Education 

• Doctor of Philosophy (2006-present), Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India 

• Master of Science (2003-2006) in Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India 

• Bachelor of Science (2000-2003) in Biochemistry, Deshbandhu college, Delhi University, New Delhi, India

Membership of professional societies 

• Indian Biophysical Society (IBS) 

Awards 

• Senior Research Fellowship (2008-2010)  by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

• Joint CSIR-UGC Junior Research Fellowship (2006-2008) and Eligibility for Lectureship-National Eligibility Test (NET) 

• Travel support prize for the poster entitled "Metabolic adaptation for short-chain fatty acids degradation: crystal structure of 2-methylcitrate synthase from Salmonella typhimurium" at 10th Conference of Asian Crystallographic Association held during October 31st-November 3rd, 2010  at BEXCo, Busan, Korea

Symposia, workshops and conferences 

• Poster presentation "Metabolic adaptation for short-chain fatty acids degradation: crystal structure of 2-methylcitrate synthase from Salmonella typhimurium" at 10th Conference of Asian Crystallographic Association held during October 31st-November 3rd, 2010  at BEXCo, Busan, Korea

• Invited lecture 'e-Lecture' Workshop on Genomics and Proteomics held during August 17th-18th, 2010 at Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati, India

• Participation 5th International conference on Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (InCoB) held during December 18th-20th, 2006 at The Ashok, New Delhi, India

• Participation 35th National Seminar on Crystallography held during February 22nd-24th, 2006 at National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India

• Poster presentation “Structure of a putative mutarotase YeaD from Salmonella typhimurium: comparison with galactose mutarotases” at International Symposium on Recent Trends in Macromolecular Structure and Function, January 18th-20th, 2006, Department of Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras, Chennai, India

• Participation Symposium on Macromolecular Crystallography, November 15th-6th  2005, CDFD, Gandipeet campus, Hyderabad, India

• Participation CCP4 workshop on Computational Crystallography, during March 15th-20th, 2005 and February 18th-22th, 2008, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Salient research achievements

   *      Metabolic adaptation for utilization of short-chain fatty acids in Salmonella typhimurium: structural and functional studies on 2-methylcitrate synthase, acetate and propionate kinases                        (Ph.D. thesis)
 
    *      Structural and biochemical studies on a putative mutarotase (YeaD) from Salmonella typhimurium (M.S. thesis)

    *      Molecular characterization of Viral Protein genome-linked (VPg) of Pepper Vein Banding Virus (Integrated Ph.D. project)

Skills 

• Macromolecular Crystallography  

• Structural visualization and analysis 

• Bioinformatics analysis  

• Molecular dynamics and docking 

• Molecular biology techniques  

• Biochemical and biophysical characterization  

• Enzyme kinetics 

Publications 

• Chittori S, Savithri HS & Murthy MR. Structural insights into the biochemical specificity and catalytic mechanism of propionate kinase isoforms (PduW and TdcD) of Salmonella typhimurium. (manuscript under preparation)

• Chittori S, Savithri HS & Murthy MR. Structural insights into the biochemical specificity and plausible regulation of Salmonella typhimurium acetate kinase. (manuscript submitted)

• Chittori S, Savithri HS, Murthy MR (2011). Crystal structure of Salmonella typhimurium 2-methylcitrate synthase: insights on domain movement and substrate specificity. J Struct Biol 174, 58-68

• Chittori S, Simanshu DK, Savithri HS, Murthy MR (2010). Preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of 2-methylcitrate synthase from Salmonella typhimurium. Acta Cryst F66, 467-470

• Simanshu DK, Chittori S, Savithri HS, Murthy MR (2007). Structure and function of enzymes involved in the anaerobic degradation of L-threonine to propionate. J Biosci 32, 1195-1206. (Review)

• Chittori S, Simanshu DK, Savithri HS, Murthy MR (2007). Structure of the putative mutarotase YeaD from Salmonella typhimurium: structural comparison with galactose mutarotases. Acta Cryst D63, 197-205

• Simanshu DK, Chittori S, Savithri HS, Murthy MR (2006). Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of biodegradative threonine deaminase (TdcB) from Salmonella typhimurium. Acta Cryst F62, 275-278

• Anindya R, Chittori S, Savithri HS (2005). Tyrosine 66 of Pepper vein banding virus genome-linked protein is uridylylated by RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Virology 336, 154-162