Professor

Prof. Sunil Kumar Khare joined IIT-Delhi, Department of Chemistry in 2000 as an Assistant Professor and holds the position of a Professor at present, an alumnus of IIT Delhi from where he received his doctoral degree in Biochemistry (1990). He did his Postdoctoral research at National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan. Prof. Khare has more than 30 years of academic and industrial research experience with 150+ publications and patents. His current noteworthy contributions have been in differential proteomics of solvent-tolerant and halophilic class of extremophiles and deciphering nanotoxicity mechanisms in plant and microbial systems. Prof. Khare holds a good reputation in the international research community. He has been invited as visiting Professor to University of Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand, France (2018 and 2014). He was the Visiting Fellow (DBT) at Northern Regional Research Laboratory, USDA, Peoria IL, USA (2006). Prof. Khare has been honoured with awards like United Nations-Amway award in 1998, Malaviya Memorial Award Senior Faculty-BRSI in 2018. He is also an elected fellow of prestigious societies like Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses (IFIBiop), France, Biotech Research Society of India Fellow of BRSI (FBRS), Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (FNAAS), India, Fellow, Academy of Microbiological Sciences (FAMSc) and UNU-Kirin Fellow, Japan. He has been member of several professional societies and has served on several committees and scientific advisory boards. He is Associate Editor of 3 Biotech and Editorial Board Member for Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B and Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. Apart from being an academician, he has been actively involved in the administrative responsibilities. This is reflected by being Chairman, GATE-JAM, IIT Delhi (2016-17). Currently, he serves as the Associate Dean, Research & Development, IIT-Delhi.

Group Webpage

Research Interests

Professor Khare's research integrates chemistry and biology with expertise in the realm of Microbial Bio chemistry, bringing in the hidden traits and exploiting the less known microbes for various biotechnological and industrial benefits. The group's major research theme include the discovery of extremophiles and novel enzymes, purification and their molecular and structural adaptations to understand their life processes. Within these realms, the group is working on following research areas:

I. MICROBIAL BIOCHEMISTRY
● Extremophiles and Extremozymes: Screening, isolation and characterization of extremophiles.
● Extremozymes: Purification of enzymes and characterization of their novel genes to understand molecular basis of stability and their proteomics.

II. APPLIED ENZYMOLOGY: ENVIRONMENTAL & FOOD BIOCHEMISTRY
● Immobilization/ modification of enzymes and cells; in environmental bioremediation, food processing, solid-state fermentation, removal of anti-nutritional factors/detoxification, bioconversions and by-product utilization.

III. NANOTOXICOLOGY & NANOBIOCATALYSIS
● Interactions of nanoparticles with microbial cells and microbial diversity (thereof): effect on membrane, interaction with cellular proteins and DNA and subsequent changes in proteome profiles.
● Use of nanoparticles and high surface matrix for enzyme immobilization to develop effective biocatalysts.

IV. PROTEOMICS
● Proteomic investigations on mechanistic interpretations of bacteria-nanoparticle interactions, proteome profiling of mechanisms of phytotoxicity, proteomic studies on ionic liquid toxicity to microorganisms, proteomic approaches to understand the role of outer membrane porins in the organic solvent-tolerance of extremophiles.

Selected Publications

1. R. Hemamalini and S. K. Khare, “Halophilic lipase does forms catalytically active aggregates: Evidence from Marinobacter sp. EMB5 lipase (LipEMB5).” International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2018 (Accepted).
2. Jasneet Grewal  and S. K. Khare, “One-pot bioprocess for lactic acid production from lignocellulosic agro-wastes by using ionic liquid stable Lactobacillus brevis.” Bioresource Technology, 2018, 251, 268-273.
3. Ayesha Sadaf and S. K. Khare, “Efficacy of ionic liquids on the growth and simultaneous xylanase production by Sporotrichum thermophile: membrane integrity, composition and morphological investigation.” RSC Adv. 2017, 7, 21114–21123.
4. R. Hemamalini, Rajeshwari Sinha and S. K. Khare, “Comparative proteomic insights on responses of Gram-positive and Gram-negative halophilic bacteria grown in two different salt concentrations.” Curr. Proteomics 2017, 14, 318-325.
5. Shubhrima Ghosh and S. K. Khare, "Biodegradation of 7-Ketocholesterol by Rhodococcus erythropolis MTCC 3951: Process optimization and enzymatic insights." Chem Phys Lipids, 2017, 207, 253-259.
6. Rajeshwari Sinha and S. K. Khare, “Effect of organic solvents on structure and activity of moderately halophilic Bacillus sp. EMB9 protease.” Extremophile, 2014 18(6), 1057-1066.

      Group Members

• Dr. Shivani Chaturvedi (Post Doc.)
• Dr. Sumit Kumar (Post Doc.)
• Dr. Amrik Bhattacharya (SERB-Post Doc.)
• Dr. Razi Ahmad (SERB-Post Doc.)
• Dr. Kumar Pranaw (NASF-R.A)
• Dr. Ayesha Sadaf (Post Doc.)
• Ms. Jasneet Grewal (Ph.D)
• Ms. Shubhrima Ghosh (Ph.D)
• Ms. Neerja Yadav (Ph.D)
• Ms. Syeda Warisul Fatima (Ph.D)
• Mr. Shahenvaz Alam (Ph.D)
• Ms. Nikky Goel (Ph.D)
• Ms. Pooja (Ph.D)