Dr. Prakriti Sharma is working on biochemistry and molecular biology of soil derived fungal pathogens. Isolation, characterization and molecular genetics of the fungal pathogen like Aspergillus fumigatus at the molecular, transcription and proteomics level is the main focus of her current research. Her keen interest is to find the best possible enzyme cocktails for cellulolytic and lignocellulolytic substrate. Mainly focusing on animal feeding, only 30-40% of the forage energy can be assimilated by animals because of the complex cell wall structure.  So, it has become necessary to find a combination of enzyme for complex cell wall degradation enzymes for utilizing energy for animal feeding and also for biofuel. Similarly,  A. fumigatus is known to possess glycosylation system, however in  the structure of glycans attached to proteins, glycosylation pathway, and their physiological function remains unknown. The invetigation of the glycosylation pathway and their roles in A. fumigatus would reveal the mechanism of carbohydrate-mediated infection and provide chemo therapeutic targets. In addition, A. fumigatus can serve as a simple model for studying the functional glycomics of eukaryotes, and genes and enzymes obtained from A. fumigatus could be used in glycobiotechnology.

Her research interest begins with the major in human biochemistry and flourished when she joined MS by research in molecular biology. Her plans in future is to study the change in microbial communities and their genome according to the climate change because the microbial genome function may be of high importance for predicting microbial responses to climate changes.

Publications in peer-reviewed journals

1. Prakriti Sharma, Ramesh Prasad Pandey, Janardan Lamichane and Jae Kyung Sohng (2011) “Cloning and expression of kanC by using maltose binding protein to enhance the solubility”, J. Biomolecule Reconstruction., 8 (2): 155-161.
2. Bibek Poudel, Ankush Mittal, Binod Kumar Yadav, Prakriti Sharma, Bharat Jha and Kanak Bahadur Raut (2011) “Estimation and Comparison of Serum Levels of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Phosphorus in Different Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease”, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology., 1(5):160-167.
3. Ramesh Prasad Pandey, Prakriti Sharma, Joo-Ho Lee and Jae Kyung Sohng (2011) “Cloning and expression of glycosyltransferase gene from Streptomyces peucetius ATCC 27952”, J. Biomolecule Reconstruction., 8 (2): 148-154.
4. Tai Feng Li, Prakriti Sharma, Samim Shams and Jae Kyung Sohng (2011) “Construction of streptomyces plasmid vector pIBR19 to improve the availability of pIBR25”, J. Biomolecule Reconstruction., 8 (2): 128-132.
5. Prakriti Sharma, Seung-Won Lee, Janardan Lamichane and Jae Kyung Sohng (2012) “Active site residue and PLP binding domain in KanD”, J. Biomolecule Reconstruction., 9 (1) 31-37.
6. Tai Feng Li, Prakriti Sharma, Janardan Lamichane and Jae Kyung Sohng (2012) “Involvement of KanF in biosynthesis of intermediates of neomycin biosynthetic pathway”, J. Biomolecule Reconstruction., 9 (1) 38-42.
7. Lekhendra Tripathee, Dipesh Rupakheti, Prakriti Sharma, Ranjan Aryal and Shalik Ram Sigdel (2015) "Carbon sequestration potential and chemical characteristics of soil along an elevation transect in Southern Himalayas, Nepal", International Research Journal of Environmental Sciences., 4(3): 28-34.
8. Shalik Ram Sigdel, Dipesh Rupakheti, Upendra Baral, Lekhendra Tripathee, Ranjan Aryal, Sushma Dhital and Prakriti Sharma (2015) "Physico-chemical characteristics of soil along an altitudinal gradients at southern aspect of Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, Central Nepal", International Research Journal of Earth Sciences., 3(2): 1-6.