Saurja DasGupta
Assistant Professor
- Office
- 437 Stepan Chemistry
Notre Dame, IN 46556 - sdasgupt@nd.edu
Research Areas
- Biochemistry
Research Specialties
- Life Processes
- Medicine
Prospective Graduate Students
Biography
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2024 - present | Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame |
| 2026 - present | Concurrent Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame |
| 2019-2023 | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School |
| 2018 | Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Chicago |
| 2013 | M.S. in Chemistry, University of Chicago |
| 2012 | M.Sc. in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay |
| 2010 | B.Sc. in Chemistry, University of Calcutta |
Selected Awards
2026 NSF CAREER Award
2026 EclipseBio mRNA Innovators Award
2025, 2026 Research!America Public Engagement Microgrant
2025 Faculty Fellow, Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame
2025 Hesburgh Lecture, Notre Dame Global
2024 Notre Dame Global South Asia Research Development Grant
2024 Notre Dame Global Asia Guest Artist Partnership Award
2024 Organs & Origins Conference Faculty Fellowship
Research Interests
The DasGupta Laboratory: RNA Tools for the Past, Present, and Future
The DasGupta lab is interested in developing a holistic understanding of RNA structure, function, and evolution and how they influence each other. We use laboratory evolution and ‘intelligent design’ to identify RNA molecules with functions that are not found in biology. We are exploring the roles of RNA in the Origins of Life by creating a repertoire of RNA enzymes that catalyze reactions essential to early life. We aim to create models of primordial cells containing these RNAs that have the potential to show life-like properties such as competitive growth and division, which would inevitably trigger Darwinian evolution in these chemical systems. We are developing lab-evolved RNA-based tools to probe unexplored areas of biology such as RNA cleavage and repair and the link between metabolism and genetics via metabolite capping of RNA. We are also developing the first-in-class RNA aptamer-based detection platform for environmental monitoring.
Selected Publications
- Biswas, A.; Weiss, Z.; Szostak, J. W. and DasGupta, S. "A Ribozyme Ligase That Requires a 3'Terminal Phosphate on Its RNA Substrates" 2026 Nature Communications, 17, 5634. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74622-8.
- Zhang, S. J.; Jia, X. W.; DasGupta, S. and Szostak, J. W. "Potentially Prebiotic Isocyanide Activation Chemistry Drives RNA Assembly" 2025 Chemical Communications, 61 (73), pp.13920–13923. DOI: 10.1039/d5cc03937a.
- Biswas, A. and DasGupta, S. "RNA Mango-Based Sensors for Lead" 2025 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 23 (43), pp. 9871-9882. DOI: 10.1039/d5ob00765h.
- Dasgupta, S.; Weiss, Z.; Nisler, C. and Szostak, J. W. "Evolution of the Substrate Specificity of an RNA Ligase Ribozyme from Phosphorimidazole to Triphosphate Activation" 2024 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121 (38), e2407325121. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2407325121.
- Dasgupta, S. "Synthetic Antibodies for Accelerated RNA Crystallography" 2024 Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-RNA, 15 (4), e1869. DOI: 10.1002/wrna.1869.
- Cohen, Z. R.; Ding, D.; Zhou, L. J.; Dasgupta, S.; Haas, S.; Sinclair, K. P.; Todd, Z. R.; Black, R. A.; Szostak, J. W. and Catling, D. C. "Natural Soda Lakes Provide Compatible Conditions for RNA and Membrane Function that could have Enabled the Origin of Life" 2024 PNAS Nexus, 3 (3), 084. DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae084.