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

We consider a simple problem that of a horizontal alignment of identical grains, and insure that the grains are in gentle mutual contact and held between two rigid fixed end walls. Grain-grain interactions are intrinsically nonlinear according to the Hertz law and hence no sound waves can propagate through this alignment. The discussions here concern the solitary wave nature of propagation of any perturbation and its subsequent dispersion in the same vein as we probe the dispersion of a perturbation in linear response theory in statistical physics. We show that a perturbed granular alignment exhibits both decaying and growing solitary waves and can indeed reach an equilibrium-like state. We suggest that this equilibrium-like state may not be the equilibrium state commonly reached in thermodynamics and statistical physics. Moving beyond the effort to develop a deeper understanding of the energy transport problem in granular systems, we discuss a new application of a granular alignment system, that of driven granular alignments that show rich nonlinear dynamics and can turn out to be technologically meaningful entities. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

World University root node

AIP Conference Proceedings

Nonlinear, statistical and applied physics of solitary wavelike objects in granular systems

The association of interleukin-1β (IL-1B) -511C>T and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RN) VNTR, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-B1) 28C>T and interferon-γ (IFN-G)874T>A polymorphisms with bladder cancer (CaB) susceptibility and risk of recurrence in Bacillus CalmetteGurin (BCG)-treated patients was analyzed in 287 controls and 213 CaB patients (73 BCG treated). Increased risk was observed with the IL-1RN*2 allele (odds ratio (OR) 5.01) and the IFN-G 874 A allele (OR 1.78). TGF-B TT and IFN-G 874 A carriers were associated with reduced (hazard ratio (HR) 0.37) and enhanced (HR 2.24) risk of recurrence after BCG immunotherapy, respectively. The study suggests that cytokine gene variants may modulate CaB susceptibility and risk of recurrence after BCG immunotherapy. © 2009 Informa UK Ltd.

Biomarkers

Cytokine gene polymorphisms are associated with risk of urinary bladder cancer and recurrence after BCG immunotherapy

Analyses of frequency profiles of markers on disease or drug-response related genes in diverse populations are important for the dissection of common diseases. We report the results of analyses of data on 405 SNPs from 75 such genes and a 5.2 Mb chromosome, 22 genomic region in 1871 individuals from diverse 55 endogamous Indian populations. These include 32 large (> 10 million individuals) and 23 isolated populations, representing a large fraction of the people of India. We observe high levels of genetic divergence between groups of populations that cluster largely on the basis of ethnicity and language. Indian populations not only overlap with the diversity of HapMap populations, but also contain population groups that are genetically distinct. These data and results are useful for addressing stratification and study design issues in complex traits especially for heterogeneous populations. © Indian Academy of Sciences.

Journal of Genetics

Genetic landscape of the people of India: A canvas for disease gene exploration

Background: Ayurveda is an ancient system of personalized medicine documented and practiced in India since 1500 B.C. According to this system an individual's basic constitution to a large extent determines predisposition and prognosis to diseases as well as therapy and life-style regime. Ayurveda describes seven broad constitution types (Prakritis) each with a varying degree of predisposition to different diseases. Amongst these, three most contrasting types, Vata, Pitta, Kapha, are the most vulnerable to diseases. In the realm of modern predictive medicine, efforts are being directed towards capturing disease phenotypes with greater precision for successful identification of markers for prospective disease conditions. In this study, we explore whether the different constitution types as described in Ayurveda has molecular correlates. Methods: Normal individuals of the three most contrasting constitutional types were identified following phenotyping criteria described in Ayurveda in Indian population of Indo-European origin. The peripheral blood samples of these individuals were analysed for genome wide expression levels, biochemical and hematological parameters. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway based analysis was carried out on differentially expressed genes to explore if there were significant enrichments of functional categories among Prakriti types. Results: Individuals from the three most contrasting constitutional types exhibit striking differences with respect to biochemical and hematological parameters and at genome wide expression levels. Biochemical profiles like liver function tests, lipid profiles, and hematological parameters like haemoglobin exhibited differences between Prakriti types. Functional categories of genes showing differential expression among Prakriti types were significantly enriched in core biological processes like transport, regulation of cyclin dependent protein kinase activity, immune response and regulation of blood coagulation. A significant enrichment of housekeeping, disease related and hub genes were observed in these extreme constitution types. Conclusion: Ayurveda based method of phenotypic classification of extreme constitutional types allows us to uncover genes that may contribute to system level differences in normal individuals which could lead to differential disease predisposition. This is a first attempt towards unraveling the clinical phenotyping principle of a traditional system of medicine in terms of modern biology. An integration of Ayurveda with genomics holds potential and promise for future predictive medicine. © 2008 Prasher et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Fulltext

Journal of Translational Medicine

Whole genome expression and biochemical correlates of extreme constitutional types defined in Ayurveda

The reaction of Cu2(O2CMe)4·2H 2O with tert-butylphosphonic acid and 3,5-di-tert-butylpyrazole in the presence of triethylamine leads to a high-yield synthesis of the tetranuclear compound [Cu2(3,5-t-Bu2PzH) 2(t-BuPO3)2]2 (1). The latter has a distorted cubic cage structure and its core resembles the D4R (double-four-ring) motif found in zeolites. The phosphonate, [t-BuPO3]2-, functions as a dianionic tridentate ligand, while the pyrazole ligands are neutral and are monodentate. The coordination geometry at each copper atom is distorted square planar with a 3O,1N coordination environment. Magnetic measurements on 1 reveal that the χT product continuously decreases to reach a value very close to zero at 1.8 K, indicating dominant antiferromagnetic interactions between Cu(II) ions that leads to an S = 0 ground state. The tetranuclear cage 1 functions as a very effective artificial nuclease in the presence of an external oxidant, magnesium monoperoxyphthalate. © 2008 American Chemical Society.

Inorganic Chemistry

A distorted cubic tetranuclear copper(II) phosphonate cage with a double-four-ring-type core

(Figure Presented) Spotty iron: Surface deposition of holo human transferrin from aqueous solutions gives rise to long protein fibrils with regular periodic nanomineralization along their length of an FeIII oxide/hydroxide closely resembling lepidocrocite (γ-FeO(OH)). Such a new role for this serum protein could have important biological and medical implications. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA.

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

Periodic iron nanomineralization in human serum transferrin fibrils

Self-assembly is routinely used for the design and fabrication of new and advanced materials. Biological building blocks such as short peptides undergo self-assembly to reveal a variety of hierarchical structures such as nanotubes, fibers, and spherical structures. Peptide-based soft spherical structures are potentially useful for a variety of applications including vehicles for drug delivery and biological molecules. This report describes a tripalmitoylated triskelion ditryptophan peptide conjugate (5) that self-assembles to form hollow spheres along with pores on the surface when higher concentration of the dichloromethane was used, but forms fiber structures when heated in toluene solvent. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tetrahedron

Solvent-mediated morphological transformations in peptide-based soft structures

The primary motor cortex of mammals has an orderly representation of different body parts. Within the representation of each body part the organization is more complex, with groups of neurons representing movements of a muscle or a group of muscles. In rats, uncertainties continue to exist regarding organization of the primary motor cortex in the whisker and the neck region. Using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) we show that movements evoked in the whisker and the neck region of the rat motor cortex are highly sensitive to the depth of anaesthesia. At light anaesthetic depth, whisker movements are readily evoked from a large medial region of the motor cortex. Lateral to this is a small region where movements of the neck are evoked. However, in animals under deep anaesthesia whisker movements cannot be evoked. Instead, neck movements are evoked from this region. The neck movement region thus becomes greatly expanded. An analysis of the threshold currents required to evoke movements at different anaesthetic depths reveals that the caudal portion of the whisker region has dual representation, of both the whisker and the neck movements. The results also underline the importance of carefully controlling the depth of anaesthesia during ICMS experiments. © The Authors (2007).

European Journal of Neuroscience

Overlapping representations of the neck and whiskers in the rat motor cortex revealed by mapping at different anaesthetic depths

The reaction of cyclohexylphosphonic acid (C6H 11PO3H2), anhydrous CuCl2 and 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) in the presence of triethylamine followed by a metathesis reaction with KNO3 afforded [Cu4(μ-Cl) 2(μ3-C6H11PO3) 2(bpy)4](NO3)2 (1). In an analogous reaction involving Cu(OAc)2•H2O, the complex [Cu 4(μ-CH3COO)2(μ3-C 6H11PO3)2(2,2′-bpy) 4](CH3COO)2 (2) has been isolated. The three-component reaction involving Cu(NO3)2•3H 2O, cyclohexylphosphonic acid and 2,2′-bipyridine in the presence of triethylamine afforded the tetranuclear assembly [Cu 4(μ-OH)(μ3-C6H11PO 3)2(2,2′-bpy)4 (H2O) 2](NO3)3 (3). Replacing 2,2′-bipyridine with 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) in the above reaction resulted in [Cu 4(μ-OH)(μ3-C6H11PO 3)2(phen)4(H2O)2](NO 3)3 (4). In all the copper(ii) phosphonates (1-4) the two phosphonate ions bridge the four copper(ii) ions in a capping coordination action. Each phosphonate ion bridges four copper(ii) ions in a μ4, η3 coordination mode or 4.211 of the Harris notation. Variable-temperature magnetic studies on 1-4 reveal that all four complexes exhibit moderately strong intramolecular antiferromagnetic coupling. The DNA cleavage activity of complexes 1-4 is also described. Compounds 1 and 3 were able to completely convert the supercoiled pBR322 DNA form I to nick form II without any co-oxidant. In contrast, 50% conversion occurred with 2 and 40% with 4. In the presence of magnesium monoperoxyphthalate all four compounds achieved rapid conversion of form I to form II. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dalton Transactions

Synthesis, structure, magnetism and nuclease activity of tetranuclear copper(ii) phosphonates containing ancillary 2,2′-bipyridine or 1,10-phenanthroline ligands

This research presents a multi agent model to estimate and predict the spread of Avian Influenza (AI) in various attributes and environments in a given population. AI can be transmitted by air and is a critical hazard to birds, especially chickens and ducks. The virus occurs naturally in birds and is capable of being transmitted from an infected bird to another. It is conceivable that AI could be a major threat to human health if the virus becomes capable of transmission to human beings. The next outbreak of AI could lead to millions of deaths unless a feasible strategy for AI containment can be developed. This paper focuses the flexibility that a multi agent system offers. Agent-based models can closely mimic the situations that exist in real system where several autonomous components may be interacting with each other. The modeling approach offers the advantage of examining the interactions between the agents. This research studies the interactions of three critical factors that characterize AI outbreaks. These properties are quarantine range, incubation period and infection probability. The multi agent model investigates the nature of spreading of AI by incorporating these three properties. We illustrate the potential benefits of multi agent modeling in containing the spreading of AI by presenting how efficiently the virus can be contained. Our work exploits data on the 2008 outbreak of AI in South Korea. © 2008 IEEE.