Professor Vikas Jain pursued his BSc in Zoology (Honours) from University of Delhi and his MSc in Biosciences from Jamia Millia Islamia. He carried out his doctoral studies at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore under the supervision of Professor Dipankar Chatterji at the Molecular Biophysics Unit. After his postdoctoral research work at the University of California San Diego under the guidance of Professor E Peter Geiduschek, he joined Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal and started his laboratory in Bacteriophage research. Professor Vikas Jain has guided 15 PhD students, and several undergraduate students. He is a recipient of the Young Scientist Medal from the Indian National Science Academy, and Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences India.
Professor Vikas Jain is a molecular microbiologist and phage biologist. He heads the Laboratory of Antimicrobial Innovation. His research focuses on understanding bacteriophage-mycobacteria interactions and developing next-generation phage-derived therapeutics against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, particularly Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zK0e9EYAAAAJ&hl=en
Last 5 years publications:
[1] Sharma S, Jain V*. Structural and functional relevance of DUF4352 domain in antiviral immunity and physiology of mycobacteria. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025, 53: gkaf1253.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf1253
[2] Mulye M, Jain V*. Molecular insights into the structure, function, and stability of the DNA polymerase processivity factor from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J. Mol. Biol. 2025, 437: 169416.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169416
[3] Pillai SS, Jain V*. Elucidating the role of mycobacteriophage D29-encoded Gp36 in DNA binding and phage gene expression regulation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025, 53: gkaf662.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf662
[4] Gangakhedkar R, Jain V*. Elucidating the molecular properties and anti-mycobacterial activity of cysteine peptidase domain of D29 mycobacteriophage endolysin. J. Virol. 2024, 98(10): e01328-24.
https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01328-24
[5] Gangakhedkar R, Jain V*. Construing the function of N-terminal domain of D29 mycobacteriophage LysA endolysin in phage lytic efficiency and proliferation. Mol. Microbiol. 2024, 122(2): 243-254.
https://doi.org/10.1111/mmi.15295
[6] Nair G, Jain V*. An intramolecular crosstalk in D29 mycobacteriophage endolysin governs the lytic cycle and phage-host population dynamics. Sci. Adv. 2024, 10: eadh9812.
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh9812
[7] Wani SR, Jain V*. Deciphering the molecular mechanism and regulation of formaldehyde detoxification in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2024, 90: e02039-23.
https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02039-23
[8] Singh AK, Gangakhedkar R, Thakur HS, Raman SK, Patil SA, Jain V*. Mycobacteriophage D29 Lysin B exhibits promising antimycobacterial activity against drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microbiol. Spectr. 2023, 11: e0459722.
https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.04597-22
[9] Abdelrahman F, Gangakhedkar R, Nair G, El-Didamony G, Askora A, Jain V*, El-Shibiny A*. Pseudomonas phage ZCPS1 endolysin as a potential therapeutic agent. Viruses. 2023, 15: 520.
https://doi.org/10.3390/v15020520
[10] Wani SR, Dubey AA, Jain V*. Ms6244 is a novel Mycobacterium smegmatis TetR family transcriptional repressor that regulates cell growth and morphophysiology. FEBS Lett. 2023, 597: 1428-1440.
https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.14582
[11] Seniya SP, Jain V*. Decoding phage resistance by mpr and its role in survivability of Mycobacterium smegmatis. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022, 50:6938-6952.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac505
[12] Wani SR, Jain V*. Molecular dissection of a dedicated formaldehyde dehydrogenase from Mycobacterium smegmatis. Protein Sci. 2022, 31:628-638.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.4258
[13] James S, Jain V*. A positive selection Escherichia coli recombinant protein expression vector for One-step cloning. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 2022, 9:776828.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.776828
[14] Patil V, Jain V*. Understanding metabolic remodeling in Mycobacterium smegmatis to overcome energy exigency and reductive stress under energy-compromised state. Front. Microbiol. 2021, 12:722229.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.722229
[15] Bavda VR, Yadav A, Jain V*. Decoding the molecular properties of mycobacteriophage D29 Holin provides insights into Holin engineering. J. Virol. 2021, 95:e02173-20.
Advanced Microbiology
