Enzyme Engineering
Open Access

Karunesh Arora

Biography

Dr. Karunesh Arora received his M.Sc. honors in Chemistry from Panjab University, India. He then joined a Ph.D. program in Chemistry at the New York University, where he worked in the Computational Biology group headed by Prof. Tamar Schlick. For his Ph.D. dissertation, he investigated the regulation of DNA repair fidelity by DNA polymerases at atomically detailed level employing cutting-edge theoretical and computational methods. To explore the connection between experimental observations and theoretical results, he teamed with experimental researchers in NIEHS, North Carolina. Then for his postdoctoral training he moved to the West Coast, where he worked with Prof. Charles L. Brooks III at the Scripps Research Institute. His research at Scripps was focused on understanding the role of protein motions in modulating the catalytic activity of enzymes. He then relocated to the University of Michigan, where he is currently an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Chemistry. At the University of Michigan, he is investigating dynamics of complex bimolecular assemblies and molecular machines using multi-scale modeling techniques. His research in addition to fundamental interest has implications for the discovery of new drugs and other materials. He has more than 10 years of experience and expertise in the theory and modeling of biological molecules and has authored and co-authored nearly 30 research publications in Computational Biophysics/Biochemistry area.

Research Interest

Characterization of bimolecular interactions and conformational transitions using molecular simulations and chemical theory; protein folding; enzyme catalysis; allosteric regulation; computer-aided drug design, protein folding, DNA repair, and chaperone mechanisms.