Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering

&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Background: With the advancement in the field of medical science, the idea of sustained release of the therapeutic agents in the patient’s body has remained a major thrust for developing advanced drug delivery systems (DDSs). The critical requirement for fabricating these DDSs is to facilitate the delivery of their cargos in a spatio-temporal and pharmacokinetically-controlled manner. Albeit the synthetic polymer-based DDSs normally address the above-mentioned conditions, their potential cytotoxicity and high cost have ultimately constrained their success. Consequently, the utilization of natural polymers for the fabrication of tunable DDSs owing to their biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-toxic nature can be regarded as a significant stride in the field of drug delivery. Marine environment serves as an untapped resource of varied range of materials such as polysaccharides, which can easily be utilized for developing various DDSs. Methods: Carrageenans are the sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from the cell wall of red seaweeds. They exhibit an assimilation of various biological activities such as anti-thrombotic, anti-viral, anticancer, and immunomodulatory properties. The main aim of the presented review is threefold. The first one is to describe the unique physicochemical properties and structural composition of different types of carrageenans. The second is to illustrate the preparation methods of the different carrageenan-based macro-and micro-dimensional DDSs like hydrogels, microparticles, and microspheres respectively. Fabrication techniques of some advanced DDSs such as floating hydrogels, aerogels, and 3-D printed hydrogels have also been discussed in this review. Next, considerable attention has been paid to list down the recent applications of carrageenan-based polymeric architectures in the field of drug delivery. Results: Presence of structural variations among the different carrageenan types helps in regulating their temperature and ion-dependent sol-to-gel transition behavior. The constraint of low mechanical strength of reversible gels can be easily eradicated using chemical crosslinking techniques. Carrageenan based-microdimesional DDSs (e.g. microspheres, microparticles) can be utilized for easy and controlled drug administration. Moreover, carrageenans can be fabricated as 3-D printed hydrogels, floating hydrogels, and aerogels for controlled drug delivery applications. Conclusion: In order to address the problems associated with many of the available DDSs, carrageenans are establishing their worth recently as potential drug carriers owing to their varied range of properties. Different architectures of carrageenans are currently being explored as advanced DDSs. In the near future, translation of carrageenan-based advanced DDSs in the clinical applications seems inevitable. © 2019 Bentham Science Publishers.

World University root node

Current Pharmaceutical Design

Carrageenan: A wonder polymer from marine algae for potential drug delivery applications

In the present study design, the PEGylated nanoceria decorated reduced graphene nanocomposite (RGO-CeNPs-PEG) was successfully prepared by eco-friendly non-toxic green synthesis following syn-graphenization method, and evaluated as an efficient and reliable pH-sensitive nano-carrier. During green synthesis, aqueous leaf extract of Azadirachta indica (neem) was used as a reducing agent and the graphene oxide (GO) was activated by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide for covalent functionalization by methoxy amino polyethylene glycol. The prepared Smart pH stimuli responded nanoplatform was thoroughly characterized by various analytical techniques. The values of average particle size and hydrodynamic diameter of naturally prepared nanoceria may be suitable for biomedical application. Considering drug loading and release studies, it may be concluded that the higher drug loading and more pH-responsive release of DOX from RGO-CeNPs-PEG lead to a promising nanocarrier for the anticancer drug. Furthermore, DOX-loaded RGO-CeNPs-PEG had lesser harmful effect on normal cells than cancer cells as compared with free DOX, while increased cytotoxicity was evidenced on the cancer cell line against the former sample than the covalently conjugated RGO-PEG-DOX. So, the successful distribution and release of the anticancer drug into acidic microenvironment of the cancerous cells would bring about excellent therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects than pure GO. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Journal of Cluster Science

Doxorubicin Loaded Green Synthesized Nanoceria Decorated Functionalized Graphene Nanocomposite for Cancer-Specific Drug Release

The technological advancements in health care have enabled us to visualize point-of-care testing (POCT) as an integrated system in medical diagnostics. Point-of-care (POC) microscopy has the ability to bring about a revolution in the general diagnostic procedures. It enables us to get real-time test results in histopathology through noninvasive or minimally invasive procedures. This chapter on the trends in POC microscopy intends to put forth a comprehensive assimilation of its significant aspects for the present understanding and future direction. With a brief introduction to the concept of POCT and its historical perspective, the chapter reviews the circumstances under which the demand for POCT has increased in the health care industry over the last four to five decades. Primarily, the chapter emphasizes POC microscopy as an emerging technology in rural health care, where histopathology-based examinations of biological samples are the first stage of diagnosis. The chapter extensively discusses the need of POC microscopes, the fabrication approaches implemented to develop POC microscopes, and the current research trend in this field. Finally, the chapter outlines the commercial aspect of the existing and upcoming POC microscopes in the medical industry. We hope that this comprehensive report of the trends in POC microscopy will not only encourage people to explore the realms of health care but also will expand the horizon of the existing POC technologies. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bioelectronics and Medical Devices: From Materials to Devices - Fabrication, Applications and Reliability

Trends in point-of-care microscopy

The early diagnosis of any disease has the potential to save the life of a patient. Over the decades, electrocardiogram (ECG) signals have been widely used for the diagnosis of various cardiovascular diseases. This may be attributed to the ability of the ECG signals to divulge information about the cardiac electrophysiology in a noninvasive manner. Although various methods have been reported by researchers for the processing of the ECG signals in the last few decades, the wavelet transform-based joint time-frequency analysis methods have gained much importance. This article discusses the basic background knowledge of the wavelet transforms and their recent applications in the processing of ECG signals for the diagnosis of various cardiovascular diseases. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrocardiogram signal processing-based diagnostics: Applications of wavelet transform

Clustering is used to identify natural groups present in the data. It has been applied widely for analyzing gene expression data to discover gene clusters that might be involved in same biological processes. This information is very important for analyzing data of fatal diseases like cancers and identifying potential diagnostic and prognostic markers. Existing clustering methods used in this regard are computationally efficient, but do not always produce biologically meaningful results. Additionally, they have one or the other shortcomings; either they are not able to deal with arbitrary-shaped clusters, require number of clusters to be specified previously or are not efficient in dealing with noise present in biological data. In this study, a new density-based clustering method specific for gene expression data is introduced that overcomes the above shortcomings and produces biologically enriched clusters of functionally similar genes by incorporating biological information from Gene Ontology (GO). The proposed method integrates the GO semantic similarity information and the correlation information between the genes for obtaining clusters. The clusters are further validated for their biological relevance using Disease Ontology, KEGG Pathway enrichment and protein-protein interaction network analysis. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Density-Based Clustering of Functionally Similar Genes Using Biological Knowledge

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent cancers around the globe. However, the molecular reasons for pathogenesis of CRC are still poorly understood. Recently, the role of microRNAs or miRNAs in the initiation and progression of CRC has been studied. MicroRNAs are small, endogenous noncoding RNAs found in plants, animals, and some viruses, which function in RNA silencing and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Their role in CRC development is studied and they are found to be potential biomarkers in diagnosis and treatment of CRC. Therefore, identification of functionally similar CRC related miRNAs may help in the development of a prognostic tool. In this regard, this paper presents a new algorithm, called \muSim. It is an integrative approach for identification of functionally similar miRNAs associated with CRC. It integrates judiciously the information of miRNA expression data and miRNA-miRNA functionally synergistic network data. The functional similarity is calculated based on both miRNA expression data and miRNA-miRNA functionally synergistic network data. The effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison to other related methods is shown on four CRC miRNA data sets. The proposed method selected more significant miRNAs related to CRC as compared to other related methods. © 2004-2012 IEEE.

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

An Integrated Approach for Identification of Functionally Similar MicroRNAs in Colorectal Cancer

The Brain-Computer Interfaces are quite useful for persons with neurodegenerative disorders. This paper presents such an interface which is useful and intuitive for arbitrary pick and place tasks. We have developed a higher-level interface in which the user has to select the location of an object on his/her computer screen, which needs to be picked up or the location where the object needs to be placed. After providing the location, the robot directly reaches to pick the object or to place the object at the selected location. To select these locations, we have utilized a 2-class SSVEP paradigm. Using the SSVEP and eye-blinks, the user is able to perform pick and place task at arbitrary locations. © 2019 IEEE.

2019 2nd International Conference on Advanced Computational and Communication Paradigms, ICACCP 2019

A brain-computer interface for arbitrary pick and place tasks

Amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide misfolds into fibrillary aggregates (β-sheet) and is deposited as amyloid plaques in the cellular environment, which severely damages intraneuronal connections leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Furthermore, neurons are rich in tubulin/microtubules, and the intracellular network of microtubules also gets disrupted by the accumulation of Aβ fiber in the brain. Hence, development of new potent molecules, which can simultaneously inhibit Aβ fibrillations and stabilize microtubules, is particularly needed for the efficient therapeutic application in AD. To address these issues, here we introduced an innovative fusion strategy to design and develop next generation anti-AD therapeutic leads. This unexplored fusion strategy entails design and development of a potent nonapeptide by taking into account both the hydrophobic core (17-21) of Aβ peptide and the taxol binding region of β-tubulin. In vitro results suggest that this newly designed peptide interacts at the taxol binding region of β-tubulin with a moderate binding affinity and promotes microtubule polymerization. It has the ability to bind at the hydrophobic core (17-21) of Aβ, responsible for its aggregation, and prevent amyloid fibril as well as plaque formation. In addition, it interacts at the CAS site (catalytic anionic site) of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and significantly inhibits AChE induced Aβ fibrillation, stimulates neurite branching, and provides stability to intracellular microtubules and extensive protection of neurons against nerve growth factor (NGF) deprived neuron toxicity. Moreover, this newly designed peptide shows good stability in serum obtained from humans and efficiently permeates the blood-brain barrier (BBB) without showing any toxicity toward differentiated PC12 neurons as well as primary rat cortical neurons. This excellent feature of protecting the neurons by stabilizing the microtubules without showing any toxicity toward neurons will make this peptide a potent therapeutic agent of AD in the near future. © 2019 American Chemical Society.

ACS Chemical Neuroscience

Potential Neuroprotective Peptide Emerged from Dual Neurotherapeutic Targets: A Fusion Approach for the Development of Anti-Alzheimer's Lead

An indole-rich tripodal microtubule inhibitor is designed, which binds at the DCVJ site of tubulin and inhibits its polymerization. It causes apoptotic death of cancer cells without affecting normal cells and inhibits the growth of tumors. Finally, STD-NMR and TR-NOESY experiments reveal that the indole appendages play a crucial role in interacting with tubulin. © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Chemical Communications

Tripodal molecular propellers perturb microtubule dynamics: Indole acts as a blade and plays a crucial role in anticancer activity

A biocompatible hydrogel containing a hexapeptide as a key unit has been designed and fabricated. Our design construct comprises a β-sheet-rich short hexapeptide in the center with a hydrophobic long chain and hydrophilic triple lysine unit attached at the N- and C-terminals, respectively. Thus, it is this amphiphilic nature of the molecule that facilitates gelation. It can capture solvent molecules in the three-dimensional cross-linked fibrillar networks. The amphiphilic character of the construct has been modulated to produce an excellent biocompatible soft material for the inhibition of bacterial growth by rupturing the bacterial cell membrane. This hydrogel is also stable against enzymatic degradation (proteinase K) and, most importantly, offers a biocompatible environment for the growth of normal mammalian cells due to its noncytotoxic nature as observed through the cell viability assay. From the hemolytic assay, the morphology of the human red blood cells is found to be almost intact, which suggests that the hydrogel can be used in biomedical applications. Thus, this newly designed antibacterial hydrogel can be used as both an antibacterial biomaterial and a biocompatible scaffold for mammalian cell culture. © 2019 American Chemical Society.