Molecular enzymology and fungal metabolic regulation form the core strengths of our research. An emerging approach to understand and exploit metabolic processes is metabolic / pathway engineering. This implies a targeted and purposeful manipulation of the capabilities of an organism. Our group is pursuing this broad research objective with the acidogenic metabolism of Aspergillus niger (A.

Micro-organisms have evolved an impressive array of gene regulatory mechanisms to adapt to the constantly changing environmental conditions. However, even the exquisite gene regulatory mechanisms cannot escape from the cul-de-sac of physical constraints, leading to stochastic or ‘noisy’ gene expression. Interestingly, instead of evolving mechanisms to subdue the noise and lead a detenninistic life style, micro-organisms seem to have evolved mechanisms to use this noise to their advantage.

Carbaryl is widely used as a pesticide in the agricultural field since 1958. Apart from the desired effects, the toxicity of carbaryl to beneficial organisms like bees, earthworm and marine fishes is a cause of concern. Its extensive usage has led to environmental pollution. Within a decade of carbaryl application in the agricultural field,many microorganisms with ability to degrade it were isolated. Pseudomonas sp. isolated from soil in our lab converts carbaryl into cell biomass via.

Aromatic compounds are most extensively used in various industries like plastic, paint, pesticide, petrochemical etc. These compounds are released into the environment due to various natural and anthropogenic activities leading to pollution. Biodegradation is a viable way to remove these pollutants to harmless metabolites. Multiple factors play an important role in efficient Multiple factors play an important role in efficient bioremediation of pollutants by microorganisms viz.

Acute critical care lung diseases like Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Acute Lung Injury have a high mortality rate worldwide and especially in developing countries like India. Several diseases can lead to critical lung conditions of ARDS like malaria, leptospirosis, and undiagnosed fever followed by pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and pancreatitis. Mechanical ventilation currently used for therapy in ARDS by itself harms the lungs. At present, one of third of ARDS patients succumb to the condition within the first couple of days of intensive care.

Anemia and micronutrient deficiencies are widely prevalent globally. This is particularly true in developing countries and amongst girls and women of child bearing age. While fortification is one approach, this is often limited by adverse effects on taste and low stability of the nutrients on storage and cooking. Gastrointestinal disturbances due to iron supplementation capsules also lead to low compliance. Further, since micronutrients deficiencies can often go undetected and require long periods of supplementation, this compliance for fortification or supplementation is limited.

Osteoarthritis is a progressive musculoskeletal degenerative disorder with clinical symptoms of joint pain characterised by the gradual loss of articular cartilage and inflammation of the joint. According to World Health Organisation statistics, about 9.6% of men and 18% of women aged over 60 years have symptomatic osteoarthritis and 80% of those with osteoarthritis will have mobility problems restricting them from performing major daily activities of life. In addition, injuries also lead to damage to the articular cartilage.

Over-active bladder is highly prevalent affecting around 15 million of the geriatric population in India. Despite its high rate of occurrence, it is predominantly under treated . Current treatment involves highly invasive and expensive submucosal intra-detrusor injection of Botulinum toxin through cystoscopy.Over 1.25 million patients in India have interstitial cystitis which causes intractable bladder pain and there are no treatments currently available for the same. The incidence of bladder cancer is also rising and shows high for Bladder Diseases recurrences.

Metastatic cancers and multi-drug resistant cancers are causes of high mortality globally. In developing countries like India, lung cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and oral cancers have high prevalence rates. Present chemotherapy is non-specific and suffers from many systemic side effects like bone marrow suppression.

Our current focus of studies is towards investigating the cellular level biophysical mechanisms in the bladder that give rise to different facets of bladder function such as bladder contractility, sensory transduction and control of bladder function via known neural pathways. Any deviation from the physiology that underlies bladder function results in urinary incontinence.

Many organic and inorganic nanosystems are being actively researched for their efficiency in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Among them, plasmonic nanostructures for photothermal therapy (PTT) gain considerable importance owing to the advent of two on-going PTT based clinical trials making use of gold nanoshells for the treatment of brain and metastatic lung tumors. These plasmonic nanostructures also serve as efficient candidates for imaging, and thereby bringing out their multifunctional capabilities.

A delivery of an affordable point-of-care critical care analyser completely tested on physiological controls and physiological and pathological samples which will be able to sense sodium, potassium, bicarbonate, glucose and urea, within a Turn-Around-Time (TAT) of 15-20 minutes. Our solution would impact hugely on patient’s disease management by reducing TAT and thus reducing the need for repeated tests. India’s headcount is 17.5% of world population and shares 20% of the global disease burden. 28% of population (urban) receives 66% of Healthcare.

With the growth of human population, industrialisation and urbanisation, the demand for safe drinking water continues to increase, and along with it, the problem of water pollution
has become a concern. It is estimated that contaminated water causes 30,000 deaths aroundthe world every day. Among the toxic contaminants released to our drinking water are non-

Recently, photothermal therapy (PTT) has attracted tremendous attention because of its high efficacy in tumor ablation and minimal damage to normal tissues. A variety of organic photothermal agents have also emerged in recent years, aiming at replacing their inorganic counterparts, which usually are not biodegradable Among various cyanine derivatives, ICG is one of the most commonly employed medical imaging dyes and approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical use on patients, which has been widely investigated for photothermal cancer therapy.

Emesis in general is natural defensive mechanism of the body to prevent the absorption of the noxious substances in the Gastro Intestinal tract by forceful expulsion of contents. National Cancer Institute at National Institute of Health explains the phenomenon, ‘Nausea is a subjective phenomenon of an unpleasant, wavelike sensation experienced in the back of the throat and/ or the epigastrium that may culminate in vomiting (emesis). Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of the stomach, duodenum, or jejunum through the oral cavity.

Periprosthetic infection becomes a dilemma when the signs and symptoms that commonly coincide are absent, or when infection occurs in the immediate post-operative period when the usual biologic markers such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are still elevated from the surgical procedure. The use of interleukins has become

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative disorder of joints, which has multi- factorial etiology. OA is the second most common rheumatological problem and is most frequent joint disease with prevalence of 22-39% in India. Injectable polymeric composite gel are synthesised with tailor-made polymeric nanoparticles to achieve both controlled release and thermo-responsive on application of a heat pad on the desired site. The main objective of the project is to develop an intra- articular drug delivery system for OA using a composite in situ gelling system.

Our research work focuses on indigenous development of low-cost bioresorbable medical bone screw for bone-soft tissue Fixation applications. There is a huge demand for orthopedic devices in India and worldwide. It is estimated that more than 100 million screws are used for bone or soft-tissue fixations per year globally.

To demonstrate proof-of-concept of bioresorbable bone screw prototype composed of novel composite biomaterial with advanced functionality:

The risk of chronic kidney disorder, preeclampsia and other diseases which affect the albumin and creatinine level can be detected at an earlier stage by estimating the albumin and creatinine ratio. According to many reports including WHO 2014, 8-10% of the world population is affected by kidney related diseases. In India, there are more than 10 million cases every year for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Preeclampsia is another life-threatening disorder that occurs during pregnancy (affecting 1 in 20 pregnancies), childbirth and postpartum period.It causes high blood pressure and a

Proteomics is the study of entire protein complement in a cell at a given time. It is a rapidly growing field, and is set to become an integral part of translational research. The implementation of proteomics in clinical research can lead to novel developments in the field of personalised medicine, biomarker discovery. This also provides mechanistic insights about disease occurrence and pathogenesis.