Jyotirmoy "Joy" Mondal

Jyotirmoy Mondal is a protein biochemist and microbiologist. He has always been fascinated by the world of microbes and how omnipresent they are with unfathomable capabilities. Over the time, he became particularly interested in extremophilic microorganisms, which he thinks are the most interesting organisms as they can be found in unimaginable corners of our planet. His interest in astrobiology, more specifically associated with extremophilic microorganisms has taken shape over time. His PhD work at University of Tennessee provided him opportunity to explore his interest in astrobiology by looking through the lens of protein biochemistry, studying the key primary reaction centers and electron transport machinery in the thylakoid membranes of cyanobacteria. His research experiences during his undergraduate, masters and PhD programs have set up a foundation to explore more elements of electron transfer proteins and reaction centers during his postdoctoral journey at Rutgers with the ENIGMA team (mentors: Prof. Paul Falkowski  and Prof. Vikas Nanda) that can shine light on the origin and evolution of these conserved and extremely essential building blocks of life. He will be using molecular modeling software to design primordial proteins, express, purify and reconstitute them, and characterize their structure, metal binding and catalytic activity in Theme 1 of the ENIGMA project.

Origin and evolution of electron transfer proteins and reaction centers; Protein biochemistry; Crystallography; Astrobiology

B.Sc. Microbiology (Honors), Institute of Genetic Engineering Kolkata India, 2013, M.Sc. Molecular Microbiology, University of Hyderabad India, 2015, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville USA, 2022

–       Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences

–       ENIGMA (Evolution of Nanomachines in Geospheres and Microbial Ancestors)

–       Active member of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research since 2017.

–       Active member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) community since 2018.

Cryo-EM structure of a tetrameric photosystem I from TS-821, a thermophilic, unicellular, non-heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium., Co-flow injection for serial crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers., Membrane protein megahertz crystallography at the European XFEL., Evaluation of commercially available styrene-co-maleic acid polymers for the extraction of membrane proteins from spinach chloroplast thylakoids, Biohybrid solar cells: Fundamentals, progress, and challenges