General Area of Interest: 

Molecular and Cellular Biophysics; Microscopy; Signal  transduction involving receptors, G-proteins and downstream effectors

Specific Interests:  

Investigating molecular interactions and dynamics in live cells using  fluorescence fusion proteins and ultrasensitive fluorescence based measurement techniques (confocal and two-photon microscopy, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, photon counting histogram analysis and image correlation spectroscopy).

         

Research Projects:    

1) How caveolin-1 expression alters G-protein signaling in cell

2) Roles of Caveolin-3 in G protein signaling in adult cardiac myocytes

3) Understanding stoichiometry of Bradykinin type 2 receptor signaling

4) Aggregation studies of alpha-synuclein, the Parkinson’s protein in live cells; and its interaction with phospholipase signaling

Publications (Journal Articles):

“Caveolin-1 alters calcium signal duration through specific interaction with the Galphaq family of G proteins”, Parijat Sengupta, Finly Philip and Suzanne Scarlata, Journal of Cell Science (2008) In Press

"Quasi-homogeneous nucleation of amyloid beta yields numerical bounds for the critical radius, the surface tension and the free energy barrier for nucleus formation", K. Garai, B. Sahoo, Parijat Sengupta and S. Maiti, Journal of Chemical Physics (2008) In Press

"Signaling through the bradykinin receptor type 2 and Galphaq follows a stoichometrically limited model”, Finly Philip, Parijat Sengupta and Suzanne Scarlata, Journal of Biological Chemistry 282 (2007) 19203

"The membrane-permeable calmodulin inhibitors (e.g.W-7/W-13) bind to membranes, changing the electrostatic surface potential: Dual effect of W-13 on EGFR activation", Parijat Sengupta, María José Ruano, Francesc Tebar, Urszula Golebiewska, Irina Zaitseva, Carlos Enrich, Stuart McLaughlin and Antonio Villalobo, Journal of Biological Chemistry 282 (2007) 8474

"Selective destabilization of soluble amyloid beta oligomers by divalent metal ions”, K. Garai, Parijat Sengupta, B. Sahoo and S. Maiti, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 345 (2006) 210

"Measuring fast dynamics in solution and cells with a laser scanning microscope” Michelle A. Digman, Claire M. Brown, Parijat Sengupta, Paul Wiseman, Alan R. Horwitz and Enrico Gratton, Biophys. J., 89 (2005) 1317

“Fluctuation correlation spectroscopy with a laser scanning microscope: Exploiting the hidden time structure”, Michelle A. Digman, Parijat Sengupta, Paul Wiseman, Claire M. Brown, Alan R. Horwitz and Enrico Gratton, Biophys. J., 88 (2005) L33

"The amyloid beta peptide, Abeta1-40, is thermodynamically soluble at physiological concentrations", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai, Yuan Shi, David J. E. Callaway and S. Maiti, Biochemistry, 42 (2003) 10506

"Measuring size distribution in highly heterogeneous systems with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai, J. Balaji, N. Periasamy and S. Maiti, Biophys. J., 84 (2003) 1977

"Localized optical probing of biomolecules: Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and multi-photon microscopy", Parijat Sengupta and S. Maiti, Proc. Ind. Natl. Sci. Acad., (2003) 1

"Aggregation of Alzheimer’s amyloid beta peptide studied by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai and S. Maiti, Proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Optoelectronics, Fiber Optics and Photonics, Mumbai, India, (2002) 51

"Measuring diffusion in cell membranes by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, J. Balaji and S. Maiti, Methods, 27 (2002) 374

"Determination of the absolute two-photon absorption cross section of tryptophan", Parijat Sengupta, J. Balaji, S. Mukherjee, R. Philip, G. Ravindra Kumar and S. Maiti, Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences, Editors: Ammasi Periasamy, Peter T. C. So., Proceedings of SPIE, 4262 (2001) 336

“Probing diffusion and photochemical properties through localized photobleaching", J. Balaji, Parijat Sengupta, and S. Maiti, Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences, Editors: Ammasi Periasamy, Peter T. C. So., Proceedings of SPIE, 4262 (2001) 329

"Sensitive measurement of absolute two-photon absorption cross-sections", Parijat Sengupta, J. Balaji, S. Banerjee, R. Philip, G. Ravindra Kumar and S. Maiti, J. Chem. Phys., 112 (2000) 9201

 

      Conference Abstracts (selected):

“Role of Caveolae in the Duration of G Protein Signals” Parijat Sengupta, Finly Philip and Suzanne Scarlata, Biophysical Meeting (2007).

“Membrane-Permeable Calmodulin Inhibitors (e.g. W7) Also Bind Strongly to Membranes, Changing the Electrostatic Surface Potential”, Parijat Sengupta, Urszula Golebiewska, Irina Zaitseva, Francesc Tebar, Carlos Enrich, Antonio Villalobo and Stuart McLaughlin, Biophyical Meeting (2006).

“Scanning image correlation spectroscopy reveals fast molecular dynamics”, Parijat Sengupta, Michelle Digman, Enrico Gratton, Biophysical Meeting (2005).

“Spatio-temporal fluorescence fluctuation analysis of paxillin-EGFP in cellular adhesions using scanning FCS, scanning ICS and PCH”, Michelle Digman, Claire M. Brown, Alan R. Horwitz, Parijat Sengupta, William W. Mantulin and Enrico Gratton, Biophyical Meeting (2005).

“The GPI-anchored Urokinase Receptor (uPAR) dynamics on the cells surface followed by fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy”, Gabriele Malengo, Annapaola Andolfo, Parijat Sengupta, Shih Chu Liao, Beniamino Barbieri, Giuseppe Chirico, Enrico Gratton, Francesco Blasi, Nicolai Sidenius and Valeria R. Caiolfa, Biophyical Meeting (2005).

"Alzheimer's in a test tube: A study of amyloid beta peptide aggregation in vitro by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai and S. Maiti, Seventh Trombay Symposium on Radiation and Photochemistry, (2003).

"Soluble oligomers in amyloid beta aggregation: Effect of divalent metal ions", K. Garai, Parijat Sengupta, David J. E. Callaway, and S. Maiti, Biophys. J., 84 (2003)

"Aggregation in Biology studied by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai, J. Balaji and S. Maiti, International Symposium on Spectroscopy, Structure and Dynamics, (2002).

"Kinetics of aggregation of amyloid beta peptide", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai, David J. E. Callaway, and S. Maiti, Biophys. J., 82 (2002) 505a.

"Aggregation of the amyloid beta peptide by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", Parijat Sengupta, K. Garai, David J. E. Callaway, and S. Maiti, Third Asian Photochemistry Conference (2002) pp-116.

"Localized photo-excitation: measuring diffusion, multiphoton cross-section, and photobleaching", J. Balaji, Parijat Sengupta, G. Ravindra Kumar and S. Maiti, Biophys. J., 80 (2001) 168a.

"Absolute two-photon absorption cross-sections of biologically relevant chromophores measured by far-field Z-scan", Parijat Sengupta, J. Balaji, R. Phillip, S. Banerjee, G. Ravindra Kumar and S. Maiti, XIII International Biophysical Congress, New Delhi, 1999.