Madhavaiah Chandra

Postdoctoral Researcher
(December 2006-November 2011)

Ph.D. Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, 2004
M.Sc. Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara U., 1998
B.Sc. Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara U., 1996

Email: c_madhav@yahoo.com

Current position: Technical Director, Vignasai Laboratories, Hyderabad, India

Email: c_madhav@yahoo.com

Brief Biography

Madhavaiah Chandra received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in chemistry from the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India in 1996 and 1998. He completed his Ph.D. degree in chemistry with Prof. Sandeep Verma at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 2004. He was then an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship postdoc with Prof. Andreas Marx at the University of Konstanz. From December 2006 through November 2011, he was a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working under the supervision of Prof. Scott K. Silverman. 

Research Interests

My research in the Silverman lab used in vitro selection methodology to identify deoxyribozymes that catalyze organic and bioorganic reactions. We identified the first DNA enzymes that catalyze C-C bond formation; these deoxyribozymes work as efficiently as the best known ribozymes for the same reaction. We also identified DNA enzymes that catalyze the sequence-specific and site-specific hydrolysis of DNA phosphodiester bonds.