Prabodhika Mallikaratchy

The focus of my research group is to develop nucleic acid-based biochemical tools decorated with nucleic acid aptamers as recognition arms. Nucleic acid aptamers are synthetic ligands identified using a method called SELEX. We want to use these tools to intercept interactions between cell surface receptors and their cognate external stimuli to explore cell receptor function and to develop innovative therapeutics and sensors. Our lab has three research directions. First, we want to develop new technologies based on SELEX to identify aptamers against cell surface receptors in their native state. Second, we want to engineer aptamers into molecular scaffolds to design programmable sensors and molecular tools to modulate cellular responses mediated by receptor-ligand interactions. Third, we want to design and synthesize novel nucleic acid molecules beyond the four existing letters (A, C, G,T) and use them as a building block to design aptamer ligands with superior chemical properties. To complete our research, we use highly interdisciplinary approach consisting of biochemical concepts, material design, organic synthesis, analytical chemistry and molecular biology.