Final year BSc (Hons) Integrative Biology student Mr Omkar Mani Kanteswar has received an admission offer for the Master of Science in Biology at the University of Memphis (UofM), USA. Omkar’s happiness has no bounds as he really worked hard to get into his dream university.

The University of Memphis is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Since Omkar is from a Bsc Biology background, he wanted to continue in the same research field. While shortlisting the universities, he found this research-oriented college. He passed the Duolingo test and IELTS to get into this college.

The Master of Science (MS) in Biology is a research-centred degree programme with an intensive core and elective curriculum. Omkar opted for this course owing to the fact that he wanted to continue his research in the field of Biology. His message for the junior batches is to be confident and independent to make their own decisions and not run with the herd. He urges them to focus on holistic development and extracurricular activities. He is also ready to provide support to them if they need any.

He extended his gratitude to the faculty members who helped him a lot in the process by giving him confidence. He was glad to have them because they consistently and positively helped him in his academics and choosing various colleges. Faculty from the Department of Biological Sciences- Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan (HOD), Assistant Professor Sutharsan Govindarajan, and Prof Imran Pancha hold significant positions in Omkar’s career venture.

Admission to a reputed institute means a sense of pride, the joy of knowing you would study the best things with the best ones. Omkar believes that this is just the beginning, and he is yet to do a lot more things with his precious life.

Assistant professors Dr Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay and Dr Imran Pancha from the Department of Physics and the Department of Biological Sciences, respectively, along with Ms Ashwini Nawade, a PhD student of the Department of Physics, have developed a method to integrate plant proteins in the solid-state electronic circuits and utilize the biological functionality to produce a thin film, cost-effective photodetector. Their paper entitled Electron Transport across Phycobiliproteins Films and its’ Optoelectronic Properties has been published in the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology with an Impact Factor of 2.07. It is an interdisciplinary research project between the Department of Biotechnology and Physics.

Explanation of the research

Biomolecules such as proteins, peptides being the most crucial life-forms, have an intimate relationship with various life activities for biological functions. The contemporary work with biomolecules mainly focuses on its evolving potential associated with nanoscale electronics where proteins and peptides are integrated as sensing materials. The researchers explored the optoelectronics functionality of combined proteins known as phycobiliproteins. They investigated electron transport behavior across the phycobiliproteins films under dark and white light illumination. The research affirms that the photochemical activity of the protein is more stable in a solid-state/ thin-film with tightly bonded water molecules than its presence in a buffer solution. Furthermore, the studies demonstrate that phycobiliproteins films modulate their electrical conductivity within their different conformation states. Researchers speculate that the electrical conductance variation could originate from the chemical alteration of cysteine-conjugated bilin chromophores to protein and the electrostatic environment around the chromophores.

The research explores the photochemical properties and electrical transport efficiency of phycobiliproteins (PBPs) films. In addition, it investigates the optoelectronics functionality of PBPs films by studying electron transport behavior across the protein films under a dark state and white light illumination. The researchers proposed to develop a photodetector with the protein film in the future.

Our bright young minds bring fame and glory to the university from all around the world. Mr Haseesh Rahithya Nandam, from the final year of BSc (Hons) Integrative Biology, has received admission offers to MSc Infection and Immunity course, University College London (QS ranking 8) and MSc Medical and Molecular Virology, The University of Manchester (QS ranking 27).

UCL is rated the top university in the UK for research strength in the most recent Research Excellence Framework. The MSc course that Mr Haseesh has enrolled in primarily focuses on teaching concepts of infection and immunity. It contains course modules such as Molecular Virology, Evolution of Diseases, and Epidemiology.

“I am excited and happy since UCL stands in 8th rank and offers a course I dearly love to study”, says Mr Haseesh. According to him, the selection process for University College London was a piece of cake. The admission requirements were the English language proficiency test (IELTS/TOEFL) result, SoP, LoRs, CV, and Grade Card. He has also applied to Imperial College London and is waiting for the admission announcement.

SRM University-AP enables students to become the best version of themselves every single day and work towards their goals. “I am grateful for the support of my professor Dr Sutharsan Govindarajan to work in his lab. There, I got the opportunity to gain experience and learn new things”, says Mr Haseesh. He further thanked the Head of the Department, Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan, for his relentless guidance and support.

Mr Chandra S Bhatt, a PhD Scholar (CSIR-JRF) working under the guidance of Dr Anil K Suresh, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, has won the Best Oral Presentation Award at the International Conference on “Novel Materials and Technologies for Energy Applications,” organised by BITS Pilani-Hyderabad, on February 18-19, 2022. Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Former DST Secretary & Institute Chair Professor, IIT Kanpur, was the Chief Guest of the Conference.

Abstract:

Mr Bhatt’s project aims to develop the best out of waste, which is practically demonstrated by synthesising gold nanostructured eggshell-based supported catalyst. Besides this novel strategy, the megacatalyst is implemented in the real-time degradations of organic and sewage dyes that are harmful to the environment and hydrogenation of nitroarenes at gram-scale (precursors for various pharmaceutical ingredients). Our rationale, naturally created, stable, reusable, hand-removable, resilient catalyst developed from left-over food waste trounces the majority of the existing challenges while utilising nano-based catalysts for heterogeneous catalysis.

With this innovation, Mr Bhatt aims to demonstrate pilot-scale (100-1000 litre) batch catalytic reactions for real-time textile sewage dye detoxification and gram scale hydrogenation of pharma-precursor for the production of acetaminophen, as a step of validation for immediate technology transfer and commercialisation for both environmental remediation and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s).

About the Author:

Mr Bhatt aims to continue his scientific career as a prominent scientist in the interdisciplinary area of nano-immunology for cancer theragnostics. Therefore, after the completion of his PhD, he wishes to advance his research career to contribute further to the realm of science upon postdoctoral training from a top-ranking institution abroad.

“It is indeed a moment of pride for me to be awarded the Best Oral Presentation Award in an International Conference organised by BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, winning over 30 participants across the Nation. I express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr Anil K Suresh, for his guidance and motivation me throughout the journey,” said Mr Bhatt.

While expressing his joy, Dr Suresh emphatically said, “This was his first oral presentation in an International Conference, and he was conferred with the “Best Oral Presentation” Award. This recognition speaks for Chandra Sekhar’s dedication to his research. He has been working enthusiastically on this project, and I wish that the paper gets published in a high-impact journal which has already been communicated for Shekar’s bright scientific career.”

“Progress in Alternative Strategies to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance: Focus on Antibiotics” is a paper authored by Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan, Professor & Head, Department of Biological Sciences at SRM University-AP and his research scholar Ms Saranya Adukkadukkam, in Antibiotics Journal, having an impact factor of 4.639. It is a remarkable achievement that our university served as the first and the corresponding authors of this paper published in association with “Global AMR Insights Ambassadors Network”. A total of 21 co-authors from 13 countries (India, UK, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Lebanon, Egypt, Uganda, Bangladesh, and Nigeria) and six Indian universities (including SRM AP) participated in this work.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the ability of microorganisms to survive antimicrobials – is a global healthcare concern. AMR contributes to 1.27 million deaths among the 4.95 million deaths associated with bacterial AMR. If no control measures are taken, it is estimated that by 2050, it will claim the lives of 300 million people. The rise of these “superbug bacteria’s” – means that trivial medical interventions will soon become once again high-risk since no efficient antimicrobial chemotherapy is available. It is, therefore, crucial to understand the current situation and identify alternatives to combat the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. This paper comprehensively discusses the alternative approaches that can be effectively utilised to combat AMR and, at the same time, without inducing further resistance among the pathogens. The paper has great social implications in making society aware of the scenario and encouraging the researchers to focus on alternative strategies to combat AMR.

Abstract of the paper: Antibiotic resistance, and, in a broader perspective, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), continues to evolve and spread beyond all boundaries. As a result, infectious diseases have become more challenging or even impossible to treat, leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality. Despite the failure of conventional, traditional antimicrobial therapy, in the past two decades, no novel class of antibiotics has been introduced. Consequently, several novel alternative strategies to combat these (multi-) drug-resistant infectious microorganisms have been identified. The purpose of this review is to gather and consider the strategies that are being applied or proposed as potential alternatives to traditional antibiotics. These strategies include combination therapy, techniques that target the enzymes or proteins responsible for antimicrobial resistance, resistant bacteria, drug delivery systems, physicochemical methods, and unconventional techniques, including the CRISPR-Cas system. These alternative strategies may have the potential to change the treatment of multi-drug-resistant pathogens in human clinical settings.

Global AMR Insight Ambassador Network: AMR Insights, an international network-based organisation interacting with professionals around the globe: in Human and Veterinary Health, Agri-food and Environment, was set up in 2017 following an in-depth feasibility study towards a new information platform on AMR. It mainly focuses on informing, educating and connecting people with the aim to curb antimicrobial resistance. Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan and Ms Saranya Adukkadukkam are members of the Global AMR Insights Ambassador Network.

Ms Saranya Adukkadukkam, the co-author from SRM AP says:

The guidance of Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan is the pillar of my research. His support and passion for research always encourage me. He gives importance to translational research and motivates me to stand unique in the field. He shows me a path where I can serve the people through research. Foreseeing my future as a scientist, he guides me to more opportunities to collaborate with international scientists. I feel proud of my mentor Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan for letting me fly. Also, I thank SRM University-AP for providing generous fellowship, excellent research facilities and ambience to carry out the research.

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Rallapalli Bhavana Durga, a budding researcher from BSc Biology at SRM University-AP, earns an international internship at Harvard Medical School. The six-month internship will focus on bioengineering, cancer, and other biomedical research. The days at Harvard Medical School will impart an understanding of the development of cancer in an in-vitro model fabricated by the bioengineering approach.

The Office of International Relations and Higher Studies guided Ms Bhavana throughout the application process. Every eligible student who applies for study abroad programmes is given orientation and motivation to bridge the attainment gap. They share information about various research/internships/projects with interested students. Ms Bhavana qualified the eligibility criteria for Harvard Medical School, which focuses on Tissue engineering and other Biomedical engineering fields. After completing the screening, she received a welcome e-mail for the internship at Dr Shiladitya Sengupta & Haelin Jang’s lab in Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. During the internship period, she will be involved in i) research-related activities involving the hands-on discovery of new biological pathways in cancer metastasis and (ii) writing for publications.

“I have received a lot of support from my professors and Dr Swetha Pasupuleti, Associate Director, International Relations”, says Ms Bhavana. “From the beginning, all my professors have been very encouraging, and their suggestions and criticisms were constructive. Dr Swetha has been very supportive and reassuring during the application process, taking away my inhibitions. I feel excited about my internship”, she added.

To tackle barriers to postgraduate education, SRM University-AP has designed ambitious programmes that improve the admission of students to global institutions. International Relations and Higher Studies department ensure that all students and faculty on campus are supported and assisted in gaining access to resources in order to achieve the vision and mission of SRM University-AP in becoming a multidisciplinary global university.

SRM University-AP is pleased to announce that Dr Anil K. Suresh, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been awarded a DBT grant for his project entitled “Pilot-scale ultra-efficient fixative sewage dye-degradation by our ‘3D-megacatalyst’ generated using intact eggshell waste”.

About the Project:

Catalysis is widely used in various industrial and pharmaceutical processes to fasters the production of the desired end products. The use of inert matrices or frameworks is emerging as a “supported catalysts” arena with the potential for efficient reuse and recovery of the catalyst. We have recently generated a wide area supported catalyst utilising intact eggshell bio-waste, and the process is autogenic, facile, cost-efficient and entirely biodegradable. This supported megacatalyst can be effortlessly removed from the reaction by hand.

The current DBT-funding through Accelerated Translational Grant for Commercialization (ATGC) program is to support the technological reediness of our project for its commercialisation as a measure of Technology Readiness Level (TRL), an estimation technologies maturity and readiness for its utilisation in the commercial market. By demonstrating proof-of-concept laboratory studies, we are currently at TRL-6, and through this project, we will demonstrate pilot-scale studies for reaching the TRL-9 (Market/Operational level).

The main objectives of the proposal are:

1. Demonstrating large-volume degradations of sewage dyes at 500 L to 1000 Litres volume capacities in custom-built batch reactors.

2. Gram-scale hydrogenation of nitroarenes for the production of ~500 grams of pharmaceutical derivatives.

Social Implications of the project by Dr Anil K. Suresh:

Thousands of litres of harmful textile, paper sewage dyes that are corrosive and toxic to the environment and are unintendedly released can now be degraded into detoxified colourless by-products and water by using our “Au@megacatalyst”.

Pharmaceutically important precursors such as 4-aminophenol, propargyl amines can be produced in milligrams of quantities by using “Au@megacatalyst”, which otherwise are expensive and hard to synthesise. And most importantly, such precursors are currently being procured from China and other countries that can be avoided, and indigenous make-in-India can be conceptualised using our catalyst.

Dr Anil K. Suresh would be the principal investigator of this project, with a total outlay of Rs. 31 lacs over two years.

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