In loving memory of Sonu Agarwal, IIT Kanpur ran a campaign to institute a faculty chair in his name. Sonu Agrwal, an alumnus of the institute, met with an untimely death. His batchmates decided to honor his memory and establish a chair in his name.
Dr. Arun Shukla, Department of Biological Sciences & Bioengineering, research focuses on understanding the largest class of cell surface receptors in our body, which are referred to as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) or seven transmembrane receptors (7TMRs). These receptors are intricately involved in almost every physiological process in our body including vision, olfaction, cardiovascular regulation and immune response. Approximately half of the currently prescribed medicines exert their therapeutic effects through these receptors including those prescribed for heart failure, hypertension and neurological disorders. The overarching theme of Dr. Shukla's research is to understand the structure, function and regulation of GPCRs, and to leverage this information for designing and discovering novel therapeutics with minimized side-effects. Dr. Shukla's outstanding research work on structure and function of GPCRs carried out at IIT Kanpur over the past several years has made fundamental contributions in the domain of GPCR biology and established several paradigms in the field. Dr. Arun K. Shukla obtained M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi and pursued his Ph.D. with Prof. Hartmut Michel at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany.
