The lab of Dr. Deshmukh explores the structural and molecular basis of evolutionary divergence in the noncoding RNA mediated gene silencing pathway across organisms. He utilizes state-of-the-art biomolecular NMR techniques coupled with molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics to elaborate on the structure and function of several important high molecular weight proteins and nucleic acids. His lab employs an innovative biomolecular NMR approach to study inter-domain orientations and dynamics in multi-domain proteins such as RDE-4, DRB4, and DRB2. The studies performed by his group deciphered the initiation of the non-coding RNA mediated gene regulation pathway in various species. His work revealed that the subtle differences in structure and dynamics in highly homologous proteins incite the evolutionary divergence in the RNAi pathway. His work distinctively helps to extend our understanding in one of the basic biological processes that have direct implications in infection, cancer, and development.

He was invited as a speaker at prestigious biomolecular NMR meetings such as ICMRBS, Dallas, USA (2014), APNMRS, Hong Kong (2015), ICMRBS, Kyoto, Japan (2016), Indo-German Workshop, Leipzig, Germany (2017), and APNMRS, Singapore (2019).

DRB4 dsRBD1 drives dsRNA recognition in Arabidopsis thaliana tasi/siRNA pathway 

C. Sai Chaitanya, Ramdas Aute, Upasana Rai, Mandar V. Deshmukh 
Nucleic Acids Research, 45(14), 8551-8563 , 2017.

Recent Excitements in Protein NMR: Large Proteins and Biologically Relevant Dynamics 
C. Sai Chaitanya and Mandar V Deshmukh
Journal of Biosciences, 41(4), 787-803, 2016.

Backbone and stereospecific 13C methyl Ile (?1), Leu and Val sidechain chemical shift assignments of Crc. 
Rakhi Sharma, B Sahu, Malay K Ray and Mandar V Deshmukh
Biomolecular NMR Assignments, 9(1), 75-9, 2015.

Structure of RDE-4 dsRBDs and mutational studies provide insights in the dsRNA recognition in C. elegans RNAi. 
C Sai Chaitanya and Mandar V Deshmukh
Biochemical Journal, 458 (1), 119-130, 2014.

Backbone and sidechain methyl Ile(?1), Leu and Val chemical shift assignments of RDE-4(1-243), an RNA interference initiation protein in C. elegans. C Sai Chaitanya, Sonu Kumar, M Udaya Kiran and Mandar V Deshmukh
Biomolecular NMR Assignments, 6(2), 143-6, 2012.