Start
Feb 21, 2017 - 16:00
End
Feb 21, 2017 - 17:00
Venue
Room. No. 240 Chemical Engg. Dept.
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Amit Vernekar Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Title
Emerging Trends in Engineering Nanozymes and Plant Virus-based Technologies for Biomedical Applications
Abstract: Organic/metal organic compounds that mimic the functional role of enzymes have been extensively investigated. Recently few nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles ferromagnetic nanoparticles and graphene-based materials have been innovatively shown to exhibit unprecedented biochemical catalysis by mimicking certain enzymes (nanozymes). Owing to their simplicity of preparation and storage and stability nanozymes have been investigated for their application in many fields such as biosensing immunoassays cancer diagnostic therapeutic and pollutant removal etc. Despite current interest on nanozymes tackling with some of the difficulties associated with them such as selectivity cooperativity with other enzymes limited surface area due to functionalization biocompatibility and activity in cells etc. is a challenging task. In this seminar I will discuss about the novel antioxidant and phosophotriesterase nanozymes. We have recently reported the graphene-hemin hybrid material for its remarkable peroxynitrite reductase and isomerase antioxidant activities. Noncovalent interactions of hemin and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) resulted in synergistic activity to effectively scavenge peroxynitrite which is a potent reactive nitrogen species (RNS) found in vivo. In another related study we found that vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) bears an unexpected antioxidant role in its nano-form and shows tremendous cytoprotective effects. The vanadia nanozyme exhibit excellent glutathione peroxidase (GPx)-like antioxidant activity and prevents oxidative damage to cells from reactive oxygen species (ROS). This work demonstrates the first experimental evidence that the biological property of a metal ion in its nano-form can be completely different from that of a bulk material. In a similar line I will also briefly highlight the engineered oxidase and phosphotriesterase nanozymes for antibody-free detection of major biomarkers of oxidative stress and degradation of sarin-related nerve agents respectively. In the second part of the presentation I will highlight engineered viruses for drug delivery applications. Viruses are protein structures with RNA that have simple structure but tremendous efficacy in host cell transfection. Although they can serve as drug delivery agents their immunogenic properties can cause severe side-effects. However plant viruses are non-pathogenic to humans and have large potential for such applications. Along this line I will discuss about the kinetics and molecular interactions that help in stabilizing platinum-based anticancer agents in the channel of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) to result in an engineered capsule-like drug delivery construct. References: 1. A. A. Vernekar G. Mugesh Chem. Eur. J. 2012 18 15122-15132. 2. A. A. Vernekar G. Mugesh Chem. Eur. J. 2013 19 16699-16706. 3. A. A. Vernekar D. Sinha S. Srivastava U. P. Prasath P. D’Silva G. Mugesh Nature Commun. 2014 5 5301. 4. A. A. Vernekar T. Das S. Ghosh G. Mugesh Chem. Asian J. 2016 11 72-76. 5. A. A. Vernekar T. Das G. Mugesh Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016 55 1412-1416. 6. A. A. Vernekar A. Czapar G. Berger N. Steinmetz S. J. Lippard (Manuscript in preparation)Bio: Dr. Amit A. Vernekar was born in Goa India. After his graduation and post-graduation from Goa University he joined Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore for his Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Prof. G. Mugesh. He is currently working as a post-doctoral associate with a renowned bioinorganic chemist Prof. Stephen J. Lippard at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA. Dr. Vernekar has authored several high impact research papers a book chapter and filed a patent. His research interests span over a broad area which include synthesis and characterization of functional nanomaterials and their biological evaluation bioinorganic and biomimetic chemistry catalysis hydrogen storage and generation. He has significantly contributed towards development of nanozyme technology for which he has received several prestigious national and international awards. Apart from this he is continuously engaged in promoting science education and he has guided several short term research students and high school students for national and international science fair.