Ganapathi successfully completed his Master’s degree at the University of Madras (India) in 2006. From 2006 to 2007 he worked as a project assistant in the research group of  Prof.M.R.S. Rao at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalor (India). Since September 2009, he has been a member of the IGS DHD program. Currently, he is working on his thesis project untitled  "Recognition and proteolytic targeting of misfolded cytosolic proteins" in the group of prof. Jürgen Dohmen.

Project description:

In the living cells, all the information necessary for a protein to fold resides in its primary amino acid sequence. The newly synthesized polypeptides are in constant peril of damage from stress resulting in the formation of non-functional or misfolded proteins. Cells have evolved several quality control systems to prevent nonfunctional polypeptides from aggregation and provide a microenvironment that either facilitate their proper folding in to a thermodynamically favorable active confirmation or, if the protein cannot be refolded, to target it for degradation. The major goal of this project is to characterize the molecular components and their mechanistic roles that mediate the   elimination of misfolded cytosolic proteins using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism