Proteomics is the study of proteins, their structures and functions. This is an important and emerging area of research in biotechnology today. A paper titled Sakshat Labs: India’s Virtual Proteomics Initiative was recently published in PLOS Biology, an international open access journal that publishes research papers in all areas of biological sciences. The impact factor of the journal is 12.916.

The paper was authored by Dr. Shyam Diwakar and Dr. Bipin Nair of the Amrita School of Biotechnology and Sandipan Ray, Nicole R Koshy, Sanjeeva Srivastava from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is collaborating with the various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to develop virtual lab-based online educational courses in biotechnology and other disciplines.

“The proteomics virtual lab at IIT Bombay will help students learn important and high throughput proteome separation and analysis techniques and understand their applications in fundamental and clinical research,” explained Dr. Shyam Diwakar.

“The term proteome describes the protein complement expressed by a genome, while proteomics is the study of the entire compendium of proteins encoded by a genome for their expression, localization, interaction and post-translational modifications. The proteomic technologies are commonly used in basic and applied research,” he further elaborated.

The joint Amrita-IIT Bombay paper gains significance as very few universities around the world have actual or virtual proteomics labs, even though proteomics is included in their curriculums.

The virtual proteomic lab accessible not only to students in India but also across the world provides in-depth information about modern proteomic techniques and their applications that makes learning proteomics easy.The lab allows remote students to carry out experiments using gel based proteomics to analyze human serum proteome, bacterial proteome and plant proteome.

The lab was developed with funding provided made available by the National Mission on Education through Internet and Communication Technologies (NME-ICT) initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).

“Virtual labs provide unlimited access to class materials and a risk-free learning environment, where individuals can learn from repeated practice, at their own pace, without using expensive resources or high maintenance equipment,” Dr. Shyam explained.

“Virtual labs target a user-friendly outlook to modern lab education, aiding as an optional evaluation component for institution teachers,” he further opined.

August 3, 2012
School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri