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Pravindra Kumar is a biophysicist, bioinformatician, biochemist and professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.
In the past, Professor Kumar’s group at IIT Roorkee collaborated with Canadian and US researchers who had anaerobic facilities, but they have now purchased a Whitley A135 HEPA Anaerobic Workstation to house a protein purifier.
Professor Kumar said of his work:
“We are working on electron transfer proteins and proteins which have optimum activity in reduced conditions… it's better to crystallize protein in anaerobic conditions as it prevents the oxidations of cysteines and has more chance to crystallize most of the proteins.”
To meet the requirements of the low temperatures required to crystallize proteins, the A135 was ordered with a cooling system. Along with the cooling system which is vital to his research, Dr Kumar remarked that the Anaerobic Conditions Monitoring System and Data Logging have proved especially useful for assessing the parameters of his experiments.
With over 20 years’ experience of using different anaerobic chambers, we asked Dr Kumar why he chose a Whitley Workstation, to which he responded:
“Our lab decided to go with Don Whitley Scientific as they are well-known and well-respected manufacturers of anaerobic workstations. We had a great experience with Lab Technologies who distribute Whitley products in India, finding them a very approachable and friendly team.”
To learn more about the A135 click here.
Dr Kumar is well-known for his work on protein-protein interactions, protein engineering and structure-based drug design. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development in 2015, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences.*
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