Sriram Srikan
Profile info
Home:
Chennai, India
Entering Class:
2011
Lab:
Gaudet, Rachelle & Murray, Andrew
Undergraduate School:
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chemical Engineering)
Personal Statement:
A year ago, I walked away from being an engineer and entered the world of academia in Biology. In my time here, I have met and interacted with amazing scientists who have helped me identify and shape my interests. I enjoy the frequent ‘science chat’ with faculty and students alike and am fond of the journal clubs as great snippets of science in an informal setting. Outside of science, I collect comic books and relish my weekly trips to the bookstore with conversations on the latest events in the superhero multiverse. A year into a graduate school, I look forward to exploring the countryside, hiking and camping wherever possible.
Research Statement:
I am fascinated by the ability of biological molecules to coordinate and execute their functions to maintain the cell in a non-equilibrium ‘living’ state. By virtue of my undergraduate training, I view these problems through the lenses of an engineer, trying to understand the operating characteristics and specifications of these machines. I am particularly interested in the machinery present at the cell membrane that is used to sense and respond to the cell’s environment. As part of my doctoral research, I plan to study an ATP-consuming pheromone transporter essential for mating in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The introductory graduate classes in genetics and cell biology at MCB gave me a new appreciation for the diversity of living systems across evolution. For my current project and in the future, I want to take advantage of phylogenetic variation and structural principles to understand the mechanistic basis of molecular machines.
Publications:
Srikant S, Muralidharan SS, Natarajan U, Behavior of hydrogen bonding and structure of poly (acrylic acid) in water-ethanol solution investigated by explicit ion molecular dynamics simulations, Molecular Simulation. 2012.
Presentations:
Srikant S and Gsponer J (2010) ‘Transcript-level regulation, a codon-bias approach’ at the MITACS Globalink seminar.
Srikant S, Gaudet R and Murray A (2012) ‘Dissecting the mechanism of Ste6, an ABC transporter involved in Ste6 mating’ poster presented at the Dept. of MCB retreat