Seminars

Speaker Profile*: Mr. Samudra heads Uhde India's Sales & Business Development Division. He has over 36 years' experience in the selling of process technologies / plant engineering. He is past Chairman of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers - Mumbai Regional Centre and past Chairman of Process Plant & Machinery Association of India.

About the speaker: PhD in Biochemical Engineering at University College London obtained in 1974. Joined the Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in 1980 and built a world class Bioprocess R&D group. Leader of process development of all biologically made product candidates within the MRL pipeline and manufacture of Clinical Supplies during the past 20 years. Products developed within this timeline include MEVACOR® ZOCOR® IVOMEC® CANCIDAS® RECOMBIVAX HB® VAQTA® VARIVAX® COMVAX®. ROTATEQ® (Rotavirus vaccine) ZOSTAVAX® (shingles vaccine) and GARDASIL® (HPV vaccine).

Two third of the antibiotics and many other pharmaceuticals  such as anti-tumor drugs and immunosuppressants are produced by  Actinomycetes - mostly belonging to the genus /Streptomyces/. The need for new antibiotics is emerging as a result of continuous evolution of disease causing bacteria into drug resistant strains due to their extra ordinary ability to adapt to changes in their environment. The ultimate aim of this work was to design a cell factory that can be used as a plug and play superhost for enhanced production of new polyketide pharmaceuticals.

Abstract: Protection of climate and anticipative shift from fossil based to renewable feedstock are driving bioeconomy in the US and around the world. The consumer appeal for green products is creating demand for biobased chemicals and polymers. It is estimated that 20% of today’s petrochemical production will be replaced with biobased chemicals in the next decade. Large amounts of renewable carbon in form of fermentable sugars are needed to enable production of next generation biochemicals and biofuels.

Abstract: A modern food system needs to be an intelligence-empowered system that includes capability for information collection/processing and decision making mechatronics devices for sensing controls and actions and synergistic integration of components into functional systems. FEWS activities incorporate actions taken by many players in physical spaces. Ideally these actions should be supported and guided by the intelligence obtained from analyses of information in cyber spaces.

Abstract Many important phenomena in both industrial and biological contexts involve semidilute polymer solutions. However the behaviour of polymer solutions is presently well understood only in the dilute and concentrated solution limits. We report on investigations of the dynamics of semidilute solutions of DNA through experiments and computer simulations. The experiments probe the linear and non-linear vlsooelastlc benaviour In a wide range of molecular weights temperatures and concentrations.

Abstract: The design of vaccines and therapeutics to address infectious diseases is fraught with challenges ranging from the need for cold storage to poor immunogenicity to the need for multiple doses to the need for needle-based methods that require medical professionals to administer.

Abstract: Thermodynamically work of adhesion is determined by the energy released when two surfaces are brought in contact which in turn is determined by the interfacial interactions. However in our daily life we perceive adhesion as the energy or force required to separate two adhering objects. This energy of de-bonding is a strong function of the bulk mechanical properties of the separating objects. For example rheological properties play a very crucial role in determining the adhesion strength of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) used in scotch tape.

Abstract: Various deterministic sampling-based constrained state estimation techniques for non-linear dynamical systems have been proposed in the literature. These algorithms mainly focus on correcting the estimated (or filtered) states such that they satisfy all of the given constraints. However the aspect of correcting predicted states (after model propagation) such that they satisfy all of the constraints has not been given much attention in the literature. These states are obtained by propagating deterministically chosen points (called sigma points) through the process model.

Abstract: The energy costs associated with separating tightly bound excitons (photoinduced electron-hole pairs) and extracting free charges from highly disordered low-mobility networks represent fundamental losses for many low-cost photovoltaic technologies. We report a low-cost solution-processable solar cell based on a highly crystalline perovskite absorber with intense visible to near-infrared absorptivity that has a power conversion efficiency of 15% in a single-junction device under simulated full sunlight.