Dr. Mukund Modak is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School. He has a MSc. Degree and Ph.D. from the Haffkine Institute, University of Bombay in India. Dr. Modak is a member of the  American Society of Biological Chemists.

His major interests are Structure-Function Relationship in DNA Polymerases:   Using purified E. coli DNA polymerase I, murine leukemia virus and AIDS virus reverse transcriptase, he and his group are investigating the mechanism of template-dependent DNA synthesis.  Specifically, peptides containing active sites responsible for substrate and template-primer binding sites in each of the above enzymes are being labeled and isolated to determine their location in the primary amino acid sequence of enzymes.  Simultaneously, using 3-D structural information, targets for site-directed mutagenesis are being sought and appropriate mutants are prepared.  Finally, the results are interpreted in the 3-D context of enzyme structure as they relate to enzyme function.