Viruses are obligate intercellular parasites that rely upon host machinery to perform different steps of their life cycle. Hence, understanding the virus-host interaction in molecular level is essential to develop therapeutic strategies to invade these pathogens. Research in my lab is focused upon understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which RNA viruses assemble their replication machinery to drive viral RNA synthesis and how these viruses utilize host factors to facilitate this process. Viral replication machinery is composed of viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and genomic RNA template along with the nucleoprotein to form the ribonucleoprotein complex or RNP. RNPs lie ate the heart of the infectious cycle, driving viral gene expression and genome replication during different stages of virus life cycle and interact with a large number of host factors to modulate these processes. Yet, how these macromolecular complexes assemble is largely unknown. We implement biochemical and biophysical and proteomic approaches to understand the molecular interactions between viral and host proteins. Subsequently, information gained from these molecular studies are validated by investigating their physiological relevance during the course of infection. We are also interested in characterizing post-translational modification of viral proteins by host factors and elucidating their role in virus life cycle. Finally, we aim to identify pharmacologically active compounds that can inhibit specific virus-host interaction, hence will have the potential to be developed as antiviral therapy. Currently we are dealing with influenza A and B viruses which causes respiratory infection in human and a wide range of other animals. We are also interested in other viruses that causes human epidemics in Indian subcontinents.

All Publications

Host Protein Kinase Ca: The novel Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) specific scaffold regulating nuclear export of influenza virus ribonucleoprotein complexes by Jana I.D., Dey S., Si M., Roy A., Mondal A. PLOS Pathogens 21 - (2025)
Point of care (POC) device for facilitating nucleic acid based testing and method thereof by Kedia N., Biswas S. K., Banerjee S. , Bandopadhyay A. , Mondal A. , Chakraborty S. - (2024)
Identification of novel thiazole derivatives as flaviviral protease inhibitors effective against Dengue (DENV2) and Japanese encephalitis viruses by Murtuja S., Das S., Jana I.D., Shilkar D., Rakshit G., Sarkar B., Sinha B.N., Dewangan R.P., Mondal A., Jayaprakash V. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 69 - (2025)
CO-INFECTS: A highly affordable, portable, nucleic acid-based rapid detector for differential diagnostics of active respiratory co-infections by Nag S., Banerjee S., Bandopadhyay A., Banerjee I., Jana S., Mondal A., Chakraborty S. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 433 - (2025)
Design of Flavonoid-Based Lipid Domains as Fusion Inhibitors to Efficiently Block Coronavirus and Other Enveloped Virus Infection by Dewangan N., Jana I.D., Yadav S., Sardar A., Mallick A.I., Mondal A., Tarafdar P.K. Small 21 - (2025)
Structural and functional role of methylene linkers in self-coacervation-mediated membrane interaction and antiviral defense by Dewangan N., Das Jana . , Pal P. , Mondal A. , Tarafdar P. K. Communications Chemistry - (2026)
Early 2022 breakthrough infection sera from India target the conserved cryptic class 5 epitope to counteract immune escape by SARS-CoV-2 variants by Jana I.D., Kanjo K., Roy S., Bhasin M., Bhattacharya S., Banerjee I., Jana S., Chatterjee A., Chakrabarti A.K., Chakraborty S., Mukherjee B., Varadarajan R., Mondal A. Journal of Virology 99 - (2025)
Unveiling the role of host kinases at different steps of influenza A virus life cycle by Dey S., Mondal A. Journal of Virology 98 - (2024)
The Species-Specific 282 Residue in the PB2 Subunit of the Polymerase Regulates RNA Synthesis and Replication of Influenza A Viruses Infecting Bat and Nonbat Hosts by Banerjee S., De A., Kedia N., Bhakta K., Wang L., Bhattacharjee B., Mondal A. Journal of Virology 96 - (2022)
Targeting an evolutionarily conserved E-L-L motif in the spike protein to develop a small molecule fusion inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2 by Das Jana I., Bhattacharya P. , Mayilsamy K. , Banerjee S. , Bhattacharje G. , Das S. , Aditya S. , Ghosh A. , Mcgill A. R., Srikrishnan S. , Das A. K., Basak A. , Mohapatra S. S., Chandran B. , Bhimsaria D. , Mohapatra S. , Roy A. , Mondal A. PNAS Nexus 1 - (2022)

Completed Projects

Principal Investigator

Advance Center for Clinical Evaluation of Diagnostics of National Importance Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Characterization of the role of Human DEAD Box RNA Helicase 3X (DDX3X) in regulating influenza virus replication and host immune response DBT, NEW DELHI
Developing broad-spectrum flavivirus NS2B-NS3 protease inhibitor and assessing their antiviral potential Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Development and Field-Adaptation of a Platform-Technology Device for Infections Disease Detection at Extreme Point of Care Settings IITKGP Foundation (USA)
Development of a Point of care nucleic acid test for detection of flu-like infections of Similar Symptomatic Format, With Particular Focus on Adenovirus and Influenza Viruses WB-DST

Co-Principal Investigator

Cervical and Circulating HPV DNA Detection in Carcinoma Cervix Using An Indigenous Point-of Care Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Device: Determination of Diagnostic Accuracy and Prognostic Utility (HINA) DBT, NEW DELHI
Collaborative studies on INGENE_Mini DNA lab and its Pharmacogenomics impact on Population genetics SMARTQR TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
Differential diagnostics of infectious diseases on a multiplexed lateral flow assay platform using gargle samples Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Differential diagnostics of infectious diseases on a multiplexedlateral flow assay platform using gargle samples Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Encapsulation-Enabled Paper Microfluidic Antigen Test with Smartphone Readout for detection of viral infection IIT KHARAGPUR
Establishing a State-of the-Art Hybrid BSLIII Facility at IIT Kharagpur to Facilitate Fundamental Research and Development of Diagnostics and Therapeutics Against Class III Pathogen Caused Viral and Bacterial Diseases Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Establishment of the Saurabh Hemraj Bora Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Inclusive Technologies for Precision Engineering and Womens Health Saurabh Hemraj Bora
From Lab to Bedside: An attempt to take the multiplex enteric virus real-time PCR detection assay, a step further to Hand held PCR INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH (ICMR)

Alumni members

Ph. D. Students

Ananya Das

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Anup Kumar Nath

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Aratrika De

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Arijit Bera

Area of Research: Microfluidics

Devraj Sarkar

Area of Research: Molecular Diagnostics

Haimanti Nath

Area of Research: Molecular Virology- Point of Care Diagnostics

Indira Kundu

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Manoj Si

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Pramit Das

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Rupayan Bhattacharjee

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Sayan Das

Area of Research: Molecular Virology

Soumik Dey

Area of Research: Molecular Virology