Om Prakash, Ph.D.
Professor, Director of NMR Facility, and Graduate Admissions Chair
Contact Information
Office: 39 Chalmers Hall
Phone: 785-532-3108
E-mail: omp@ksu.edu
Education
B.S. University of Meerut, 1970
Ph.D. University of Meerut, 1978
Areas of specialty
Structural characterization and molecular recognition using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and computer aided molecular design (CAMD)
Research
Our laboratory uses state-of-the-art multidimensional NMR spectroscopy along with computer aided molecular modeling to solve structural and dynamics problems in molecular pharmacology, rational drug designing, protein folding and solution phase biostructure. We are interested in utilizing structure of peptides, proteins, enzymes, receptors and acceptors as templates in drug designing. We are also interested in developing programs and routines for computer aided structure and conformation elucidation. Once an accurate model is determined, we use it as a template for design of appropriate constrained peptide ligands.
In summary, the integration of above mentioned knowledge such as structure-function and molecular recognition may play a key role for the successful design of pharmaceuticals in the future. Furthermore, these studies can guide the design of future experiments, particularly that employing recombinant DNA technology to create new protein structures useful in developing resistance to insects and diseases in plants and animals.
Selected publications
Hou, C., Su A., Combs, P., Roy, S., Mareck, S., Cook, G.., Prakash, O., and Jiang, H. (2026) Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 processing activates Manduca sexta pro-moricin-6: structural basis of enhanced antimicrobial activity. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 191, 104553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmb.2026.104553
Mishra, N., Pal, I., Herrera, A., Dubey, A., Arthanari, H., Geisbrecht, B., and Prakash, O. (2023) Complete non-proline backbone resonance assignments of the S. aureus extracellular adherence protein EapH1, Biomolecular NMR Assign 17, 129-134. PMID: 37160842 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12104-023-10131-9
Dembele, H., Mating, M., Singh, R., Fatehi, S., Herrera, A., Park, Y., and Prakash, O. (2022) Ecdysis Triggering Hormone peptide in the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae: The Peptide Structure for Receptor Activation. Insect Science 29: 1309-1317. PMID: 35020973
Schrag, L., Cao, X., Dembele, H., Liu, X., Al Souhail, Q., Kanost, M., Chen, J., Jiang, H., and Prakash, O. (2019) Expression and Characterization of Manduca sexta Stress Responsive Peptide-1; an Inducer of Antimicrobial Peptide Synthesis. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 4(3): 42-52.
Schrag, L., Herrera, A., wang, Y., Jiang, H., and Prakash, O. (2017) Structure and function of stress responsive peptides in insects. Peptide-Based Drug Discovery: Challenges and New Therapeutics, Drug Discovery Series 59:438-451.