Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Research areas: DNA Biophysics; Genome organization; Single-molecule imaging; Super-resolution imaging; DNA Nanotechnology

Award Citation: The AYSF Committee acknowledges his contribution to the development of single-molecular level observation of DNA-protein interactions and would like to support his further exploration of genome organization at the interface of surface science, genomics, and superresolution imaging.

Bio: Since 2020, Dr. Mahipal Ganji leads a multidisciplinary research group that focuses on understanding the 3D organization of genomes and protein-DNA interactions using advanced single-molecule and super-resolution imaging techniques. Dr. Ganji completed his PhD at TU Delft in the Netherlands. He carried out his postdoctoral research at both TU Delft and the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany. Dr. Ganji's work has significantly contributed to the field of DNA-protein interactions, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms of DNA loop extrusion by SMC proteins and DNA supercoiling. Dr. Ganji has authored several publications in leading journals including Science and Nature Nanotechnology that have contributed to the understanding of DNA mechanics and chromatin architecture. His research is supported by DBT/Wellcome Intermediate fellowship from India Alliance. His lab is also a partner group of Max-Planck Institute Freiburg, Germany.

Personal Web: www.ganjilab.org