Archive for category: Himachal Pradesh

Chandigarh August 17, 2021

The Department of Zoology, Panjab University Chandigarh today hosted second Virtual Distinguished lectures under the aegis of Indian Sciences Congress Association and Zoological Society of India in collaboration with Chandigarh forum for sciences and technology communication.  The session was attended by more than 100 participants.

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The session was chaired by Prof. R. C. Sobti former Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University Chandigarh, and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow. Dr. Harpreet Kaur, Chairperson of Department of Zoology welcomed the distinguished guests and eminent speakers. The first distinguished lecture entitled “Introduction to proteomics and application of biomarker discovery” was delivered by Dr. A. K. Mohanty, Joint Director,
IVRI Campus Mukteswar.He discussed proteomics studies and the application of proteomics in various animal research. He stressed upon the differential protein expression and two major techniques to identify proteins i.e., MALDI TOF-TOF and LC-MS-MS. Further, he also highlighted the high throughput protein studies, mammalian epithelial cell and protein related to milk production and lactating protein.

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The second lecture entitled “Cloning of India’s black gold, buffalo. Waiting at a lab to reach farmer farm” was delivered byDr. Naresh L. Selokar, ScientistAnimal Biotechnology Center, ICAR-NDRI Karnal. He discussed animal cloning, importance of buffalo in farms and artificial insemination. He showed a detail video presentation of various steps of cloning method. He emphasized on the breeding and restoring of dead valuable bulls and superior buffalo bull through genotyping. He provided an insight into the transgenic clone embryos and Crisper CAS9 gene editing in farm animals. He concluded that buffalo cloning is a valuable breeding tool to compliment the artificial insemination to improve India’s buffalo germplasm.

The session ended with vote of thanks form Dr. Archana Chauhan, coordinator of the event.

Chandigarh August 17, 2021

Panjab University Alumni Association in collaboration with Department of Sociology organized an International webinar on Diaspora Engagement in Sustainable Development.

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            The key speakers Mr Suthan Kethees,  Management, consultant at Q_PERIOR AG, Deutschland, Germany, Ms Hamsha Padmanathan, Wild life biologist at Government of North West territories, Canada and Dr Prabhu Nadaraj, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, all co-founders of Comdu.it, a global network of diaspora volunteers committed to use diaspora technical skills and knowledge for sustainable development, emphasized on the need to empower local communities without creating dependency for community development based on mutual trust and knowledge economics. They highlighted the practical approach which they had followed in green innovation through organic farming, waste management and generation of renewable energy in different regions of Sri Lanka.  They also mentioned about food innovation i.e. food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods which are based on local food system. They focused on having capacity building programmes which follow the principles of health, ecology ,fairness and care for growth of environmental sustainability across nations.

Prof. V R Sinha, Dean University Instructions,  gave the presidential remarks in which he clearly defined through wonderful illustrations the change in the attitude of people regarding safeguarding the environment during the tough pandemic times.

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Earlier, Prof. Anupama Sharma, Dean, Alumni Association, PU in her welcome address highlighted the role of diaspora in bringing a positive change for the environment  and how diaspora involvement can produce effective results in creating awareness regarding conserving and preserving the environment.

Prof Rani Mehta, Chairperson, Department of Sociology, earlier introduced the theme of the webinar by focusing on the significance of sustainable development especially for developing nations which are worst affected due to unlimited economic growth and lack of sufficient knowledge about clean technology to take care of their environmental hazards such as global warming, desertification, deforestation, species extinction etc. Thus, sustainable development  efforts are essential and need to be dynamic as well as should involve a basic change in the way we think, produce, consume and the way in which we behave towards each other.

The Vote of Thanks was given by Professor Anupama Sharma and the webinar was well attended by scholars from the region and outside it. 

Chandigarh August 13, 2021

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Dr. Rohit Sharma, Head, Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Panjab University and BioNEST-PU has recently been granted patents for two of his team’s innovations in two consecutive days. The patent entitled, “Nitrile hydrolyzing microbes for industrial use” was granted on 10^th August 2021 while another patent for the novel anti-carcinogenic extracts was granted on the following day.

Dr. Sharma shared that with the changes in conventional academic culture, the researchers and innovators are now inclined towards protecting and commercializing their intellectual property.

Dr. Sharma and his team is well-versed with extremophilic enzymes ie., the enzymes from microbial sources which are capable of functioning in extreme environmental conditions and thus have a wide range of industrial and biotechnological applications. One such enzyme is the nitrile-hydrolizing enzyme, the nitrilase which has a major application in biodegradation of toxic and recalcitrant industrial wastes and is also a key player in the synthesis of multiple carboxylic acid-based compounds. The enzyme is also known to mediate the synthesis of multiple high-value commercials, mainly pharmaceuticals and also sells globally as a bulk enzyme. In their quest for nitrile hydrolyzing microbes for industrial use, Dr. Sharma’s team included two students of PU who are now placed in MNCs and are living overseas, along with a startup company which collaborated with them to further this technology to the market.

Another team including three faculty members from the Panjab University- Dr. Rohit Sharma from the Department of Microbial Biotechnology, PU, Prof. Jasdeep Kaur and Dr. Monika Sharma from the Department of Biotechnology, PU had been working on the anti-cancer properties of plant extracts, mainly from a wild plant commonly known as ‘Jangli jalebi’ (Pithecellobium dulce). The team had successfully prepared plant extracts with anti-carcinogenic properties back in 2011 and a patent was thus filed for protection of the IP. Summarizing the importance of such extracts, Dr. Sharma explained how bio-active compounds from various natural sources, mainly plants are being researched upon. He emphasized that the medical world today is looking for alternative cancer treatments and the need to replace or at least reduce the use of chemical compounds is the need of the hour. The targeted cancer for this technology has been the breast cancer, of which more than 1 million cases are reported every year in India alone.

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Dr. Rohit Sharma along with Dr. Monika Sharma had also received the Pfizer- IIT Delhi Innovation and IP Program (PIIP) for the patent of these anti-carcinogenic extracts in 2020. Additionally Dr. Sharma stated that such awards and recognitions not only bring credit for the research and innovation, but also help the university go up a few miles on annual rankings’ charts. The team is now looking forward to the examination of certain other patents in-line for the patent grant procedure.

For further information please contact:

                      Rohit-9914461545