JIIT

Academic Experts

Dr. Nidhi Batra

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (GRADE II)

nidhi.batra@jiit.ac.in

Biography

Dr. Nidhi Batra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology since July 2023. Prior to this, she worked as a Scientist at the Indian Biological Data Centre, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, where she focused on big data handling and database design and development.

She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Delhi under the supervision of Dr. N. Latha. Her doctoral research centered on two neurological drug targets: catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), a soluble protein, and dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4), a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR). She applied structure prediction and molecular dynamics simulations to study DRD4 and its mutants, while employing structure-based, ligand-based, and de novo drug design approaches to identify potential COMT inhibitors for neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease.

Following her Ph.D., she joined CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) as a post-doctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale and Dr. Lipi Thukral from November 2014 to March 2021. She availed two fellowships during her post-doctoral tenure, DBT-Research Associateship and SERB N-PDF. Working in a computational biology group at IGIB, she expanded my expertise in molecular simulations to understand the mechanism and biology of critical autophagy proteins, RNA-protein interactions and many GPCRs. She has many publications in high impact international journals and has attended many national and international conferences.

Research Highlights

Dr. Nidhi Batra’s research is rooted in structural bioinformatics, molecular simulations, and systems biology, with a focus on understanding biomolecular interactions and identifying therapeutic targets in complex diseases.

Her current work applies systems biology approaches to investigate disease mechanisms and identify drug targets across conditions such as diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cardiovascular and neurological disorders, immunological conditions, and cancer. Through the integration of multi-omics data and network biology, her group aims to elucidate key regulatory pathways and prioritize targets for therapeutic intervention.

She is also actively involved in computational modeling of proteins, including GPCRs and autophagy-related proteins, as well as studying RNA–protein interactions using molecular dynamics simulations and docking approaches.

During her tenure at the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC), Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), she significantly contributed to the development of national bioinformatics resources, including the Indian Structural Data Archive (ISDA) and the Indian Proteome Databank (IPD) portals, aimed at enhancing accessibility and curation of structural and proteomic data for the Indian scientific community.

Her research emphasizes translational applications, bridging computational insights with biomedical relevance. She remains committed to building collaborative networks in the areas of precision medicine, drug discovery, and functional genomics.

Areas Of Interest

Computational Structural Biology
Molecular Biophysics
Structural Bioinformatics
Computer aided drug design
Systems Biology
Database design and development

Publications

N. Jatana, S. K. Aswin, S. Rathore, and L. Thukral, “Revealing Conformational Transitions in G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Rhodopsin upon Phosphorylation,” Biochemistry, vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 297–302, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.9b00884.
N. Jatana, D. B. Ascher, D. E. V. Pires, R. S. Gokhale, and L. Thukral, “Human LC3 and GABARAP subfamily members achieve functional specificity via specific structural modulations,” Autophagy, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 239–255, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1080/15548627.2019.1606636.
N. Jatana, L. Thukral, and N. Latha, “Structural signatures of DRD4 mutants revealed using molecular dynamics simulations: Implications for drug targeting,” Journal of Molecular Modeling, vol. 22, no. 1, Dec. 2015, doi: 10.1007/s00894-015-2868-x.
N. Jatana, L. Thukral, and N. Latha, “Structure and dynamics of DRD4 bound to an agonist and an antagonist usingin silicoapproaches,” Proteins Structure Function and Bioinformatics, vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 867–880, Nov. 2014, doi: 10.1002/prot.24716.
N. Jatana, A. Sharma, and N. Latha, “Pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening studies to design potential COMT inhibitors as new leads,” Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, vol. 39, pp. 145–164, Nov. 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2012.10.010.