Joshy Joseph
Scientist, Photosciences & Photonics
CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary
Science and Technology (NIIST)
Industrial Estate P. O., Trivandrum,
Kerala 695019, India
joshy@niist.res.in;
joshyja@gmail.com
Profile
Joshy Joseph completed his Masters Degree in Chemistry
from School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi
University, Kottayam, Kerala in 1998 and Ph.D. from
University of Kerala (work carried out at CSIR-NIIST,
Trivandrum under the guidance of Dr. D. Ramaiah) in
2004. Subsequently, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow
(2004-2006) and as a Research Scientist II (2006-2011) in
Professor Gary B. Schuster’s group at School of Chemistry
and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
USA. In February 2012, he joined Chemical Science and
Technology Division of CSIR-NIIST, Trivandrum as a Scientist.
He is also a recipient of Ramanujan Fellowship (2012)
from DST, India. His current research interests include biomolecular recognition, nucleic acid chemistry and design of
functional organic materials.
Research Description
Joshy Joseph’s research focuses on the design of
molecules and materials for biodiagnostics applications.
Organic-biomolecular hybrids such as small moleculeoligonucleotide conjugates find various applications which
include sensors for biomolecules, as building blocks for
novel biomolecular architects, as anchors and probes for
micro- and nano-arrays to screen biomolecules and as
templates for the assembly of chromophores for energy
and electron transfer cascades. One important advantage
of building oligonucleotide based hybrid systems is the
programmability of the assembly through the careful
design of oligonucleotide sequences. The design and self
assembly of multistrand, oligonucleotide-chromophore
hybrids is a rather unexplored area which has high
potential in the area of biomolecular imaging and sensing.
Our research in this area mainly focus on the synthesis
of different di-, tri-, tetra- and multivalent chromophoreoligonucleotide cores and further self-assembly of
symmetric and asymmetric DNA-chromophore moieties.
These systems will be programmed for the detection of
various biologically important targets such as nucleic
acids, proteins and small molecules.
Further conjugation of these sensor designs with
nanomaterials is an area of our interest. For example,
modified oligonucleotides can be conjugated with
materials like graphene and graphene oxide making it
attractive candidates for electrochemical and fluorescence
based biosensor assemblies. Reduced graphene oxide
can act as an efficient fluorescence quencher and provide
an electrochemically active surface to assemble these
biosensors. Our research group has started extensive
research in this direction and aims the design of novel
organic materials.
Complete List of Publications as a
Ramanujan Fellow
1.
Oxidative Thymine Mutation in DNA: WaterWire-Mediated Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer,
Robert N. Barnett, Joshy Joseph, Uzi Landman,
190 RAMANUJAN FELLOWS
and Gary B. Schuster, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013 135,
3904-3914.