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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Dr Karthik Rajendran, and Dr Lakhveer Singh from the Department of Environmental Science and Dr Imran Pancha from the Department of Biological Sciences of SRM University-AP are enlisted on the global list of the top 2% of scientists, the data compiled by Stanford University.

Stanford University has identified Dr Imran Pancha as one of the 91 scientists who has excelled in research in the fields of biotechnology among all the universities in India. Dr Imran Pancha was recognised as one of the top 2% scientists in the world in the year 2020 also. Stanford University recognized 178 scientists who excelled in research in the field of energy, which includes Dr Karthik Rajendran and Dr Lakhveer Singh among the top 2 per cent of scientists. The quality of research work, its societal impact, number of publications, citations, are taken into consideration for this recognition.

University Vice-Chancellor Prof V S Rao and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof D Narayana Rao presented Certificates of Recognition to the three professors at a congratulatory function held at the university on Friday. “This is an admirable achievement that young faculty from a nascent University appear in the top 2% scientists of the world,” said Prof D Narayana Rao. Prof V S Rao Narayana Rao appreciated their talent and efforts. Prof Narayana Rao assured them that the university would provide the necessary comprehensive support for carrying out research in front-line and emerging areas. Prof Narayana Rao further said that he is very confident that many more faculty members of SRM University – AP, will receive such global recognition in the years to come.

Dr Anil K Suresh’s innovative research has been brought into the limelight by the revered weekly magazine Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), published by the American Chemical Society. Dr Anil K Suresh, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, and his team from SRM University-AP recently developed a see-through transparent (with 85% above transmittance) biotemplate which they derived from the fish scale wastes to substitute the extensive usage of eco-unfriendly disposal plastic cuvettes for UV-Visible Spectroscopy measurements in the spectrum of 350-900 nm.

UV-Vis spectroscopy is a versatile analytical tool used to examine the nature of various synthetic, biological and clinical molecules for pharmaceutical and environmental applications. The team members demonstrated the practical on-biotemplate analysis of diverse analytes such as DNA, proteins, nanoparticles, organic dyes, bacteria, BSA assay and dye-degradations. Dr Anil K Suresh owns the copyrights for this pathbreaking invention by being granted an Indian patent. This work was published in the prestigious Journal “Green Chemistry” by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Read the full paper here.

Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), which is widely known to feature articles of the best professional and technical innovative research work and analysis in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering, has acknowledged Dr Anil’s research by allowing it little room in their magazine in Volume 99, Issue 36 (Read the news here). C&EN includes information on recent news and research in chemistry and chemical engineering along with career and employment information, business and industry news, government and policy news, funding in these fields, and special reports.

“The magazine is very celebrated among researchers across the world. It is a great honour for my team and me to be featured in the magazine. This news magazine usually picks only top nature cell science publications among thousands, and My team and I are feeling great to be one of them,” said Dr Anil. Dr Anil further said that it would not be possible to carry out such prominent research work in a newly built establishment without the constant support from the management of SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. He has profoundly thanked Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President; Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor; Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, for their kind help and cooperation.

The University Management congratulated Dr Anil K Suresh on his achievement. Dr Sathyanarayanan said, “It is indeed a proud moment for the university to be featured on C&EN. I compliment Dr Anil and his team on their tireless work.” “Dr Anil and his team have executed an extraordinary work towards a green environment which should be emphasised in international journals. The Team’s dedication towards their research is commendable,” said Prof V S Rao. Prof D Narayana Rao opined that Dr Anil K Suresh is one of the most talented young biologists in the nation. “I have personally known him for some time being and working with him for a few years. Dr Anil is devoted biologist and pride of the university,” asserted Prof D Narayana Rao.

Dr Anil K Suresh, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, and his team from SRM University-AP recently developed a see-through transparent (with 85% above transmittance) biotemplate which they derived from the fish scale wastes to substitute the extensive usage of eco-unfriendly disposal plastic cuvettes for UV-Visible Spectroscopy measurements in the spectrum of 350-900 nm. UV-Vis spectroscopy is a versatile analytical tool used to examine the nature of various synthetic, biological and clinical molecules for pharmaceutical and environmental applications. The team members demonstrated the practical on-biotemplate analysis of diverse analytes such as DNA, proteins, nanoparticles, organic dyes, bacteria, BSA assay and dye-degradations.

Dr Anil claims that the large-scale development of the biotemplate can resolve several issues in performing sustainable research; for instance, generates huge demand for fish scales as a resource stratagem otherwise causative of foul smell and disease propagation when discarded. Second, the use of non-biodegradable plastic cuvettes can be minimized for routine analytics and third, unlike plastic cuvettes that demand 500-fold analyte our biotemplate allows the analysis at a very low 10 microlitre volumes, making it feasible to analyse expensive, rare, and high-risk analytes. Dr Anil K Suresh owns the copyrights for this pathbreaking invention by being granted an Indian patent. This work is accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of “Green Chemistry” by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Read the full paper here.

Adding to the mechanistic, Dr Anil said, “naturally acquired droplet retaining ability for over 30 minutes against gravity while vertically positioning the biotemplate supported such ultra-low volume measurements and monitoring of chemical reactions in-situ”. Interestingly, the same ability allows the retrieval of the analytes after completion of the analysis, crucial for precious analytes. Dr Anil says the best part is that the transparent biotemplate can be discarded back into the environment post-usage without any hesitation as the biotemplate is completely biodegradable.

Further, the research group demonstrated ease in large-scale production by generating ~3000 bio templates at an affordable price. Dr Anil emphasised that this low-cost, plastic-free, use-and-throw biodegradable transparent biotemplate stemmed from food waste as a bioresource stratagem has huge potential in routine scientific and pharma UV-Vis analytics and he will very soon bring this product to the scientific community as a sustainable science solution.

Dr Anil Suresh concluded that this breakthrough conception would not have been possible without the rigorous efforts of his team and the continuous support from the university management, who are also encouraging and willing to support Dr Anil to establish his own start-up within the University. Dr Anil Suresh thanked his group members Ms Divya Parimi, Mr Chandra Bhatt, Mr Tharun Bollu and Ms Madhura, his collaborators Dr Malli and Mr Jacob. Dr Anil’s team especially thanked the management of SRM University-AP; the President Dr P. Sathyanarayanan for his generous support, Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for his constant untiring encouragement, motivation and support in all his scientific endeavours, and the Vice-Chancellor Prof V S Rao for his kind support.

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student of the Department of Biological Sciences at SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, Faraz Azeem, has been awarded a prestigious scholarship by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Manila, Philippines. The scholarship will enable Faraz to carry out a part of his PhD research under the supervision of Dr Jauhar Ali, Senior Scientist-II, Head – Hybrid Rice Development Consortium (HRDC), Leader – Hybrid Rice Breeding Cluster, Rice Breeding Platform, International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, Philippines, for a period of one year and four months.

Faraz joined SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, in January 2021 and is working on “Understanding the genetics and molecular biology of nitrogen-use efficiency in rice” under the guidance of Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan, HoD, Department of Biological Sciences, SRM University-AP. Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President; Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor; Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of SRM University-AP congratulated Faraz for this accomplishment.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is a global agricultural research and training organisation with offices in seventeen countries and headquarters in Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. IRRI is well-known for its role in producing rice varieties that contributed to the 1960s Green Revolution, which helped Asia avoid famine. The CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres, a global alliance of institutions involved in food security research, includes 15 agricultural research centres worldwide. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is one of the Asia’s largest non-profit agricultural research facility.

SRM University-AP provides a wide array of opportunities and benefits along with its PhD Programmes. The nascent university has more than 150 PhD students to date in various departments of Engineering, Science, Liberal Arts, Business Administration and Social Sciences. SRM University-AP university has a vibrant research environment with state-of-the-art facilities along with attractive fellowship and complimentary food and accommodation at the university campus. The faculty advisers have paramount knowledge and experience in research along with international exposure. The university also provides support for journal publications, patent filing, and attending national and international conferences.

SRM University-AP further has MoUs with reputed universities abroad for Student Exchange Programme. In addition, the university is conducting research projects funded by prominent organisations, industries and the Government of India. Research projects sponsored by DST, DST-NSM, DBT, DBT-Wellcome Trust, UGC-DAE, ARBL, Titan industries etc are a few of the current ongoing projects.

Dr Imran Pancha, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has recently published a paper titled “Deep eutectic solvents and Ionic liquid assisted hydrolysis of microalgal biomass: A promising approach towards sustainable biofuel production” in the celebrated Journal of Molecular Liquids (2021): 116264 (Impact Factor-5.065). The study was conducted in association with Akshay Kulshrestha, Sandhya Mishra, and Arvind Kumar from CSIR-CSMCRI

Microalgae is recently considered one of the promising biomasses for the production of renewable energy such as biodiesel and bioethanol. Microalgae are tiny photosynthetic organisms that utilise atmospheric CO2, water and sunlight to produce carbohydrates and lipids, which can be converted into renewable fuels. Compared to higher plants, microalgae is a good platform for bioethanol production as they do not contain any lignin in their cell composition, which makes pre-treatment for biomass hydrolysis easy. In the present study, Dr Pancha and his team explored the use of green solvents ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) for microalgal hydrolysis. They observed that among the eight tested ionic liquids, ethyl ammonium nitrate (EAN) resulted in the highest saccharification yield of 95.5%. Whereas, among hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents, menthol: lactic acid (Me: LA) exhibited the highest saccharification yield of 85.7% and also did not require any additional high temperature or other pre-treatments for biomass hydrolysis, indicating as the potential solvent system for microalgal biomass hydrolysis. Overall, the present study results indicated that the identified IL and DES could be used as a green and sustainable alternative for the pre-treatment of microalgal biomass for bioethanol production.

Due to limited fossil fuel reserve as well as environmental issues like high greenhouse gas emission and other environmental problems, finding green and sustainable energy resource is of prime importance for today’s world. To solve this problem, microalgae are among the best resources for producing renewable resources due to it’s high growth rate and photosynthetic ability. Microalgae also have the ability to obtain nutrients from various wastewater, so they also do not require fresh water for cultivation. However, commercial-scale production of microalgae-based biofuels faces various problems such as cultivation cost, downstream processing for biofuel production etc. In this regard, in the present work, Dr Pancha demonstrated the use of ILs and DESs for pre-treatment of microalgal biomass for reducing sugar production, which can be further utilised to produce bioethanol.

Dr Pancha and his research group are further devoted to understanding the molecular mechanism behind the accumulation of energy reserved compounds in the microalgae and developing a sustainable biorefinery process to extract biofuels and other industrially relevant compounds from single microalgal biomass.

Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2021.116264

Ms Vasika Venugopal, a final year BSc Biology student at SRM University-AP has secured awe-inspiring admissions in a number of eminent higher education institutions inside and outside India. She is selected for the Master’s programme at the University of Tübingen, Germany; Charité -Universitätmedizin Berlin, Germany; University of Wuerzburg, Germany; Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany; University of Paris-Saclay, Paris, France; University of Bordeaux, Talance, France; Université de Paris, Paris, France; and for an Integrated PhD degree at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore. She was also shortlisted in the following Universities viz Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Germany (MSc Molecular and Cellular Biology); Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea; University of Bonn, Germany (MSc Neuroscience); JNCASR, Bengaluru (Integrated PhD Biological Sciences); and IISER, Pune (Integrated PhD Biological Sciences).

Here’s an exclusive interview with Ms Vasika Venugopal:

Hi Vasika, can you tell us how you developed your interest in neuroscience?
For as long as I could remember, I have held a deep-rooted interest in neuroscience. The brain is one of the finest examples of synergy. It has always baffled me that the stream of thoughts that we call consciousness could arise from a series of neurons firing action potentials from one point to another. The entire world around us is reconstructed only using receptors on neural tissue and neurotransmitters. In our head, we house a mere handful of a mass of cells, but “it can contemplate the meaning of infinity, and it can contemplate itself, contemplating the meaning of infinity.” I find that quite ironic and miraculous at the same time. When we look at the parts of the brain, we expect nothing magnificent to arise from it, but the magnitude of emotions we feel, thoughts that we manifest, and memories that we recall are all testament to something more. This is why I have chosen to pursue Neuroscience.

What is your motivation for choosing the University of Bordeaux, France among all other Universities?
After a period of deliberation, I have finally decided to accept the admission offer into the Bordeaux International Masters in Neuroscience Program at the University of Bordeaux, France. This international Master’s program provides a unique interdisciplinary and integrated training approach that covers all major topics of brain research, from normal brain functions to brain disorders. Neuroscience in Bordeaux has grown over the last 15 years to become one of the largest Neuroscience scientific communities in France and in Europe, with over 600 people working in the various Neuroscience laboratories of the University of Bordeaux. In order to meet the most important challenges facing Neuroscience research, all these laboratories are grouped within a virtual institute, called the Bordeaux Neurocampus, a multidisciplinary consortium of world-renowned scientists. Bordeaux Neurocampus offers, together with our international academic partners, excellent opportunities for traineeships.

Is there any scholarship offered in the University where you are enrolling into?
One of the key points of the program is that students are offered scholarships based on their performance. As for my admission, I am eligible for a partial tuition fee waiver. Students completing their traineeship in a laboratory of the University of Bordeaux receive a monthly stipend during the traineeship as well.

Can you brief the application process for those students who dream to study abroad?
In general, for applications to universities in France, you would have to apply through the Campus France website. However, for the universities that I had applied to, such as the University of Paris, the University of Bordeaux, and the University of Paris-Saclay, one could directly apply to the program itself. The application process is pretty simple, and you would require only basic documents such as an ID, academic transcripts, a bonafide certificate issued from the university, a proof of English proficiency, a letter of motivation, reference letters, your curriculum vitae, etc. I have written the DELF examination for French, and possess certifications from Alliance Francais. I believe this would also be helpful for other students as well. The search for programs in English might be exhaustive, and one might have to go through a university’s website before applying as some of the modules might be in French. Following applications, one would have to undergo interviews with the admission board, which is honestly the scariest part, and depending on your performance and application, your admission is decided. In the case of most German universities that I had applied to, I had to submit my application with the basic documents through the university website and was called for an entrance exam if my application was shortlisted. If my performance in the entrance exam was satisfactory, I would then be called for a minimum of one interview, and a maximum of two. In some cases, like the University of Wurzburg, you would also have to present your research work in a 10-minute presentation and defend your hypothesis through the questioning round that follows. Honestly, this part is very exciting! As a whole, the application process is intensive, but it is an opportunity for you to grow your network and learn to think in ways you haven’t before. I am still in contact with most of the professors that had interviewed me, and talking to different people has honestly helped grow my sphere, which has been hard due to the pandemic.

Amazing! Can you talk about the support that you have received from your department at SRM-AP during these application processes?
Throughout the rigorous processes of applications, professors from the Department of Biological Sciences were extremely helpful. Dr Manjunatha Thondamal’s knowledge of the French education system and his relentless aid in modifying my letter of motivation were extremely helpful. Prof Jayaseelan Murugaiyan and Dr Imran Pancha were incredibly patient with the number of recommendation letters they had to write for my applications. Each of them took their own time to help me pick universities and courses, discussing their pros and cons along the way. I have received a lot of support and advice from my department throughout my time at SRM for my education, internships, projects, and Master’s application, and I’ll always be grateful for that.