Deepak was a Ramanujan fellow of the Science and Engineering Research Board (2008–2013) and a recipient of the National BioScience Award for Career Development (Dept.

He graduated with BSc in Chemistry from Fergusson College (1994) and completed his master's in biotechnology from the Savitribai Phule Pune University (1996).

[4] Deepak Nair has obtained new insight regarding the molecular mechanisms that determine the fidelity of the replication process in bacteria and flaviviruses.

Regarding the piggyBac transposase, his laboratory has shown that the dimerization through the Ring Finger Domain present at the C-terminus attenuates the excision activity of this enzyme (Biochemistry, 2018, 57:2913).

He has discovered the mechanism employed by DNA polymerase IV to rescue replication stalled at damaged nucleotides with unprecedented efficiency and accuracy (Structure, 2014, 23:56–67).

In addition, he has shown that reactive oxygen species do play an important role in the antimicrobial activity of bactericidal antibiotics (Angew Chem Int Ed Engl.

In collaboration with D. N. Rao (Department of Biochemistry, IISc), his laboratory has also contributed towards understanding how proteins involved in the post-replicative repair of DNA mismatches function (Nucleic Acids Research, 2018, 46:256–266; PLoS One.

2022,e1010994) So far, he has been centrally involved in the deposition of 76 entries in the protein data bank, which is a repository of three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules.

Due to the action of a variety of agents, lesions are formed on DNA which interferes with normal replication and may also prove carcinogenic.

Both hPolι and yREV1 have unique active sites that facilitate the formation of non-Watson-Crick base pairs to achieve lesion bypass and rescue stalled replication.

His doctoral thesis (July 1996 – Dec 2001) describes the crystallographic analysis of a panel of three murine monoclonal antibodies raised against the same promiscuous peptide antigen PS1 (HQLDPAFGANSTNPD).

He also carried out a computational analysis of the conformational propensities of native and retro-inverso versions of B-cell and T-cell epitopes (J. Immunol, 2003, 170:1362).