Congratulations to Debasis Das for being selected as one of the ten EMBO Global Investigators in 2023 for his project on enzymatic dispersion of biofilms to combat biofilm-mediated microbial infections.
Debasis Das’s research group works at the nexus of Chemistry and Biology. The lab focuses on exploring poorly understood natural enzymes and harnesses their power for green energy and therapeutics applications. The group currently works on the following three research areas:
1. Hydrocarbon-producing metalloenzymes
2. Enzymatic eradication of biofilms to combat biofilm-associated infections
3. Development of biocompatible probes for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease
These research areas are deeply associated with poor human health and energy crises, which are pressing societal challenges. Debasis believes that knowledge of one specific field is often insufficient to find solutions to such challenges. Therefore, the lab employs tools from diverse fields, such as chemistry, chemical biology or biochemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology, to explore the above research areas.
Their lab also collaborates with other research groups in the Biological Sciences division on the campus. The group has already made substantial progress in these areas and is in the process of publishing the outcomes as well as patenting their discoveries. The lab attracts students from various academic backgrounds of diverse disciplines of chemistry and biology and maintains a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary atmosphere.
About EMBO:
EMBO is an international organisation of life scientists and directs funding from member states towards research fellowships, courses, workshops, conferences, and science policy initiatives. EMBO also has a stable of prestigious life science journals. The administrative headquarters is in Heidelberg, Germany. More information can be found here: www.embo.org
