I am enrolled as a PhD candidate in IITB-Monash Research Academy, a joint venture between IIT Bombay, India and Monash University, Australia. My dissertation is a study of the isolation and characterization of novel extremophilic microalgal strains, which can be potentially used in the bio-fixation of elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO) that are present in industrial flue gases. I have isolated and purified a few fast-growing green algal strains, which were high-light, high-temperature and high-CO2-tolerant species, from the industrial waste water. I am using a range of chlorophyll fluorescence techniques and oxygen electrode measurements to study the effects of CO2 and NO stress on the physiology and on the photosynthetic performance of the selected strains. I am also investigating the effects of various gas concentrations on the macromolecular composition of algal cells, both by using conventional ‘wet chemistry’ as well as ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Results from this laboratory scale study will help us in determining the suitable microalgal candidates for further investigations in large scale outdoor algae ponds and photobioreactors using real flue gases. Besides, the biochemical composition of biomass will give an insight on how well the biomass can be utilized to synthesize carbohydrate, lipids, chemicals and food additives from it.