Faculty Bio

• Junior Research Fellow, Amrita Agilent Analytical Research Lab, School of Biotechnology (2013).
• Junior Research Fellow, Amrita Biosensor Research Lab, AmritaSchool of Engineering, Coimbatore (2012).

Research Activity

Oxidative stress refers to the physiological stress caused by an imbalance between the systemic production of reactive oxygen species and the biological system’s ability to detoxify the reactive intermediates thus leading to a number of diseases. Usually, the impact of oxidative stress on a cell is measured by analysing the oxidation states of molecules like glutathione. Carbonylation of proteins, one of the major oxidative stress induced modifications, can be considered as potential biomarkers for measuring the level of oxidative stresses. Recent investigations has revealed that carbonylation of proteins occur primarily at amino acid residues, proline, arginine, lysine, threonine etc. As part of the on-going studies, we aim at characterizing the carbonylated proteins from various model systems undergoing oxidative stresses. We also aim at testing the efficacy of various natural products as potential anti-oxidants through MS based proteomics strategies.

Research Projects

Ongoing work:

“Mass spectrometry based proteomic characterization of carbonylated proteins as indicators of oxidative stress”. Principal Investigator: Dr Sudarslal S, Associate Professor School of Biotechnology

Collaborator: Dr Harikumaran Nair, Assistant Professor, Mahatma Gandhi University

1. Six months project on “Development and Characterization of ssDNA Immobilized Carbon Electrode for the Fabrication of DNA sensors,”was doneunder Dr Satheesh Babu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sciences at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham andDr Bipin Nair, Dean Amrita School of Biotechnology, Kollam, (2012).
2. Two weeks training programme in Oncological Research Methodology at the Division of Cancer Research, Regional Cancer Center, Thiruvananthapuram,(2011).
3. Project on “Isolation, Identification and Cluster Analysis of Dandruff Causing Malassazia furfur from Adolescents”was done under the guidance of Dr Vijay Bhaskar, Professor at St. Berchmans College, Changanacherry, (2010).

1. Best posteraward for the poster entitled “Mass spectrometric characterization of lipopeptides from Bacillus cereus-AK1” in the track Bioanalytical Techniquesduring Amrita Bio quest, International Conference on Biotechnology for innovative application hosted by School of Biotechnology on August 2013
2. Awarded the fourth place for the National level competition for Biotechnology entrepreneurs organized by Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs held at Electronics City, Bangalore on July 2011.

1. The Fourth International Seminar on Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Plant Biomass- Ayur informatics SUTPBM2014, (December 12-13, 2014).
2. Indo- US Symposium on Mass-spectrometry based Metabolomics in Disease Biology, hosted by Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvananthapuram (January 23-24, 2014).
3. Amrita Bioquest 2013: International Conference on Biotechnology for Innovative Application, hosted by School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (August 10-14, 2013).

Divya Nair,
Amrita Agilent Analytical Research Centre,
School of Biotechnology,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,Amritapuri,
Clappana P.O, Kollam, Kerala, 690525
+91-476-280- 3119 / 3126