Interview with Dr. Achinta Sannigrahi | Vigyaan Patrika – Bio Patrika
Dr. Achinta Sannigrahi is currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He completed his PhD from the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics Division of CSIR–Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata, under the mentorship of Prof. Krishnananda Chattopadhyay (2014–2020). His doctoral research focused on protein–membrane interactions to unravel molecular mechanisms behind various pathogenic and neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Sannigrahi earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Burdwan (2009–2012), followed by an M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Guwahati (2012–2014). He qualified CSIR-UGC NET in 2013 and GATE in 2014. During his PhD, he was awarded the Biophysical Society Travel Award (2019) and an ICMR grant to attend the 63rd Biophysical Society Meeting in Baltimore, USA. He currently holds the prestigious SERB National Postdoctoral Fellowship at IISc.
In this interview, Dr. Sannigrahi discusses a significant portion of his PhD work recently published in eLife (2021).
🧬 How would you explain your paper’s key results to a non-scientific audience?
ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), is a fatal neurodegenerative condition that leads to progressive muscle paralysis and death. Although there’s no known cure yet, scientists believe that aggregation (clumping) of an enzyme called Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase (SOD1) plays a major role in causing the disease.
Our study investigates how and why this aggregation happens. We discovered that membrane interactions play a key role in triggering this aggregation. More specifically, we identified certain regions of SOD1, especially near the zinc-binding site, that are responsible for this membrane-induced aggregation. These regions are crucial for understanding the disease and could help in the design of drugs to treat ALS.
“The results provide a mechanistic understanding of how SOD1 aggregates, shedding light on the potential roots of ALS pathology.”
🔬 What are the implications of your findings?
There are two major outcomes of our study:
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We provide a mechanistic insight into how SOD1 aggregates, which can help explain how ALS develops at a molecular level.
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These insights offer a foundation for therapeutic development, by highlighting which regions of the enzyme should be targeted to prevent or reduce harmful aggregation.
✨ What was the eureka moment during your research?
Although ALS often arises sporadically, over 140 mutations in SOD1 are associated with different forms of the disease. However, no clear correlation had been established between mutation locations and disease severity.
While building our model, we realized something new: there was a correlation between the distance of a mutation site from the zinc-binding region and the severity of ALS symptoms. This observation had not been documented before and was a thrilling discovery for us.
🧭 What do you hope to do next?
Our current work is in vitro—conducted in controlled lab environments outside of living organisms. The next goal is to validate these results in animal models and, if possible, in human-derived systems to better understand real-world implications.
💡 Where do you find scientific inspiration?
I come from a small town in West Bengal, where education was always encouraged and curiosity was nurtured. Indian scientists have made remarkable contributions to global science despite facing many challenges—and that continues to inspire me.
I am deeply grateful to my PhD supervisor, Prof. Krishnananda Chattopadhyay, for his guidance and support. I’ve also drawn inspiration from my lab members, collaborators, and the vibrant global scientific community.
🌱 How do you hope to contribute to Indian science?
India’s biomedical research has made impressive progress, but we still need to improve translational science—turning lab discoveries into real-world applications.
I want to help bridge this gap by continuing to explore human biology at a molecular level. After completing my postdoctoral work, I plan to take up a faculty position in India and lead a research group that works toward developing therapeutics for diseases of national relevance.
📖 Reference
Sannigrahi A, Chowdhury S, Das B, Banerjee A, Halder A, Kumar A, Saleem M, Naganathan AN, Karmakar S, and Chattopadhyay K.
Metal cofactor zinc and interacting membranes modulate SOD1 conformation-aggregation landscape in an in vitro ALS model.
eLife 2021;10:e61453.
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.61453
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