Amity Centre of Excellence in Astrobiology

Vision

To become India’s first and leading Centre for Studies of the Origin and Survival of Life in the Universe.

Mission

By establishing a multifaceted research strategy, the Centre will undertake:

  • Scientific Research: Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Habitability and Preservation of Biosignatures in Extraterrestrial environments. Survival and sustenance of microbial life exposed to space environments.
  • Mission Design: Develop Exploration Roadmaps and Mission Architectures for future Astrobiology missions.
  • Technology: Design and performance analysis of Surface systems for Astrobiology missions. Design and develop microgravity-based biological experiment hardware.
  • Events: Co-organize meetings and workshops for National Astrobiology Group for prioritization and development of Astrobiology experiments in India and Space.
  • Education: Facilitate mentorship for Amity students for research projects in Astrobiology.

Centre for Computational Biology & Translational Research (CCBTR)

Vision

To improve human health through the pursuit of academic and research excellence in translational science

Mission

  • Create a multi-disciplinary research environment wherein biologists, physicist, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, work as teams and adopt an integrated approach to find solutions to complex biological challenges
  • Impart world class higher education and research in relevant applied areas (Computational Biology & Regenerative Medicine)
  • Develop research partnerships with leading Institutes at the National & International level
  • Disseminate the knowledge by presenting the work in renowned conferences and publish in high impactor factor journals
  • Collaborate with Industry Scientists and Clinicians to promote clinical application of the research

ABOUT Centre for Computational Biology & Translational Research (CCBTR)

The Centre for Computational Biology & Translational Research (CCBTR), Amity University, Mumbai aims to provide a multi-disciplinary and systematic approach to finding solutions to challenges faced in translational science. As part of the Mission, the Institute will focus on areas wherein the research findings will have a direct relevance to transforming biological processes into real-world clinical impacts. Researchers from various streams, like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Chemical engineering will work together and adopt an integrated approach to tackle biological problems, with direct practical applications in health Sciences.

Research Areas

Genomic Data Science

In this age of “big data”, and with the advent of newer and relatively inexpensive technologies, like Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), the need of the hour is to tackle massive amounts of data to make sense of it all. Realizing that growth in data-driven biology requires developing appropriate computational and statistical tools for data analysis, we will bring together, researchers with experience in cell & molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, statistical computation and data analysis, programming, and machine learning, thus providing an interdisciplinary platform to find solutions towards improving human health and disease. The focus would be to apply statistical tools to data generated from high-throughput technologies (microarray/NGS); analysing results using programming languages (R/Python); Development of algorithms for data analysis & visualization. Thus, this would result in obtaining high-quality data driven research, for better understanding of a particular disease condition and in turn will help with better prediction of disease outcomes.

Integrated Omics

The advancement of high throughput technologies, like genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, has greatly increased the ease and reduced the costs of collecting multi-omics data. However, a major challenge lies in attempting to integrate the data sets from various omics platforms to create more meaningful biological and clinically relevant knowledge. Machine learning techniques and methodologies that can facilitate the cross talk of the multi-omics platforms would be employed to understand the complexity of heterogenous data sets. A systems biology approach would be undertaken to study the complex interplay of a host of genes/proteins/metabolites, to provide a more comprehensive view on human diseases, which would help in biomarker discovery.

Structure-based drug design

Drug discovery and development is an expensive process and is time-consuming. Computer-aided drug designing tools can help shorten the timeline, thus substantially reducing the R & D costs. Various software will be used for identification and design of small molecules as inhibitors /probes against various drug targets of therapeutic importance. Further, using computer-assisted analysis In silico designing (epitope mapping) for development of vaccine/diagnostic markers for infectious diseases will be undertaken.

Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering

Stem Cells have emerged as an attractive alternative source of cells for cell therapy due to its inherent property of multiplication and differentiation into a variety of cell types upon giving proper cues and stimulation with suitable growth factors. Although a lot of research has been able to report efficient differentiation, there has been some concerns regarding the generation of mature cell types and also the low percentage of differentiation efficiency when using a two-dimensional (only culture dishes) approach. Thus, successful generation of mature cell types would depend on a combination of cells, growth factors and a suitable 3-D environment to maintain functionality. Various scaffolds/biomaterials will be synthesised and tested for its potential to support differentiation. The research will include optimization of protocols for stem cell differentiation using organoid cultures/ artificial niches to mimic stem cell differentiation, with particular focus on liver diseases.

Patient-derived Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) research

Stem Cell research is a rapidly evolving area, despite being fraught with innumerable challenges and hurdles that have yet to be overcome to realize its ultimate potential and clinical application. The path breaking discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 2006, has revolutionised the field of stem cell research and translational science and has brought in a lot of excitement and optimism in this area. We will be looking at developing model systems for studying human development/disease using normal/patient derived iPSCs. Further, the Centre will also focus on the application of genome editing through CRISPR/Cas9 system in patient derived iPSCs. This research will open up newer avenues for studying human diseases and development.

Stem cell tracking and Imaging

Despite the clinical data appearing promising, there are severe limitations to realizing the potential of stem cell-based therapies. One major obstacle has been monitoring the bio-distribution and homing of implanted or injected stem cells in the human body. Hence, an urgent need exists to develop non-invasive and sensitive imaging techniques, which will prove valuable for optimisation of therapeutic delivery for cell therapy. We would focus on synthesising novel biocompatible nanomaterials for molecular imaging and tracking of stem cells. Earlier work carried out in the lab has shown the potential of nanomaterials to be promising agents for tracking/imaging. We would also look at in vivo tracking systems for visualising the nanoparticles. Various animal models for the disease/disorder of interest would be created to study the in vivo tracking of stem cells.

Center for Drug Discovery and Development (CD3)

Vision

To conduct multidisciplinary research on various aspects of drug including microbial technology, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, cancer biology and bioinformatics in order to explore novel chemical entities and natural products from natural resources to combat life-threatening infections and non-infectious disorders.

Mission

  • Develop pure compound libraries from microbial and plant resources from understudied and extreme ecosystems such as gut microbes, extremophiles and ethno-medicinal sources.
  • To identify potential drug candidates from natural products as anti-infectives against various pathogens particularly against multi drug resistant ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) pathogens and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  • To discover and evaluate potential anticancer agents using various Computer aided drug discovery approaches.
  • Explore and determine the mode of action through molecular mechanistic methods.

ABOUT Center for Drug Discovery and Development (CD3)

The center for drug discovery and development (CD3) was established in 2022 at the Amity university Maharashtra, Mumbai with the goal to discover novel drugs to fight against life threatening infectious diseases caused by multi drug resistant ESKAPE pathogens and Mycobacterium tuberculosis from natural products. Center will also focus on anticancer drug development aiming novel molecular targets with the help of computational approaches. The center consists of a young group of enthusiastic and experienced scientist actively pursuing collaborative research with external collaborators in academic community as well as with industrial partners both in India and abroad.

  • To be a part of drug discovery process, from basic discovery to applied and translational research, creating cooperative pre-clinical and clinical prospects, and foster an entrepreneurial and innovative culture.
  • To be a state-of-the-art resource for a highly productive and renowned group of faculties with research interests overlapping with drug discovery.
  • To expand of the bandwidth of our members and enable multidisciplinary projects beyond our current capabilities towards drug discovery and development.
  • To focus on the natural products converting into commercial & non-profit libraries and encourage the biological assessment of these entities through internal and external partnerships.

Research Areas

Gut microbes as a source of drugs

The development of novel bioactive molecules is urgently needed, especially with increasing fatalities occurring due to infections by bacteria and escalating numbers of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria. The human microbiome represents an excellent example of such an environmental niche and contains trillions of microorganisms that have co-evolved with the human host, leading to the view that humans can be super-organisms, constituted by a vast number of symbiotic relationships. Arguably, the most important microbial communities in humans can be found in the GI tract. As the human microbiome is such a dense and diverse compilation of different microbial ecosystems which is a promising source of novel metabolites that not yet been fully explored. The overall aim is to unveil a potential library of novel bioactive molecules from Gut microbiota for the benefit of human health and for utilization against infectious diseases.

Anti- infectives

Persistent use of antibiotics has triggered the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) which render even the most effective drugs to be useless. These MDR pathogens which are resistant to almost all available antimicrobials is one of the major and serious concerns nowadays. Globally, multi-drug resistant infections kill almost more than half a million people per year, and it is predicted that it would increase up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050.

Recently, Quorum sensing (QS) has been shown to be involved in the development of tolerance to various antimicrobial treatments and immune modulation. The regulation of virulence and biofilm via QS confers a strategic advantage over host defenses. Consequently, a drug capable of blocking QS is likely to increase the susceptibility of the infecting organism to host defenses and its clearance from the host. Since pathogenicity in many bacteria is regulated by QS, inhibition of this system may cause the attenuation of virulence and protect against infection. The use of QSIs to attenuate bacterial pathogenicity, rather than controlling bacterial growth (unlike general antibiotics to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria), is therefore highly attractive, particularly with respect to the emergence of multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria ESKAPE pathogens.

In addition, Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphatases and kinases play an essential role in the bacterial adaptation to stress conditions. Together they represent a close network which regulates multiple responses including drug resistance. Therefore, we would like to identify novel compounds from natural resources as the potential inhibitors of quorum sensing, biofilm and key enzymes to combat the emergence of drug resistant ESKAPE pathogens.

Anti-tuberculosis treatment strategies

According to the Global Tuberculosis Report for 2021, 1.5 million people succumbed to TB in 2021. About 3 million new cases of TB have been reported in a year. Of this, 71% are rifampicin resistant cases and numerous MDR TB & XDR-TB cases. On the other side, the global number of the novel Coronavirus-19 (nCovid-19) infected patients stands massive with millions of deaths. The pandemic spread in multiple waves killing numerous people & rendering others with severe deformities. The severity of Covid-19 enhances with the presence of co-morbidity factors such as diabetes, hypertension, immunocompromised conditions etc. Given the severity of global threat posed by these two diseases, it is imperative to identify novel drug candidates against these two pathogens.

In case of M. tuberculosis, the process of drug discovery has been extremely slow where as Covid-19 is a relatively new disease with no full proof cure yet. The proposed research shall also lead to the identification of the molecular targets of these bioactive compounds and reveal new drug targets that may be exploited in future studies to effectively inhibit the growth of these pathogens.

Anti-cancer drugs

Currently, there are several anticancer drugs are available in market however the cancer drug resistance and relapse are the major concern. Hence, the development of novel anticancer drugs to overcome the drug resistance is the current need in the clinics. Therefore, we are focusing on understanding the molecular mechanism of drug resistance and target specific drug development to tackle cancer relapse using 2D and 3D cell culture models and integrated system biology.

Natural products and Computer aided drug design

Extraction, and characterization of bioactive compounds from natural sources (Plant, microbial, marine) and their bioactivity studies. Generation of bioactive compound libraries and validating the mode of action through in silico and in vitro methods. Exploring the mode of action of Indian system of medicine such as Ayurveda and Siddha. Elicitation and exploration of bioactive compounds from plants grown under in vitro conditions followed by their potential against various disease conditions using computational approaches.

Centre for Proteomics and Drug Discovery (CPDD)

Mission

Excellence, at par, Nationally and Globally, to address and cater the challenging demands, for meeting the technological and knowledge advancements, towards the better management of human disease.

Aims & Objectives

  • The CPDD focuses on the multidisciplinary field of proteomics and evolve as a consortium of researchers with complementary expertise.
  • The CPDD targets to establish a facility that has an extensive set of state of the art instruments required for the research work.
  • The CPDD further focuses to deliver research on the function of proteins and metabolites in a complex range of biological systems.

ABOUT Center for Proteomics and Drug Discovery (CPDD)

The Centre for Proteomics and Drug Discovery (CPDD) aims and strives for knowledge advancements and for the development of robust technologies to provide a focused approach to understand the protein functions in Health and Diseases. The CPDD envisions strengthening the research outcomes by collaborations, both nationally and internationally, using an integrated approach that encompasses multi-faceted experimental methods ranging from molecular & structural biology, cell & chemical biology, mass-spectroscopy and informatics. The research work at CPDD is supported by Extramural grant from funding agencies, Gov. of India.

Research Areas

  • Studying the dynamic perturbations in Cellular signaling pathways due to sequence perturbations – Identification of the pleiotropic effects of the sequence modifications of the proteome, that may exert effects on cellular homeostasis, either by influencing enzymatic activity, by changing localizations or by regulating the post-translational modifications (PTM) provides avenues for better management of disease phenotypes. As the ultimate effectors of essentially all cellular processes and by the virtue of constituting the vast majority of therapeutic drug targets, the systematic understanding of the proteome, particularly in terms of expression, interactions and modifications- is a valuable approach for obtaining the molecular details towards the precision medicine and targeted therapeutics approaches. The main focus of CPDD is to strive to answer the arising biological questions in these aspects.
  • Studying the complex profile of immune system’s cells and its mediators in TME- The tumor microenvironment (TME), composed of non-cancer cells plays a major factor in influencing the cancer’s growth. The tumor microenvironment can dictate aberrant cellular function and play a critical role in the subsequent development of more advanced and refractory malignancies. The research in this area is aimed at uncovering early events in carcinogenesis that can broaden our understanding of cancer formation and provide novel targets for prevention and early eradication of lesions. Ongoing research have elucidated the role of immune cells on tumor fate in different stages of disease. It also have significant role in modulating the effects of therapeutic interventions. Therefore, it is essential to understand tumour immunology and systemic immune landscape beyond the tumour microenvironment. The research in this area will broaden the understanding of immune system for effective natural and therapeutically induced anti-tumor immune responses.
  • Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) and Cancer treatment- nsPEF is an electro-stimulation technique which delivers a series of pulses in the order of nanoseconds of high electric fields (kV/cm) into biological tissues or cells. The extensive research on experimental as well as theoretical data is warranted for this technique for better understanding as well as harnessing its potential role in treatment modalities. Thus, we would like to utilize this alternative treatment approach to understand its effect on cancer cells and its associated changes to utilize it as new therapeutic approach.

Amity Centre for Nuclear Biotechnology (ACNB)

Vision

Amity Institute of Nuclear Biotechnology aims to impart knowledge and, promote research in the broader areas of nuclear science applications in life sciences and biotechnology.

Mission

  • Novel biomaterials to modulate the biological effects of radiation.
  • Omics interventions in radiation biology
  • Development of high value mutants of relevance to microbiology, agriculture, and human health.
  • Understanding and applications of radiation-resistance in therapeutics and biotechnology.

ABOUT Amity Centre for Nuclear Biotechnology (ACNB)

Amity Centre for Nuclear Biotechnology (ACNB) aims to focus on cellular and molecular biological insights and research driven inputs for food and health security, and environmental sustainability. Investigations at ACNB will emphasize on development of novel biomaterials to modulate biological effects of radiations against cancer and other diseases. ACNB seeks to establish national and international research collaborations for applying radiation related technologies for the improvement of microbial strain and plants and, human health.

ACNB, established in October 2022, is an outcome from the continued research and developments in the peaceful applications of nuclear science and their scope in agriculture and healthcare. The Centre currently is poised to initiate studies in understanding the radiation effects and their implications in biology. The Centre introduces undergraduate/graduate students to nuclear research in biology and biotechnology and undertakes research projects. Our mission is to train the young minds and nurture them into R&D to explore and develop research novel biomaterials and mutants using nuclear biotechnology.