Pucadyil Lab
Membrane remodelling in cellular physiology
Cell membranes are formed by the spontaneous self-assembly of amphipathic lipids into a 5 nanometer-thin bilayer sheet. Membranes are fluid and capable resealing quickly upon rupture. Membranes are also elastic and resist budding, fission and fusion. Perhaps, these qualities lie at the heart of why nature chose lipids to contain every know life form.
But cells are filled with numerous membrane-bound compartments, which implies that cells have evolved mechanisms to remodel membranes. Remodelling requires specialised protein machines that bend membranes for budding, fission and fusion. Together, these function to manage vesicular transport of lipids and proteins, organelle growth and division, and wound healing and naturally have a tremendous impact on cellular physiology.
The Pucadyil Lab focuses on understanding the mechanistic and regulatory aspects of membrane budding, fission and fusion reactions. We employ biochemical reconstitution approaches on model membrane templates and combine molecular modeling and cell biology to understand how membrane remodelling protein machines work.
Lab news
September 17, 2023
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Soumya's paper on reconstituting membrane tubulation and fission using novel cushioned bilayer templates posted on the bioarxiv.
June 19, 2023
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Our review on gears in dynamin-catalyzed fission gets published in Current Opinions in Cell Biology.
March 21, 2023
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Himani gets invited to give a talk at the EMBO Cell Polarity and Membrane Dynamics meeting.
March 16, 2023
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Thomas' invited perspective piece on mitochondrial fission published in Molecular Cell.
February 9, 2023
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Himani's paper on a novel variable loop in dynamin accepted in PNAS.
February 4, 2023
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Thomas gets invited to speak at the Biophysical Society's Membrane Fusion and Budding meeting in Colorado.
January 20-24, 2023
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The Pucadyil Lab attends the 45th All India Cell Biology Conference at Varanasi. This is somewhat of a lab retreat as well (see the photos).
September 4, 2022
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Himani's paper on a novel variable loop in dynamin posted on the bioarxiv.
August 30, 2022
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Uma, Megha and Gurmail get selected to present posters at the EMBO Phosphoinositide meeting.
June 22, 2022
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Krishnendu get the EMBO Travel Grant to attend the EMBO Birth and Fission of Cellular Compartments meeting.
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Shilpa get the Infosys Travel Grant to attend the EMBO Birth and Fission of Cellular Compartments meeting.
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Our response to a recent paper claiming that Drp1 does not catalyze fission gets published as Letter to the Editor in PNAS.
April 19, 2022
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The Pucadyil Lab gets awarded the Team Science Grant from DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance.
February 14, 2022
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Devika's and Himani's paper on SUPER template pulldowns accepted in a special issue dedicated to Erwin London in the Journal of Membrane Biology.
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Krishnendu's paper on metal binding in the mitochondrial Drp1 accepted in a special issue of membrane remodelling in the Journal of Membrane Biology.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, INDIA