NISER

Postdoc -  Institute Curie, Paris & Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, Switzerland. Advisor: Aurelien Roux (2009-13)

PhD - Institute of Biochemistry, Graduate School of Chemistry, University of Münster, Germany. (2009)

MSc - School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. (2005)

BSc - Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. (2003)

Reconstitution Biology, Membrane biochemistry/biophysics, Advance light microscopy, Fluorescence spectroscopy, Micro-manipulation of membranes

2021: Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Research

2018: Early Career Research Award from DST (ECR/2017/003138, Not Availed)

2014 - 2019: INSPIRE Faculty Award in Chemical Sciences.

2010 - 2012: European Commission's Marie Curie Fellowship.

2005 - 2009: Doctoral Fellowship from the NRW Graduate School of Chemistry, Münster, Germany.

2001 - 2005: KVPY Fellowship (National Science Fellowship, administered by IISc, Bangalore and funded by DST, Govt. of India). 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

1. Prince A, Tiwari A, Mandal T, Koiri D, Meher G, Sinha DK, Saleem M*. Lipid Specificity of the Fusion of Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles with the Host Membrane. J. Phys. Chem. B 2024; 128, 34, 8116–8130. (Selected as front cover)  
2. Tiwari A, Pradhan S, Sannigrahi A, Mahakud AK, Jha S, Chattopadhyay K, Biswas M, Saleem M*. Interplay of lipid-head group and packing defects in driving Amyloid-beta mediated myelin-like model membrane deformation. JBC, 2023; 299, 5, 104653. 
3. Mahakud AK, Jafarulla S, Rifa IVV, Abhinav G, Tiwari A, Saleem M*. Amyloids on Membrane Interfaces: Implications for Neurodegeneration. J Membrane Biol, 2022; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-022-00245-x
4. Sannigrahi A, Chowdhury S, Das B, Banerjee A, Halder A, Mahakud AK, Saleem M, Naganathan AN, Karmakar S, Chattopadhyay K*. The metal cofactor zinc and interacting membranes modulate SOD1 conformation-aggregation landscape in an in vitro ALS Model. eLife, 2021;10:e61453
5. Prince A, Tiwari A, Ror P, Padmani S, Roy J, Jha S, Mallick B, Akhtar Y, Saleem M*. Attenuation of neuroblastoma cell growth by nisin is mediated by modulation of phase behavior and enhanced cell membrane fluidity. Phy Chem Chem Phy, 2019; 21, 1980-1987. (Featured in RSC PCCP 2018-19 Hot Articles Collection)
6. Roy SK, Tiwari A, Saleem M, Jana CK*. Metal Free Direct C(sp2)-H Arylaminations Using Nitrosoarenes to 2-hydroxy-di(het)aryl Amines as Multifunctional Amyloid ß-aggregation Modulators. Chem Comm, 2018; 54, 14081-14084. doi: 10.1039/C8CC08470J. (Featured in RSC themed collection 2018 New Frontiers in Indian Research)
7. Tiwari A, Prince A, Manoranjan A, Jha S, Saleem M*.  Passive membrane penetration by ZnO nanoparticles is driven by the interplay of electrostatic and phase boundary conditions. Nanoscale, 2018;10, 3369-3384. doi: 10.1039/C7NR08351C.
8. Prince A, Sandhu P, Kumar P, Dash E, Sharma S, Arakha M, Jha S, Akhter Y, Saleem M*. Lipid-II independent antimicrobial mechanism of nisin depends on its crowding and degree of oligomerization. Scientific Reports, 2016; 6:37908. doi: 10.1038/srep37908.
9. Saleem M, Morlot S, Hohendahl A, Manzi J, Lenz M, Roux A. A balance between membrane elasticity and polymerization energy sets the spherical shape of clathrin coats.  Nature Communications, 2015; 6: 6249 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7249.
10. Saleem M, Galla HJ. Surface view of the lateral organization of the lipids and proteins in lung surfactant model systems - A ToF-SIMS approach. Biochim Biophys Acta - Biomembranes, 2010 Apr;1798(4):730-40.
11. Rakesh HK, Saleem M, Galla HJ. Nanoparticle interaction with model lung surfactant monolayers. Journal of Royal Society - Interface, 2010 Feb 6;7 Suppl 1:S15 26.
12. Saleem M, Meyer MC, Breitenstein D, Galla HJ. Calcium ions as "miscibility switch": Colocalization of Surfactant protein B with negatively charged DPPG under calcium free  conditions. Biophysical Journal, 2009  Jul 22;97(2):500-8.
13. Klenz U, Saleem M, Meyer MC, Galla HJ. Influence of lipid saturation grade and head group charge: A refined lung surfactant adsorption model. Biophysical Journal, 2008 Jul;95(2):699-709.
14. Saleem M, Meyer MC, Breitenstein D, Galla HJ. The surfactant peptide KL4 in lipid monolayers: phase behavior, topography, and chemical distribution. JBC, 2008 Feb 22; 283(8):5195-207.                                                          To access full list of publicaton: Click Here.

The following two broad problems are currently being pursued in the lab using a combination of in vitro reconstitution, cell-based experiments, advance fluorescence microscopy/spectroscopy, computational and micro-manipulation tools:

1) We are interested in understanding the interplay of cellular membrane parameters and the kinetics of aggregation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) such as Amyloid-beta, full-length human Tau and alpha-Synuclein. This will help us understand how different IDPs and host cellular membranes influence each other in terms of aggregation kinetics of the IDP or the changes in the physico-chemical parameters of the cellular membranes that might eventually drive neuronal membrane deformation resulting in neurodegeneration and propagation of amyloids from cell to cell.

2) Mechanism by which Mycobacterial secretory components manipulate host cellular membranes to evade phagosome maturation.

1) B101 

2) B102

3) B141 

4) B453 

5) B704