Dr. Sanjukta completed her Masters in Applied Chemistry from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Howrah. Subsequently, following a very early career (pre-PhD) industry exposure, she obtained her PhD in organic chemistry from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata before joining as a postdoctoral fellow at ISIR (SANKEN), Osaka University, Japan. After two and half years she was promoted there to Assistant Professor. Afterwards she wishes to return back to India for personal reasons and had been associated with various premier research institution in India to pursue her research work before her appointment at Chanakya University. She was honored to be awarded a Campus Fellow position to conduct her independent research at TIFR-National Centre for Biological Science (NCBS), Bangalore. During this time, she maintained a concurrent affiliation with Osaka University, Japan as a specially appointed researcher and assistant professor (adjunct position) until covid pandemic. Subsequently, she was associated with DBT- Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), Bangalore as a visiting scientist for a year and served as a BIRAC-BIG innovator and incubatee at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP). Thereafter for one year she was affiliated with DBT-National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune as an DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Intermediate Fellow. She is deeply involved in translational research as well as entrepreneurship in the field of biomedical and drug development to translate her research outcomes for clinical applications.
Research interests
Most of the biological processes originate from fundamental chemical events. Small molecules hold immense potential—not only as chemical probes to understand and manipulate biological systems but also for its broad translational applications in biomedical research and drug discovery. We are an interdisciplinary team working at the interface of chemistry and biology. We are aspiring to design and discover unique organic molecules that serve as chemical probes to precisely modulate the structure and function of nucleic acids, with a particular emphasis on RNA. We are also developing various approaches/techniques to understand RNA privilege chemical space for small molecule. Currently, our primary focus is to develop RNA-specific chemical probes that enable super-resolution imaging of RNA in live cells. Through these tools, we aim to interfere RNA–protein interactions to understand their association in RNA/protein phase separation, protein aggregation and correlate their physiological or pathological functions.
Extramural fellowship/funding/Honors and awards
DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship, 2024-till
BIRAC-Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG), 2022
Osaka University’s International Joint Research Promotion Program Grant as Assistant Professor, 2020-2021
Indo-Japan (DST and JSPS) Bilateral Cooperative Science Program (IJCSP) grant, 2018-2020
TIFR-NCBS Campus Fellowship, 2017-2021
UGC-CSIR/ National Eligibility Test (NET), 2006
Publications (*Corresponding, #Equally contributed)
1. Paul Nayim, Armelle T. Mbaveng, Krishna Sudhir, Brice E. N. Wamba, Mukherjee Sanjukta,* Victor Kuete;* “Phytochemistry and pharmacology of Imperata cylindrica: A comprehensive review” Invest Med Chem Pharmacol. 2023, 6(1):76.
2. Reety Arora, Lamiya Dohadwala, Bageshri Nanavati, Vairavan Lakshmanan, Sanjukta Mukherjee. “Merkel cell polyomavirus regulates miR183 cluster and piR62011 in Merkel cell carcinoma” bioRxiv 2022, preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.18.476776.
3. Sanjukta Mukherjee,* Asako Murata, Ryoga Ishida, Ayako Sugai, Chikara Dohno, Michiaki Hamada, Sudhir Krishna and Kazuhiko Nakatani*; “HT-SELEX based identification of binding pre-miRNA hairpin loop motif for small molecular ligand” Molecular Therapy – Nucleic Acids 2022, 27, 165-174.
4. Sanjukta Mukherjee,* Bhagyashree Shelar, and Sudhir Krishna,* “Versatile role of miR-24/24-1*/24-2* expression in cancer and other human diseases” (Review article) American Journal of Translational Research 2022, 14, 20-54.
5. Paul Nayim, Krishna Sudhir, Armelle T. Mbaveng,* Victor Kuete* and Mukherjee Sanjukta*; “In vitro anticancer activity of Imperata cylindrica root’s extract toward human cervical cancer and identification of potential bioactive compounds” BioMed Research International 2021, 2021, Article ID 4259777.
6. Patryk Konieczny,# Sanjukta Mukherjee,# Ewa Stepniak-Konieczna, Katarzyna Taylor, Daria Niewiadomska, Agnieszka Piasecka, Agnieszka Walczak, Anna Baud, Chikara DOHNO, Kazuhiko Nakatani, Krzysztof Sobczak; “Cyclic mismatch binding ligands interact with disease-associated CGG trinucleotide repeats in RNA and suppress their translation” Nucleic Acids Research 2021, 49, 9479-9495.
7. Paul Nayim, Armelle T Mbaveng, Mukherjee Sanjukta,* Jain Rikesh, Victor Kuete,* Krishna Sudhir; “CD24 gene inhibition and TIMP-4 gene upregulation by Imperata cylindrica’s root extract prevents metastasis of CaSki cells via inhibiting PI3K/Akt/snail signaling pathway and blocking EMT” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2021, 275, 114111.
8. Sanjukta Mukherjee,# Leszek Błaszczyk, # Wojciech Rypniewski, Christoph Falschlunger, Ronald Micura, Asako Murata, Chikara Dohno1, Kazuhiko Nakatani1, and Agnieszka Kiliszek; Nucleic Acids Research 2019, 47, 10906-10913.
9. Takahito Ohshiro, Rajiv Kumar Verma, Kazumichi Yokota, Makusu Tsutsui, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Tomoji Kawai, Kazuhiko Nakatani, and Masateru Taniguch; “Electrical nucleotide sensor based on synthetic guanine-receptor-modified electrodes” ChemistrySelect 2018, 3, 3819-3824.
10. Patryk Konieczny,# Sanjukta Mukherjee,# Chikara Dohno, Kazuhiko Nakatani, Krzysztof Sobczak; “Cyclic naphthyridine dimers as therapeutic agents for fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome” Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 2017, 77 (Suppl. 1), P.72.
11. Kazuhiko Nakatani, Nozomi Natsuhara, Yuki Mori, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Bimolendu Das, Asako Murata; “Synthesis of naphthyridine dimers with conformational restriction and the binding to DNA and RNA” Chem. Asian J. 2017, 12, 3077-3087.
12. Sanjukta Mukherjee,* Chikara Dohno, Kazuhiko Nakatani*; “Design and Synthesis of Cyclic Mismatch-Binding Ligands (CMBLs) with Variable Linkers by Ring-Closing Metathesis and their Photophysical and DNA Repeat Binding Properties” Chem. Eur. J. 2017, 23, 11385-11396.
13. Sanjukta Mukherjee, Chikara Dohno, Kaori Asano, Kazuhiko Nakatani; “Cyclic mismatch binding ligand CMBL4 binds to the 5’-T-3’/5’-GG-3’ site by inducing the flipping out of thymine base” Nucleic Acids Research. 2016, 44, 7090–7099.
14. Biswajit Chakraborty, Debasmita Dutta, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Supriya Das, Nakul C. Maiti, Padma Das, Chinmay Chowdhury; “Synthesis and biological evolution of a novel betulinic acid derivative as an inducer of apoptosis in human colon carcinoma cells (HT-29)”. Eur. J. Med Chem. 2015, 102, 93-105.
15. Chinmay Chowdhury, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Bimolendu Das and Basudeb Achari; “Palladium catalysed approach for the general synthesis of (E)-(2-Arylmethylidene-N-tosylindolines and (E)-2-Arylmethylidene-N-tosyl/nosyltetrahydroquinolines: Access to 2-substituted indoles and quinolines” J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 5108-5119.
16. Chinmay Chowdhury, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Biswajit Chakraborty, Basudeb Achari; “A Rapid and Facile Method for the General synthesis of 3-Aryl Substituted 4,5,6,7-Tetrahydro[1,2,3]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrazines and their Ring Fused Analogues” Org. Biomol. Chem. 2011, 9, 5856-5862.
17. Chinmay Chowdhury, Kaushik Brahma, Sanjukta Mukherjee and Anup Kumar Sasmal; “Totally Regio- and Stereoselective Synthesis of (E)-3-Arylidene-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,4-benzoxazines under Palladium Catalyst” Tetrahedron Lett. 2010, 51, 2859-2861.
18. Chinmay Chowdhury, Sanjukta Mukherjee, Bimolendu Das and Basudeb Achari; “Expedient and Rapid Synthesis of 1,2,3-Triazolo[5,1-c]morpholines through Palladium-Copper Catalysis” J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 3612-3615.