Seminars

Abstract: An acute increase in the demand for a sustainable and environment friendly alternative to fossil fuel has focused a lot of attention on microalgae as a promising source of biofuels. These oxygenic photosynthetic microbes have long been recognized as cell factories for various kinds of energy-rich biopolymers. These microbes directly utilize solar energy and atmospheric carbon dioxide to produce such compounds and thus provide a source of renewable sustainable and carbon neutral/negative energy. Microalgae comprises of prokaryotic cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae.

Micro reaction technology opens new pathways for the development of economical and innovative processes and intensified processes.

Abstract: Bacterial infections are responsible for more than three million deaths each year in India. One of the leading causes of infections is the food-borne pathogen Salmonella. Once ingested Salmonella specifically targets epithelial cells in the small intestine for invasion. From the perspective of the bacterium it is important that the genes responsible for invasion are only expressed at its preferred site of infection. How Salmonella exhibits this control remains an open question.

Abstract: 80% of all medication is delivered in tablet form. Tablets are manufactured by compacting a powder blend. The development of a pharmaceutical formulation involves formulation design (e.g. choosing the composition of the powder blend) and process development (e.g. selection of manufacturing processes and equipment) so that the final tablet has the required bioavailability and that the manufacturing processes are robust. The simplest manufacturing process includes a mixing operation and a compaction stage although additional processes are often necessary.

Abstract: There have been many driving forces exploring the potential benefits of utilizing micro/nano-sized fluidic systems over those of conventional size including reduced consumption of samples and reagents shorter analysis times greater sensitivity and portability; for real-time analysis. A unified consensus of researchers in the field embrace the notion that in the same way that integrated circuits used miniaturized transistors to automate computation nano/microfluidic chips could accomplish large-scale automation of biological processing using nanoliter or picoliter volumes.

Abstract: Sequencing of genomes is taking place at an ever growing pace that has led to genome-scale metabolic reconstructions of various organisms. Constraint-based flux balance analysis method is one of the ways of identifying the flux distribution in these genome-scale reconstructions. In this talk I am going to specifically focus on two of the applications of this methodology that I have been involved in. The first is a biomedical application to study the effects of viral infection on host metabolism. Escherichia coli/MS2 was used as the host-pathogen model system.

Abstract: Understanding the mechanism of film formation in latex dispersions is essential for the success of many industrially important products such as paints coatings dhesives caulks and sealants etc. In recent times the environmental concerns (due to VOCs emission) have forced a change in paint/coating technologies from traditional organic based formulations to present day water based dispersions. Hence the latex where dispersing media is water has become an attractive alternative to the traditional formulations. However the water-based dispersions suffer with the problem of cracking.

We have an electronic white board installed in #228 for over an year now. I had used it for instructing an elective course last year and found it useful. But unfortunately I could not arrange for a demo of it to a wider audience. We now have arranged a demo on Thursday 30 July 4pm-5pm at room #228 (Unless there is a seminar or some other more important event comes up). I have requested the presenter to be very brief with 15 mins presentation and 30 mins of demo and hands-on for the faculty. The major points I found about this are: 1.

Abstract: This talk is motivated by a long standing problem faced by the FMCG industry wherein highly viscous soils are displaced by a cleaning fluid and also in the oil-and-gas industry wherein oil and gas mixtures are transported via pipelines. Integral to these applications is the formation and growth of waves the nature of which governs the flow regime and therefore throughput.

DNA microarrays are used for the simultaneous analysis of expression of thousands of genes. They have been used extensively to compare gene expression profiles between cancer and normal tissues with goals of (1) understanding the molecular etiology of disease and (2) identifying molecular biomarkers for diagnostic purposes. Cancer is a disease of heterogeneous etiology; hence we can expect significant biological variability between cancerous tissue samples from different patients. This can lead to situations where key genes are differentially expressed in only a subset of samples.