About
Dr. Purba Mukherjee is an EPSRC Open Fellow and Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York, UK. She leads the Protein Design & Synthesis Group within the York Structural Biology Laboratory. Her research focuses on protein-primed DNA replication mechanisms, chemoenzymatic synthesis of biotherapeutics, and enzyme engineering for nanomachine assembly. She holds a PhD from SUNY Albany (2014) and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Scripps Research Institute, and IISER Kolkata before joining York in 2020.
Education:
- PhD, SUNY Albany, 2014
- Bachelor's/Master's qualifications not explicitly stated
Research Interests:
Her work explores unique replication processes in niche organisms like bacteriophages and Streptomyces, with aims to design programmable enzymes for nucleic acid therapeutics. Current projects include:
- Mechanistic studies of protein-primed replication
- Development of thermostable polymerases for nucleic acid modification
- Enzymatic synthesis of peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates
Awards:
- EPSRC Open Fellowship (2020–2025)
- American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015–2019)
Grants:
Principal Investigator for Development of programmable nanomachines towards the enzymatic synthesis of peptide oligonucleotide conjugates (2024–2029).
Labs/Teams:
Her lab employs protein chemistry, peptide synthesis, and molecular biology to engineer enzymes for biomedical applications. Recent activities include lab expansions at York and collaborations with global institutions.
