Hi, I have joined the Department of Biological Sciences, Aliah University on 3^rd November 2017 as an Assistant Professor and serving the University since then. Prior to joining Aliah University, I was associated with West Bengal Education Services as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and served Bidhannagar College, Salt Lake, Kolkata for 2 years.I started my research career in the laboratory of Dr. Wriddhiman Ghosh in the Department of Microbiology of Bose Institute, Kolkata as a PhD student back 2009 end onwards. The objective of my thesis was to investigate the molecular mechanism(s) of sulfur oxidation in some lithotrophic bacteria. Among those, whole genomes of a lithotrophic betaproteobacterium Tetrathiobacter kashmirensis and an alphaproteobacterium Pseudaminobacter salicylatoxidans were sequenced, following which some transcriptomic and proteomic investigations led us to identify some genes/proteins which were found to be involved in sulfur oxidation processes of those lithotrophs. After completion of PhD, I have also worked as a Post Doc in the same lab for a short period of time, before joining to WBES, in a project of thermal endurance of mesophilic bacteria. I have interest in investigating microbial physiology and metabolism in conditions which they encounter in nature, and studying the transition/evolution of aerobic respiration from anaerobic one.

Education

Ph.D. in Microbiology (Bose Institute, 2015)

M.Sc. in Microbiology (Burdwan University, 2008)

B.Sc. in Microbiology (Burdwan University, 2006)

Teaching Experience

After completion of a short tenure as a Post Doc. research fellow in the Dept. of Microbiology of Bose Institute, Kolkata, I joined the Dept. of Microbiology of Bidhannagar College, Salt Lake, Kolkata as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and taught the students of both UG and PG levels for 2 years.

Courses Taught/Teaching

General Microbiology

Environmental Microbiology 

Microbial Genetics

Molecular Biology

Recombinant DNA Technology

Research Area

Model prokaryotes are always studied in conditions which are luxurious for them in terms of availability of nutrients, oxygen etc.; and most of the current physiological and metabolic understandings of microorganisms have been established in those lab conditions.  Being an Environmental Microbiologist, by training, I always think that, in nature microorganisms hardly get such optimal conditions and may remain physiologically inactive, undivided, for months to years, which otherwise divide in the scale of minutes or hours in the lab conditions.My long term goal would be to study the physiology and metabolism of microorganisms, particularly Bacteria, in their natural conditions.

Another goal would be to study the evolution of aerobic respiration in Bacteria.In current time, aerobic respiration using molecular oxygen (O₂) as the terminal electron acceptor is the most energy producing metabolic process. But, life founded on earth in an anaerobic and highly reducing environment before the origin of O₂, and energy producing systems of the then organisms were independent of availability of O₂. With the onset of molecular oxygen, organisms gradually evolved and gave rise to today’s higher organisms that are completely dependent on O₂. It is only prokaryotes where different representatives are available which have differential requirementsof O₂. In the domain Bacteria, representatives from two extreme ends of obligate anaerobes to obligate aerobes are available. Representatives requiring intermediary O₂, such as microaerobes, facultative aerobes/anaerobes, aerotolerant anaerobes are also available. My long term objective would be to understand the evolution of aerobic respiratory mechanism, from the anaerobic one, using different obligately anaerobic, obligately aerobic, facultatively aerobic/anaerobic, microaerobic and aerotolerant anaerobic bacteria as model systems.

Conference Papers Published

Oral:

1.Presented a paper titled “Genome Implosion Elicits Host-Confinement in Alcaligenaceae: Evidence from the Comparative Genomics of Tetrathiobacter kashmirensis, a Pathogen in the Making” at the international conference “Microbiology in the new Millennium:from Molecules to Communities” (MNM 2017), organized by Bose Institute, Kolkata during 27^th to 29^th of October, 2017.

Poster:

1. Presented a poster titled “Phenol extraction-based protein preparation method for 2D gel electrophoresis of bacterial proteomes” at the 6th Annual Meeting of Proteomics Society of India and International Conference on “Proteomics from Discovery to Function”. Organized by: Proteomics Society of India.Held at: IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India, during 7^th to 9^th December, 2014.

2. Presented a poster titled “Involvement of the Sox multienzyme complex in tetrathionate oxidation” at the National Conference on “Empowering Mankind with Microbial Technologies, 2014 (AMI-EMMT-2014)” Organized by: Association of Microbiologists of India. Held at: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India, during 12^th to 14^th November, 2014.Won Best Poster Award for this presentation.

Journal Papers Published

1.   PyneProsenjit, Alam Masrure*, RameezMoiduJameela, Mandal Subhrangshu, Sar Abhijit, MondalNibendu, DebnathUtsab, Mathew Boby, MisraAnup Kumar, Mandal Amit Kumar, Ghosh Wriddhiman*, (2018) Homologs from sulfur oxidation (Sox) and methanol dehydrogenation (Xox) enzyme systems collaborate to give rise to a novel pathway of chemolithotrophic tetrathionate oxidation. Molecular Microbiology,Vol. 109(2): 169-191.

*Corresponding Author

2. Pyne Prosenjit, Alam Masrure and Ghosh Wriddhiman, (2017) A novel soxO gene, encoding a glutathione disulfide reductase, is essential for tetrathionate oxidation in Advenella kashmirensis. Microbiological Research, Vol.205: 1–7.

3. Roy Chayan, Alam Masrure, Mandal Subhrangshu, HaldarPrabir K., Bhattacharya Sabyasachi, Mukherjee Trinetra, Roy Rimi, RameezMoidu J., MisraAnup K., Chakraborty Ranadhir, Nanda Ashish K., MukhopadhyaySubhra K., Ghosh Wriddhiman, (2016) Global Association between Thermophilicity and Vancomycin Susceptibility in Bacteria, Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 7; 412; DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2016.00412

4. Alam Masrure* and Ghosh, Wriddhiman, (2014) Optimization of a phenol extraction-basedprotein preparation method amenable to downstream 2DE and MALDI-MS based analysis of bacterial proteomes, Proteomics, Vol. 14(2-3): 216-221.

            *Corresponding Author

5.  Alam Masrure, Pyne, Prosenjit, Mazumdar, Aninda, Peketi, Aditya and Ghosh, Wriddhiman, (2013) Kinetic enrichment of ³⁴S during proteobacterial thiosulfate oxidation and the conserved role of SoxB in S-S bond breaking, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 79(14): 4455-4464.

6. Ghosh, Wriddhiman, Alam Masrure, Roy, Chayan, Pyne, Prosenjit, George, Ashish, Chakraborty, Ranadhir, Majumder, Saikat, Agarwal, Atima, Chakraborty, Sheolee, Majumdar, Subrata, Das Gupta, Sujoy Kumar, (2013) Genome Implosion Elicits Host-Confinement in Alcaligenaceae: Evidence from the Comparative Genomics of Tetrathiobacter kashmirensis, a Pathogen in the Making. PLoS ONE, Vol. 8(5): e64856.

7. Alam Masrure, Roy, Chayan, Pyne, Prosenjit, Agarwal, Atima, George, Ashish and Ghosh, Wriddhiman, (2012) Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequence of the Sulfur-Oxidizing Chemoautotroph Pseudaminobactersalicylatoxidans KCT001., Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 194(17): 4743-4744.

8.  Ghosh, Wriddhiman, George, Ashish, Agarwal, Atima, Raj, Praveen, Alam Masrure, Pyne, Prosenjit, Das Gupta, Sujoy Kumar, (2011) Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequencing of the Sulfur Oxidizing Chemoautotroph Tetrathiobacter kashmirensis, Journal of Bacteriology, Vol.193(19): 5553–5554.

Ph.D. Thesis Guidance

I am interested in supervising postgraduate and PhD students in the field of environmental microbiology and microbial physiology. 

MASTER Thesis Guidance

I am interested in supervising postgraduate and PhD students in the field of environmental microbiology and microbial physiology.