We are glad to announce that Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI) will be conducting a special colloquium on “Decoding Life at the Atomic Level: How We See the Invisible World of Proteins” on 01 August 2025, 12 Noon at Seminar Hall, Narendrapur Campus.

Speaker : Dr. Siddhartha Roy, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata 
Co-ordinator: Prof. Abhijit Chakrabarti

Abstract

Structural biology has revolutionized our understanding of life by revealing the three-dimensional architecture of biological macromolecules at atomic resolution. The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895 laid the foundation for X-ray crystallography, which became the most powerful technique for determining protein structures. Landmark achievements including the DNA double helix structure and early protein structures like myoglobin transformed biology and medicine. This talk will trace the historical development of structural biology, highlighting key technological advances and breakthrough discoveries that shaped the field. The presentation will showcase how X-ray crystallography has evolved from simple salt crystals to complex biological machines, enabling drug discovery and our understanding of fundamental life processes. In the second part, I will discuss our laboratory’s current research on chromatin and epigenetic regulation using structural biology approaches. Our work focuses on understanding how chromatin-modifying enzymes and associated proteins regulate gene expression through their three-dimensional structures. We employ X-ray crystallography and complementary biophysical techniques to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying epigenetic modifications. These structural insights reveal how proteins recognize specific chromatin states and translate epigenetic information into functional outcomes. Our findings contribute to understanding gene regulation mechanisms with implications for cancer, development, and therapeutic interventions.