Key Projects & Woking Groups

PURSE (Theme I)
Development of theranostic agents for photodynamic / photothermal treatment of oral/lung cancer and related diseases.

Project 1 :
Title :
- Design and development of theranostic agents.
- Synthesis and study of photoogysical aspects of NIR absorbing sensitizers.
Principle Investigator of Theme I : Dr. D. Ramaiah, Chair Professor, Department of Chemistry, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Project 2 :
Title : Synthesis and study of photoogysical studies of Theranostic agents.
Co-Investigator of Theme I : Dr. Manab Chakraborty, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Project 3 :
Title : Quantification of singlet oxygen produced for suitable photosensitizer molecules and Two-photon excited PDT using confocal imaging.
Co-Investigator of Theme I : Dr. Amit Nag, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Project 4 :
Title : Development of microneedle-based drug delivery device containing photosensitizers and antibodies and its evaluation in in-vitro and in-vivo cancer models.
Co-Investigator of Theme I : Dr. Venkata Vamsi Krishna Venuganti, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Objectives:
- Design of novel BODIPY, aza-BODIPY, porphyrin and chlorin based sensitizers and their nanoparticles (NPs) for imaging and PDT.
- Effective conjugation of these sensitizers and NPs with folic acid and antibodies for the targeted PDT / PTT.
- Development of localized delivery approach using microneedles and NPs for the targeted PDT / PTT.
- Demonstration of combination therapy employing PDT / PTT / Cetuximab and efficacy comparison with the clinically FDA approved photosensitizers, Photofrin@ & Foscan@
Deliverables
- A realistic route to develop effective theranostic agents suitable for both PDT, PPT, and the combined treatment to fight against oral/lung cancer.
- Introduction and improvement of an efficient strategy to combine imaging and therapy as the best choice.
- Collaboration with hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, who are engaged in newer technological developments with a target to develop the best possible solutions for oral/lung cancer.
- IPR protection through patents and publications of results in high-impact journals.
- Early detection and adequate treatment can be a solution and the proposed theranostic probes are expected to be best suited for such applications.
PURSE (Theme II)
Development of 2D materials based sensor systems for rapid diagnosis of human diseases through analysis of exhaled breath

Project 1 :
Title : Design, fabrication, testing and prototyping of breath analyzer sensor system.
Principle Investigator of Theme II : Dr. Arnab Hazra, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Project 2 :
Title : Detection and differentiation of different stages of diseases and standardization of the prototype breath analyzer.
Co-Investigator of Theme II : Dr. Syamantak Mazumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Project 3 :
Title : Synthesis and Characterization of nanomaterials for selective chemical sensing.
Co-Investigator of Theme II : Dr. Subhashis Gangopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Project 4 :
Title : CVD growth of Emerging 2D materials and its electrical characterization.
Co-Investigator of Theme II : Dr. Parikshit Sahitya, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Objectives:
- Selection of common disorders (diabetes, asthma, COPD, CKD, Cardiovascular diseases) among Indian population and identification of the corresponding breath markers with concentration range.
- Growth/synthesis and characterizations of recently developed 2D materials (Graphene, Boron nitride, Black phosphorus and Transition metal dichalcogenides)
- Fabrication of solid-state gas/vapour sensors based on single or few layer 2D materials and characterization of developed sensors in dummy breath ambient with different concentrations of breath markers.
- Discrimination of breath markers by using suitable pattern recognition algorithms and development of a prototype sensor system.
- Detection and differentiation of the stages of diabetes, CKD and cardiovascular disease in rodents by using the prototype sensor system and further standardization with human subjects in collaboration with BITS Pilani Medical Centre and partner hospitals.
Deliverables:
- 2D materials based solid state VOC/gas sensors will be fabricated with advanced features like FET, heterojunction etc. Sensor signals will be processed systematically by using suitable features extraction and classification algorithms. Afterwards, a prototype breath analyzer will be configured with five major segments like breath collection chamber, multisensory array, data acquisition unit, signal processing unit and display unit. Finally, different stages of the diseases will be differentiated by the prototype breath analyzer using biological samples collected through a controlled rodent model. The prototype sensor system will be validated and standardized further by directly applying on human subjects collaborating with BITS Pilani Medical Centre and other partner hospitals such as AIIMS Jodhpur.
Status: Ongoing
PURSE (Theme III)
Waste-to-Energy

Project Summary

Management of municipal solid waste (MSW), including food waste, has been a crucial problem for government local bodies in India, especially at the suburban and village levels. With DST-PURSE grant, the integration of various innovative technologies to convert organic waste to clean energy is planned. Since MSW generated in India is rich in organic matter (≈50%), the organic fraction can be used as substrate for anaerobic digestion to generate renewable bioenergy in the form of methane-rich biogas. After scrubbing unwanted constituent gases from raw biogas, methane is converted to electricity using an internal combustion (IC) engine. Further, the methane is converted to hydrogen and used in a fuel cell to generate electricity.

Brief Objectives
- Biomethanation of food waste and organic fraction of municipal solid waste to generate methane-rich biogas at pilot (0.5 TPD) and industrial scales (2 TPD).
- Conversion of biogas to electricity using an IC engine with an alternator coupled system.
- Thermocatalytic conversion of methane to hydrogen.
- Conversion of hydrogen to electricity using in-house fabricated proton exchange electrolyte membrane fuel cells.
- Smart scheduling and distribution of electric power to satisfy the community-scale demand response management (DRM).
- Environmental and social impact assessment of pre and post-project implementation.
Team Members:
(1) Prof. P. Shankar Ganesh (Biological Sciences) - PI
(2) Dr. Ankur Bhattacharjee (EEE) - Co-PI
(3) Dr. K. Supradeepan (Mechanical Engineering) - Co-PI
(4) Dr. Satyapaul A. Singh (Chemical Engineering) - Co-PI
(5) Dr. Chanchal Chakraborty (Chemistry) - Co-PI &
(6) Dr. Lavanya Suresh (Humanities and Social Sciences) - Co-PI
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DBT-BUILDER (Pilani Campus)

DBT BUILDER Program, BITS Pilani Campus, Rajasthan

Project Title: Interdisciplinary Life Science Programme for Advanced Research and Education in Epigenetics and Genome editing"

Significant and notable outcomes and achievements:

There exists a strong correlation between epigenetic alterations and the pathogenesis of different diseases, including diabetic complications, endothelial dysfunctions, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and malaria. The project aims to elucidate the role of epigenetic modifications and underlying mechanisms involved in the progression of such diseases, synthesize new molecules to target epigenetic modifications, use genome editing technology to alter the epigenetic modifications and fabricate efficient delivery vehicles to deliver such potent molecules to treat these diseases.

Additionally, the project is also focused on training manpower in advanced epigenetics, genome editing, and drug development, eventually improving the country's human resources and contributing towards capacity building.

One online symposium focusing on epigenetic modification and its relevance in clinical problems has already been organized. In the future, similar symposiums, workshops, and training programs will be conducted to train young researchers in cutting-edge genomics and epigenomic techniques.

Other Achievements:

Organized a virtual symposium entitled "Role of Epigenetics in Health: Challenges and Opportunities", on 25th- 26th February 2022 for encouraging multi-disciplinary research. More than 100 participants attended the conference and interchanged ideas in the area of epigenetics.
DBT-BUILDER (Goa Campus)
DBT-Boost to University Interdisciplinary Life Science Program for Education and Research (BUILDER) - K K Birla Goa Campus

The objectives of this proposal is to break the walls between four departments i.e. Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Computer Sciences through Biotechnology so as to enable production of biomaterials and biotechnological products. The focus will be on capacity building as well as on applied research so as to contribute to the Government’s vision of achieving USD 5 trillion to India’s economy by 2024 through Biotechnology. In terms of research we will focus on Materials for Biological applications, Bioprocess Engineering and Computational Biology with the major objective of taking the results from lab to land. We will commercialize at least two products and would create at least four start ups. We will introduce Minor programme, Post graduate diploma programme and workshops so as to build the capacity as per industry needs. In a five year period we would train at least 40 students in our proposed minor programme, 50 in post graduate diploma and 50 students / teachers in workshops and train 12 PhD students in this interdisciplinary field.

In this project there are three research groups: (i) Materials for Biological applications, (ii) Bioprocess Engineering, (iii) Computational. Deliverables of each group are as follows:
1. Materials for Biological applications (Therapeutics, Biosensors, Imaging, Tissue Engineering, Agriculture, Environment).
- Development of low cost novel indigenous products
- Development of delivery materials
- Development of Tailor made Nanostructured functional materials for Biological applications.
- Novel methodologies for the synthesis of targeted nanomaterials
- Application of nanomaterials for theranostic and agricultural applications
2. Bioprocess Engineering (Lab to Land facilities)
- Improving the TRL levels of Biotechnology research above the proof of concept stage.
- Transform the students from Biologists to true Biotechnologists.
3. Computational (Drug Design, Data Science, AI, Machine Learning).
- New system based interface / model to analyze specific biological systems to integrate the experimental observations
- New AI based tools to predict biomolecular interactions and networks, crosstalk at molecular and cellular levels.
- Develop a pipeline to use the existing or developed computational resources for designing novel biocompatible materials
- Derive novel and testable ‘hypothesis’ to better understand the biological systems
Team :
- Project Coordinator : Prof. Sunil Bhand
- Research Group Leader (Bioprocess Engineering) : Prof. Srikant Mutnuri
- Research Group Leader (Materials for Biological Applications) : Prof. Narendra Nath Ghosh
- Research Group Leader (Computational) : Prof. Vinayak Naik
- About 32 faculty members from the Department of Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, EEE, Mechanical Engineering are involved in this project.
Sanctioned Amount : ₹ 8.43 Crore
DBT-BUILDER (Hyderabad Campus)

DBT-Boost to University Interdisciplinary Life Science Departments for Education and Research (BUILDER) (Hyderabad Campus)

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) provides support to establish interdisciplinary School of Life Sciences for advanced research and education in universities known as “DBT-Boost to University Interdisciplinary Life Science Departments for Education and Research (BUILDER)” The overall aim of this program is to foster interaction of existing departments of universities and invigorating interdisciplinary neuroscience research. World health organization (WHO) statistics indicate that one in four people is affected with mental disorders, collectively making them a major public health problem, burdening the world economy. In this context, it is important to understand the various physiological events that contribute to mental disorders so that early interventions or effective treatments can be made to improve the lives of the affected and lessen the financial burden on the concerned families. Since its inception, the departments of Biological Sciences and Pharmacy at BITS-Pilani (Hyderabad Campus) have nucleated a set of faculty with research focus in neuroscience and/or neurological disorders and some others whose expertise complements well to conduct interdisciplinary research using cutting-edge methodologies. Some of these research methodologies are currently being used to train Ph.D. and postgraduate students in neurobiology and/or neurological disorders. To further strengthen high-quality neuroscience research, we propose to upgrade the existing laboratories with high-end equipment with an emphasis on modeling different neurological disorders. For this purpose, we will use pharmacological and transgenic approaches to develop human neural stem cell-, organoid-based and rodent models for neurological disorders. These models will help in understanding the molecular mechanisms, identifying new targets, designing new drugs and delivering systems for treatment. As an outcome, students at post-graduate and Ph.D. levels would acquire all the necessary skills to excel in modern neuroscience/neurobiology research using recently developed/ evolving genomics technologies. As a wider outreach, the proposed neuroscience center will also provide hands on training on the methodological advances through workshops to widen the available pool of trained manpower in these areas. The upgraded facilities and the trained personnel will be able to meet the needs of multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries within the campuses and elsewhere.

Members :
(1) Prof. P Yogeeswari (Senior Professor, Department of Pharmacy)
(2) Prof. Punna Rao Ravi (Professor, Department of Pharmacy)
(3) Prof. Balaram Ghosh (Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy)
(4) Prof. Onkar Prakash Kulkarni (Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy)
(5) Prof. Vidya Rajesh (Professor, Department of Biological Sciences)
(6) Dr. Pragya Komal (Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences)
(7) Prof. Naga Mohan Kommu (Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences)
Quantum Technology
- Quantum Computing Interest Group @ Pilani Campus
- Centre for Quantum Information and Technology Research @ Goa Campus