Modern lifestyle is associated with high risk towards several diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular heart disease, PCOS and liver / kidney malfunction which are associated with metabolic syndrome arising due to sedentary life style and rich diet. Early diagnosis and lifestyle management is essential in preventing metabolic syndrome in the population.

Disinfection of drinking water, swimming pool water, and water used in washing food processing equipment, surgical instrument, food packaging, etc., is an important step from the health consideration. Variety of disinfectants such as chlorine, sodium hypochlorite and bleaching powder are used for this purpose. These generate free chlorine, which is a very effective biocide even at very low concentrations. However, when concentration of chlorine in water is high, it reacts with humic acids present, producing polychloro-derivatives which are potent carcinogens.

Graphene is a very active adsorbent due its polycyclic aromatic structure and hence can be used for removal of harmful pollutants such as dyes, heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotics from water. It can be most conveniently used in the form of three dimensional graphene (3D graphene). For example, plugs of 3D-graphene (see figure) can be stacked into point-of-use water treatment devices. Key point of the technology is to produce 3D graphene with fully exfoliated single-sheets of graphene. Such a material has both very high surface area and activity.

■Membrane proteins comprise one third of the transcription products of human genome                                                                                                                                  ■Associated with diverse human diseases and key target for drug development                                                                                                                                            ■X-ray crystal structures of membrane proteins are scarce due to paucity of good quality crystals                                                                       

■ Pyranonaphthoquinones (PNQs) and imidazoles are highly bioactive compounds

■ PNQs have been synthesised through stereoselective organocatalytic reactions

■ Quinine-derived squaramide catalysed the asymmetric cascade reaction of hydroxynaphtho-quinone with α-acetoxymethylnitrostyrenes for the synthesis of PNQs

■ Functionalised imidazoles have been synthesised regioselectively from amidines and α-acetoxy/α-bromomethylnitrostyrenes

■ PNQs and imidazoles exhibited trypanocidal activity against Trypomastigote form of T. cruzi which causes Chagas disease

α -Functionalised nitroalkenes

■ Small multi-functional molecules with high potential in synthesis and biology

■ Synthesised through one-pot, multi-component reactions at room temperature

■ Inhibit HeLa cell proliferation by binding to tubulins and depolymerising microtubules at low micromolar concentrations

■ Bind to tubulin at a site distinct from the vinblastine and colchicine binding sites and induce conformational changes in the tubulin

■ Promising lead compounds for cancer therapy

(1) Chemically modified functional nucleic acids (siRNAs, DNA enzymes and aptamers)

Subscribing to the view of building ‘molecules with purpose’, we design and develop transition metal complexes for utility as initiators in homogeneous catalysis. We specialise in synthesising well-defined molecular catalysts for academically challenging and industrially relevant transformations through enhanced mechanistic understanding.

In a mammalian system, not all the cells are continuously growing and dividing but many of them remain in a quiescent state even though they reside in a rich growth factor medium. Similarly, in a malignant tumor the population of cell had been found to be extremely heterogeneous. Usually the tumor contains cells ranging from highly proliferative to quiescent category, and thus these cells respond quite differently under chemotherapy treatment. Most often the aggressive cells die, but the quiescent cells somehow survive the chemotherapy.

Cell cycle in eukaryotes is a sequence of molecular events that ultimately leads to precise duplication of cells. Most cells of a multi-cellular eukaryotic organism proliferate only when they sense that they are stimulated by specific growth factors above a certain threshold. In cancerous cells, this growth factor sensing mechanism gets perturbed for more than one reason and the cells start to proliferate even when the appropriate signal is absent.