Among the several essential trace elements of biology, iron, copper and zinc are three most important and crucial ones for life since two-thirds of the metalloenzymes performing various functions in the human body comprise these elements in the form of their ions, viz., Fe 2+/3+ , Cu1 +/2+ and Zn 2+ . Perhaps cobalt can be placed next to it though there are only limited number of enzymes in human body based on this element. The presence of these ions in human tissue in their optimal concentrations is essential for healthy life.

Separating plasma from cellular elements of blood is imperative in disease diagnostics. Conventionally, blood plasma is separated in a centrifuge. However, this process of separation is difficult to replicate at the microscale, requires large sample volume, and is laborious and time consuming.

Hydrodynamic focusing is a simple yet effective technique for flow focusing and control. It can be utilised in applications such as on-chip microfluidic flow cytometry, flow switches, generation of microdroplets, and micromixers. Hydrodynamic focusing can be 2D or 3D.In 2D focusing, the sample fluid is compressed/ sandwiched only in one direction by the two side flowing sheath fluids. However, 3D focusing allows for sample being completely surrounded with sheath fluid in all directions, and this is realised by compressing the sample flow in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

The cellular processes in the human body and all other organisms are very complex and each event is intertwined with numerous other processes. There are two ways to study these processes. One can either study the cascade of events as a whole to see how they affect the functioning of the cells, or the process can be broken down into its constituting molecules and each molecule studied individually in detail. In the second approach, the properties of the molecules studied individually are then patched together to give an in-depth account of what happens in the cell.

Human malaria is caused by parasites (Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax) that are introduced into the body by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. These parasites first invade the liver and then the red blood cells (Fig. 1). In both the liver and red blood cells, parasites multiply so rapidly that one infected person can have as many as several billion parasites in his/her blood cells. To carry out this massive multiplication, parasites need to copy themselves.

Periplasmic substrate binding proteins (SBPs) bind to a specific ligand with high affinity and mediate their transport into the cytoplasm via the cognate inner membrane ATP binding cassette (ABC) proteins. Because of very low sequence identities, understanding the structural basis of substrate recognition by SBPs has remained very challenging. A peri plasmic glucose binding protein from Pseudomonas putida CSV86 (ppGBP) is found to be highly specific towards glucose with an affinity of ~0.3 μM and has very low specificity towards galactose.

Our health depends on health of the cells that constitute our body. The trillions of cells in our body must function properly and synchronously day in and day out to keep us healthy. As a result, it is very important to identify and understand the role of different factors that keeps cells happy. One of such important factors is the tissue micro-environment. Just like us, different cells function best in different environments. That’s why micro-environment of brain is different from liver.

Our group works to understand the molecular mechanism of segregation of chromosomes and the extra-chromosomes during cell division using well known eukaryotic fungal model, Saccharomyces cerevisae and the most prevalent fungal pathogen, Candida albicans. We also work on epigenetics mechanism to understand how genome stability and morphogenesis in C. albicans can be influenced by this.Faithful chromosome segregation is the key to maintain genome stability.

Cell-­based cancer immunotherapy involves modification of immune cells ex vivo and subsequent infusion; this is referred as adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapy. However, poor survival and persistence of infused immune cells limit its efficacy treatment. Our lab with has expertise in developing 3D hydrogel systems and is trying to utilise these hydrogels for in vivo gene delivery, thereby, overcoming problems pertaining to ACT.Gene delivery vectors can be encapsulated in a 3D hydrogel and released in a sustained and localised manner leading to programming of desired cells in situ.

Cells in vivo are arranged in a complex micro-environment consisting mainly of extracellular matrix (ECM) and soluble factors. Researchers have tried to replicate the ECM by utilising artificially engineered matrices to provide support for cell growth. Our group has developed semi-­synthetic matrices consists of polyethylene glycol diacrylate and gelatin methacrylate which will be used to study how cells respond to different micro-­environment.