BioQuest 2013 provided the perfect platform to showcase Amrita work in the biotech field.
Ajith Madhavan, Assistant Professor, Amrita School of Biotechnology spoke on his work in the Development of a Phototrophic Microbial Fuel Cell with Sacrificial Electrodes and a Novel Proton Exchange Matrix.
“This is the era of fossil fuel depletion. So we need renewable energies. Microbial fuel cells are bio-electrochemical systems that drive a current, harnessing natural bacterial interactions,” he said.
Dr. Manzoor K., Professor, Amrita Center for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine detailed his work Targeting Aberrant Cancer Kinome using Rationally Designed Nano-Polypharmaceutics.
“Today we are waging a war against cancer, with a small-sized weapon. At our center, we are developing nano medicines with multiple functionalities. These target cancer kinomes, cancer stem cells, genomic instabilities, angiogenesis and mutations,” he revealed.
Dr. Deepthy Menon, Associate Professor, Amrita Center for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine shared her work on Nano Bioengineering of Implant Materials for Improved Cellular Response and Activity.
She was joined by Dr. Shanthikumar Nair, Professor and Director, Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine as well as Dean of Research, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham who spoke on Spatially Distributed and Hierarchical Nano Materials in Biotech.
“Building hierarchy in nano materials provides tremendous advantages. We have synthesized a material in our Amrita labs with a protein core and a polymeric shell that we are using for sequential drug release, where the shell releases the first drug and the core releases the second drug,” he stated.
“A combinational hierarchical structure provides a much better functionality when we design for biomedical applications,” he underlined.
Dr. T.G. Satheesh Babu, Professor, Amrita Biomedical Engineering and Research Center at the Coimbatore campus shared his work on Nano Materials for Enzyme Free BioSensing.
“Non-enzymatic sensors do not suffer from the drawback of long-term storage stability that is inherent in enzymatic sensors and relies on direct electro oxidation of glucose or any targeted molecule by applying very low amount of potential. Our aim at Amrita is to increase the surface area by some kind of nano modification. Our non-enzymatic glucose sensor contains nano pillars made up of copper oxide. Like this, we are also developing creatinine sensors and cholesterol sensors,” he shared.
Finally, John Stanely highlighted his work on Pt-Pd Decorated TiO2 Nano Tube Arrays for the Non Enzymatic Determination of Glucose in Neutral Medium.
“Diabetes mellitus is a public health problem affecting about 150 million people today. India is the global leader in diabetes mellitus. Glucose strips currently used to monitor diabetes are enzymatic and this has its own drawbacks. We are developing a TiO2 nano tube array to detect glucose from a blood drop placed on it. The sensitivity of the nanotube is 16 µA /milli molar/cm2 and commonly interfering species like ascorbic acid and others are absent,” he stated.
September 12, 2013
School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri
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BioQuest 2013 Concludes
