sc. in Zoology from University of Delhi, New Delhi. In 2018, he worked as an intern for two months in his current home institute and worked on structure-based drug discovery on viral (Zika virus, Chikungunya virus) proteins. Since then, he has developed his interest in structure biology and drug designing.
During the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, he will investigate the least explored area of capsid protein and RNA interaction of Zika Virus. He will also perform experiments to identify novel druggable molecules.
Mr. Kumar has great interest in computers and likes to learn and implement newly developed technologies. Additionally, he is fond of cooking vegetarian food.