Research & Publications

Dr. Rajendra Prasad

(Coordinator, FIST)

Amity Institute of Biotechnology

Funding Agency: Ministry of Science & Technology, DST
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 1.65 crore)

Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions (FIST) Program – 2016

"Lipidomics in Health and Diseases - Beyond the Analysis of Lipids"

Abstract

Lipids are a diverse group of metabolites that have many key biological functions, acting as structural components of cell membranes, energy storage sources and intermediates in signaling pathways. Due to their importance lipids are under tight homeostatic control and exhibit spatial and dynamic complexity at multiple levels. It is thus not surprising that altered lipid metabolism plays important roles in the pathogenesis of most of the common diseases. Lipidomics emerged as a discipline, which is dedicated to global study of lipidomes, including pathways and networks of lipids in biological systems. When studying the lipidomes at a systems level, one of the key challenges is how to address the lipid functionality at many physiological levels, from metabolic and signaling pathways to spatial systems such as cellular membranes and lipoprotein particles. Besides the better analytical techniques to study lipids, computational techniques have started to emerge which enable modeling of lipidomes in their spatial and dynamic context. Together, the recent methodological advances in lipidomics have a potential to open novel avenues for predictive and preventive medicine. Leading experts of Amity Institute of Biotechnology and Integrative Sciences and Health have teamed up to focus on progress in systems approaches to study lipids in health and disease, with specific emphasis on cancer, tuberculosis, neural disorders, host-pathogen interaction, cellular stresses, fungal infections and sustainable agriculture.

Dr. Ujjaini Dasgupta

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB) &
Amity Institute of Integrative Sciences and Health (AIISH)

Funding Agency: BIOCARE scheme- DBT 2016
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 60, 00, 000/-)

"Unravelling the Role of mTORC2 in Regulation of Sphingolipid Biosynthesis in Mammalian Breast Cancer Cells"

Abstract

mTORC2 pathway and sphingolipid biosynthesis play significant role in pathogenesis of cancer and therefore appears to be closely linked. In yeast TORC2 regulates sphingolipid biosynthesis, and this proposal will attempt to answer mTORC2 mediated regulation in mammalian cells. The sphingolipid profile in breast cancer cells in conditions where mTORC2 will be inhibited as compared to control will reveal its effect on sphingolipid biosynthesis. The corresponding effect on enzymes of the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway will be determined and the effect of the alterations will be assessed on breast cancer invasion and metastasis by in vitro assays. Pharmacological/ genetic manipulations of the candidate sphingolipids will be done to mimic the effect of mTORC2 inhibition and re-evaluate its potential to improve cancer cell invasion and migration. This proposal thus specifically targets sphingolipid mediated mTORC2 specific therapeutic window to combat breast cancer progression

Dr. Ujjaini Dasgupta

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB) &
Amity Institute of Integrative Sciences and Health (AIISH)

Funding Agency: EARLY CAREER RESEARCH AWARD, SERB, DST
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 45, 00, 000/-)

"Comparative Sphingolipid Profiling of Breast Cancer Cell and Tissue Types for Identification of Potential Metastatic Biomarkers"

Abstract

Breast Cancer is rapidly becoming a leading cause of mortality among females due to poor prognosis, partial response to chemotherapy and lack of targeted therapies. We propose to do comprehensive sphingolipid profiling of breast cancer cell subtypes to identify key sphingolipids dysregulated in different subtypes. Pharmacological and genetic approaches modulating these key sphingolipids will ascertain their role and effect on cell proliferation, migration and invasion, unraveling their co-relation to metastasis. To establish a clinical corelation, stage specific sphingolipid profiles will be determined from cancerous and normal breast tissue from patients screened and categorized into different subtypes. This will provide sphingolipid signatures and identify corresponding target enzymes from primary tumors of each stage and type playing a pivotal role in metastasis and highlight their relationship with the signatures obtained from in vitro studies. This insight will provide novel sphingolipid based therapeutic leads for different breast cancer subtypes targeting metastasis. Clinical data obtained from patient samples will be also compared with sphingolipid gene signatures from The Cancer genome Atlas (TCGA) breast carcinoma datasets. This will help us to conclude general stage- and type-specific regulation of sphingolipids in different breast cancer types and identify probable biomarkers for prognosis, and potential therapeutic targets. Bioinformatic analysis of sphingolipid signatures from the datasets will give a prognostic value of the signatures and a predictive view of metastatic tumor recurrence and patient survival

Dr. Krishna Murari Sinha

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB)

Funding Agency: SERB EMR
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 40, 00, 000/-)

"Role of Cyclic di-AMP in ribosome biogenesis, 16S rRNA methyltransferase (RsmD) function and drug resistance in Mycobacterium"

Abstract

Emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb.) is a major hurdle in the treatment of tuberculosis disease. Ribosomes are one of the most common targets of antibiotics and mutations in different components of ribosomes are responsible for drug resistance. Biogenesis of ribosomes is a highly coordinated process initiating from the processing of primary RNA transcript into 23S, 16S and 5S rRNA. Nucleotides of these rRNAs are further modified by specific enzymes, r-proteins are added and modified leading to individual subunit formation followed by the formation of individual ribosomal subunits (50S and 30S) with the help of several assembly factors. Nucleotide modification of rRNAs is in concert with ribosome biogenesis. 16S rRNA which is 1542 nt long in E. coli and present in 30S subunit contains 10 methylated nucleotides and a pseudouridine residue. These modified nucleotides have important roles to play in translation and ribosome biogenesis. Methylation of G966 and C967 of 16S rRNA in E. coli are involved in maintaining the fidelity of initiation of translation. Methylated G966 also stabilizes a set of elongator t-RNAs at the P-site. G966 is methylated by RsmD at N2 position. We have previously shown that mycobacterial RsmD homolog (Rv2966c) has an N-terminal hairpin loop structure consisting of 16 amino acid residues. Further work has shown that the hairpin is involved in binding to cyclic diAMP. Cyclic di-AMP does not bind to Nterminal truncated Rv2966c or full length E. coli RsmD. We would like to understand the role of c-diAMP in Rv2966c biology. It will be interesting to find out whether Rv2966c has methyltransferase activity in disAΔ cells, its localization in ribosomes and whether the maturation of the ribosomes are affected in the mutant cells. We have also identified ribosomal proteins RplK and RpsA as interacting with c-diAMP. Role of signaling pathways like mTOR in the maturation of ribosomes are known in eukaryotes. Role of such signaling pathways is not known in prokaryotes. Understanding this signaling pathway would help to unravel the mechanism of emergence of drug resistance in Mycobacterium and could be utilized for drug designing against the bacteria.

Dr. Vikas Madhukar

Principal Investigator

Amity Busines School & (Incubator Team Members) Ayush Awasthi and Rishabh Patel

Funding Agency: Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 9, 00, 000/-)

Entrepreneurial Education/Training to respective students under National Scheme of Entrepreneurship Development

Abstract

The Project aims at creating an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurship promotion among youth through entrepreneurship education and training, advocacy and easy access to entrepreneurship support network and promotion of social entrepreneurship. The proposed entrepreneurship development programme is likely to create approx. 30,000 start-ups over five years. Consequently, these start-ups will result in creation of approx. 2,60,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Dr. Viveak Ballyan

Principal Investigator

Center for Medicinal Plant & Traditional Knowledge

Funding Agency – Haryana State Horticulture Development Agency Panchkula
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 3.25 Lakhs)

"Farmer Training Project"

Abstract

This Project is funded by NHM (National Horticulture Mission) and it is being conducted by Amity University Gurugram . The purpose of this project is to make the farmer aware about horticulture crops.

In this project Farmer Training Program are organized, in which the farmer get information about horticulture crops ( marigold ,Gladiolus, Cut flower etc.) and they also get discussion about the different parts of the crops like Plant propagation ,Irrigation Disease management ,Marketing and sales ,Storage Cut flowers and Seed production etc. With this information ,farmer are provided with the valuable suggestion of farmer scientists farmers get various things related to the topics to increase their knowledge as well as they get study material and refreshment also.

Dr. Tani Agarwal

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB)

Funding Agency: Department of Science and Technology, SERB
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 31, 03, 000/-)

"Exploring the role of G-quadruplex motifs in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis"

Abstract

G-quadruplexes are secondary structures of nucleic acids often found in important regulatory regions of the genome. Numerous research reports demonstrate the role of G-quadruplexes as transcriptional modifiers in human genes. Other organisms where G-quadruplex motifs have been reported are S. cerevisiae, C. elegans, Danio rerio etc. but reports of G-quadruplexes and their roles in prokaryotes are very few, limited mostly to E.coli. The presence of G-quadruplexes in the genome of pathogens especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis has never been tested before. The current proposal aims to explore G-quadruplexes and their role in regulating the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The current research project will be important in enriching the fundamental understanding of G-quadruplex structures, especially in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Secondly, this project will provide valuable insights in managing M.tb which is responsible for the deadly disease. Lastly, this study will be a hall mark in the interface of structural biology and infectious disease biology and will attract the attention of diverse research groups.

Dr. Gargi Bagchi Bhattacharjee

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB)

Funding Agency: Department of Science and Technology, Water Research Initiative
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 30, 00, 000/-)

"Developing rapid, sensitive, high throughput, user-friendly kit for routine detection of androgens and antiandrogens in water"

Abstract

Water quality is an overwhelming problem India and worldwide. Since rivers and other water bodies act as the ultimate sink for all Industrial and household wastes, hence the water quality is poor and often dangerous for flora and fauna growing in these, and those who consume them. Many studies have demonstrated that the pollutants in the water cause hormonal changes or 'endocrine disruption' in the aquatic organisms. Our project aims to develop reporter assays that can identify the presence of such endocrine disruptive chemicals in water, especially those that can cause disruption in male hormone signaling. Currently, no such assay is available for checking water quality in India and the successful completion of this project would allow us to develop sensitive, high throughput, user-friendly tests for routine detection of androgens and antiandrogens in water.

Dr. Nitai Debnath

Principal Investigator

Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB)

Funding Agency: Department of Science & Technology, SERB
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 26, 45, 000/-)

"Silica coated porous zinc oxide nanostructure: A potent nanocomposite for development of slow release agrochemicals"

Abstract

Dr. Ankush Vij

Principal Investigator

Department of Physics, ASAS

Funding Agency: Department of Atomic Energy-CSR Indore
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 13, 15, 000/-)

"Development of Nanophosphors for Solid State Lighting: Electronic Structure and Luminescence related study"

Abstract

Solid state lighting has a very bright future in various lighting applications because of their high energy efficiency and cost effectiveness compared to incandescent bulbs, thus such materials are important from energy saving point of view. A very effective way to produce white light from UV/blue light emitting diode (LED) is by coating suitable phosphors excitable by LED light, so that white light is produced either by mixing of basic colors or complementary colors. With respect to the presently used phosphors in white light LED systems, most of them do not meet the optimum requirements of white-light LEDs. Phosphors based on wide band gap nanoparticles or quantum dots offer advantages compared to conventional powder phosphors in many ways including negligible optical backscattering due to the small diameter of the dots. Owing to its remarkable properties as a host material, we propose here to synthesize SrZnO2based nanophosphorus using combustion and chemical co-precipitation technique by choosing appropriate rare earth ions and/or transition metal ions as dopant and co-dopant.

Dr. Ankush Vij

Principal Investigator

Department of Physics, ASAS

Funding Agency: Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) New Delhi
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 10, 00, 000/-)

"Ion beam induced modifications in MgO based nanophosphors: Luminescence and related studies"

Abstract

MgO is a well known materials pertaining to its applications in diverse areas such as d0 magnetism, magnetic tunnel junctions, catalysis luminescence, radiation dosimetry etc. Although the material has been investigated for applications in thermoluminescence (TL) dosimetry for many decades, it has not found wide acceptance as a practical TL detector because of the high variability of its TL properties. However, recently it has been shown that lanthanides doped MgO with Li as co-dopant exhibits excellent TL properties suitable for radiation dosimetry. In addition, considering the potential of nanomaterials, it is worthwhile to explore the properties of rare earth ions doped MgO phosphors in their nano form. Since energetic particles as SHI are promising candidates for tailoring the properties of the materials and this energy deposition leads to the production of new color centers, defects and fragmentation of the grain boundaries which may modify their luminescent properties. However upto best of our knowledge, the use of energetic heavy ions has been restricted to MgO thin films for magnetic or electrical properties. We here therefore propose to study the ion beam induced modifications in MgO based nanophosphors.

Dr. Ankush Vij

Principal Investigator

Department of Physics, ASAS

Funding Agency: Department of Science Technology, SERB
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 11, 00, 000/-)

"Development of multiferroic magnetoelectric materials for multifunctional applications"

Abstract

Magnetoelectric multiferroic materials present a model system for exploring and manipulating the coupling between the electric and magnetic orders. In recent years magnetoelectric multiferroic materials have revolutionized the world of science and have been declared a thrust area from fundamental as well as application point of view. The coupling in such materials allows the electric field control of magnetic polarization and magnetic control of electric polarization and can lead to novel devices which can utilized in the information technology with higher speed, higher density and lower power consumption. In a broder vision, magnetoelectric effect include not only the coupling between the order parameters, but also involve related phenomena such as an electrically controlled exchange bias, electrically controlled magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and the effect of ferroelectricity on spin transport. The objective of the project is to understand mainly the challenges in growth of multiferroic materials (such as design of new material, thin film growth, effect of doping and strain) and then study their properties like magnetization and polarization switching phenomena, the dynamics of the domain wall motion, implication of these physical phenomena on the actual use of multiferroic and magneto-electrics in memory devices. In addition, understanding the origin of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors would also be one of the important tasks in the proposed work.

Dr. Viveak Ballyan

Principal Investigator

Center for Medicinal Plant & Traditional Knowledge

Funding Agency – Haryana State Horticulture Development Agency Panchkula
(Sanctioned Amount: Rs 8.5 Lakhs)

"HRD Gardeners"

Abstract

This Project is funded by NHM (National Horticulture Mission) and Amity University Haryana has organised this . The purpose of this project is to increase the greenary in India and to reduce the pollution and skills management. In HRD Gardeners 50 Trainees (Gardeners) get the training. This Training is completed is two unit in a (6 month + 6 month) year. In the first unit we have trained 25 gardeners and imported them the information about plant propagation, Irrigation Management, Fertilizer & Manure, Preparation of orchard, Seed Treatment, Soil Testing, Lawn, Herbacious Border etc. Along with the training, the gardeners (trainees) got acquainted with ornamental trees, shrubs, Herbs, Climber, Medicinal Plants, Hedge, Edge etc. Which are available in Amity University campus Besides it, we look them for the Visit in agriculture nursery, Krishi Vigyan Kendra Shikophpur ICAR Kissan Mela and famous garden in NCR.