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Department of Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences

Current Activities

Areas of Research

  • Biochemistry and Enzyme Biotechnology
  • Bio-Informatics and Computational Biology
  • Cancer Biology and Chronic Diseases
  • Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology
  • Parasitology and Vector Biology
  • Plant Biotechnology

 

Biochemistry and Enzyme Biotechnology

Prof. P.R. Deepa:

  • Applied Biochemistry
  • Better understanding of disease mechanisms and pharmacologic strategies in the areas of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disorders and cancer.
  • Applied nutrition Biochemistry
  • Biochemical / bioprocess engineering
  • Green chemistry

Prof. Pankaj Sharma:

  • Phytochemical characterization of desert plants with respect to the presence of medicinally important compounds
  • Purification and biochemical characterization of enzymes participating in metabolism of flavonoids and other secondary metabolites in legumes

Bio-Informatics and Computational Biology

Prof. Shibasish Chowdhury:

  • Understanding structure-function relationship of Protein and DNA
  • Understanding protein evolution process

Cancer Biology and Chronic Diseases

Prof. Uma S Dubey:

  • Evaluating anti-cancer properties of camel milk and studying its mechanism of action
  • Experimental approaches to validate mathematical models on cancer and immune cell interaction kinetics in presence or absence of potent anti-cancer drugs  and immunopotentiating agents

Prof. Rajdeep Chowdhury:

  • Characterizing molecular mechansims involved in cancer chemo-resistance
  • Role of autophagy and associated signaling in cancer chemo-resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Role of non-coding RNAs in cancer chemo-resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma

Prof. Sudeshna Mukherjee:

  • Role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in cancer progression, especially in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT)

Dr. Meghana Tare:

  • Neurodegenerative diseases in Drosophila models.
  • Cellular and Molecular Genetics of Human Diseases

Dr. Syamantak Majumder:

  • Identification of the key epigenetic changes that occur during development and progression of diseases specially looking at vascular complications associated with endothelial dysfunction.
  • To identify and target those epigenetic processes that are involved in endothelial dysfunctions in several diseases like diabetes induced cardiovascular and kidney diseases as well as pathological angiogenesis during tumor growth. 

Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology

Prof. S.K. Verma:

  • Development of recombinant DNA based biosensor device for detection of arsenic in water samples
  • Characterization and pharmacological evaluation of bioactive compounds
  • Development of bioleaching technology for recovery of metal from ores and biosorption technology for removal of radio nuclide from nuclear industry waste
  • Biodegradation of organic pollutants
  • Bio-Diesel production from microalgae

Prof. Jitendra Panwar:

  • Development of novel biomimetic approach towards synthesis of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and their characterization
  • Mechanistic studies behind biosynthesis of nanoparticle emphasizing protein-nanoparticle interactions

Prof. Prabhat N. Jha:

  • Screening and optimization of plant growth promoting endophytic bacteria for their potential as biofertilizer candidate
  • To investigate molecular mechanism for endophytic colonization in crop plants such as wheat and pearl millet
  • Study of immune response of host plants to beneficial bacteria
  • Isolation and characterization of plant associated bacteria which can ameliorate abiotic stress in host plants through induced systemic tolerance
  • Study of expression and regulation of ACC deaminase in associative bacteria
  • Endophytic bacteria assisted phytoremediation of organic contaminants
  • Developing new enzyme assays

Dr. Sandhya Marathe:

  • Modeling immune response to Salmonella during typhoid
  • Understanding the circumstances under which Salmonella infected individual succumbs to an active disease, evolves as a persister or clears the infection. 
  • To  develop a continuous-time mechanistic model, consisting of a system of nonlinear, first-order ordinary differential equations based on a complex immuno-regulatory network functional in mesenteric lymph node during infection. 
  • To understand the molecular mechanisms of Salmonella pathogenesis and identify different virulence factors essential for the same.
  • Identification of therapeutic drug targets for treatment of Salmonellosis/typhoid.

Parasitology and Vector Biology

Prof. A.K. Das:

  • Understanding complicated malaria (Plasmodium falciparum & Plasmodium vivax), using patient derived samples
  • Possible bio markers, for severe malaria
  • Creating and using Systems networks for identifying important molecules
  • Investigation of identified molecules
  • New diagnostic approaches and concepts, focused on, but not restricted to malaria
  • Understanding molecules involved in immune perturbation in malaria and comparison with immune perturbation in other human diseases
  • Using novel plasmid sequences from isolated Lactobacilli, for different purposes

Prof. Vishal Saxena:

  • Characterization of vaccine candidate antigens of the malarial parasites of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax
  • Characterization of apicoplast targeted nuclear encoded proteins in Plasmodium vivax Indian isolates
  • Characterization of the apicoplast genome from Plasmodium vivax
  • Characterization of nuclear encoded protein particiapting in the apicoplast division
  • Characterization of Isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway genes in apicoplast of Plasmodium vivax
  • Modeling of hypothetical proteins using bioinformatic tools to identify novel drug targets in malaria parasite

Prof. Shilpi Garg:

  • Studies on drug resistance marker genes in Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax
  • Analysis of metabolic pathway genes in Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax
  • Characterization of Fe-S cluster pathway in apicoplast of Plasmodium vivax
  • Analysis of hypothetical/ putative proteins dual targeted to apicoplast and mitochondria in Plasmodium vivax

Plant Biotechnology

Prof. Rita Sharma:

  • Harnessing plant biotechnology coupled with big data analytics for crop improvement
  • Feedstock improvement for biofuels
  • Comparative genomics and molecular evolution
  • Development of new resources, tools and technologies for plant research. 
  • Identification of key microRNA-target modules and genes involved in the determination of grain weight and micronutrient content in Sorghum bicolor using small RNA and transcriptome profiling. 
  • Identification of key microRNA-target modules and genes involved in the determination of grain weight and micronutrient content in Sorghum bicolor using small RNA and transcriptome profiling

Prof. B Vani:

  • Nitrate assimilatory mechanism in Spirulina platensis

Dr. Mukul Joshi:

  • Exploration of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) and factors (HSFs) in a thermotolerant plant Prosopis cineraria by genome-wide   transcriptome study
  • Developing heat/abiotic stress tolerant transgenic rice using HSP/HSF genes from Prosopis cineraria
  • Application of genome editing (CRISPR-Cas9) for enhanced heat stress tolerance in rice