Harshwardhan H. Katkar

Assistant Professor

Research Interest

  • Soft matter, Biophysics, Nanopores, Bacterial Assemblies, Fluid Mechanics.
  • Multiscale modeling, Bottom-up coarse-graining, Enhanced sampling.

Education

  • B. Tech., ICT Mumbai, 2006
  • M. Tech., IIT Bombay, 2008
  • Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2016
  • Post-doc, The University of Chicago, 2016-2019

Research Overview

The overarching research theme of the group is to develop a fundamental understanding of important biological polymers and assemblies, and to develop engineering solutions for an improved healthcare. We are interested in employing multiscale modeling and simulation tools, systematic coarse-graining strategies and enhanced sampling techniques to enable designing of nanopores for accurate diagnosis of diseases, identifying of novel drug targets and improving drugs and drug-carriers for treating diseases.

Publications

  • S. Mani, H. H. Katkar, G. A. Voth, Compressive and tensile deformations alter ATP hydrolysis and phosphate release rates in actin filaments, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 17,1900 (2021).
  • V. Zsolnay, H. H. Katkar, S. Z. Chou, T. D. Pollard, G. A. Voth, Structural basis for polarized elongation of actin filaments, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 30458 (2020).
  • F. Aydin, H. H. Katkar, G. A. Voth, Multiscale simulation of actin filaments and actin-associated proteins, Biophysical Reviews, 10,1521(2018).
  • H. H. Katkar, A. Davtyan, A. E. P. Durumeric, G. M. Hocky, A. C. Schramm, E. M. De La Cruz & G. A Voth, Insights into the cooperative nature of ATP hydrolysis in actin filaments, Biophysical Journal, 115, 1589 (2018).
  • H. H. Katkar, M. Muthukumar, Role of non-equilibrium conformations on driven polymer translocation, The Journal of Chemical Physics, 148, 024903 (2018).