NORMAS DE TRABAJO

Coordinator: Prof. T.R. Sreekrishnan

Summary of the progress made by the centre from its inception

The Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology department was established in 1969 at IIT Delhi to generate quality human resource & undertake research work particularly in the area of Biochemical Engineering & Industrial Biotechnology. The department is presently offering a unique five-year dual degree (B.Tech and M.Tech) program in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. The department also has a two-year M.S. (by research) and very interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in the area of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

The BTIS sub-centre at IIT Delhi was established in 1989 (equipped in 1991) by the support of the DBT, GOI, New Delhi, as a part of the nation wide networking of Biotechnology Institutions of National importance.

Major research activities in biotechnology and its related field:

The department is very actively engaged in almost all emerging areas of biotechnological research e.g., Bioprocess Engi- neering, Down Stream Processing, Bioprocess control, Modeling and Simulation of Bioprocesses, Plant Cell technology, Animal Cell Technology, Genetic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Bioinformatics, Molecular Machines and Nanotechnology etc.

The BTIS-sub centre acts as an integrated information resource centre in the teaching and research in all the above areas of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. The centre provides total computer support for extensive computations, information retrieval and dissemination for all the departmental courses and to the ongoing research projects (M.Tech., M.S., Ph.D. and sponsored projects) of the department and also to the neighboring educational centres. Recently the centre has graduated from an Information Resource Centre to an “Instruction facility” for quality teaching and research particu- larly in Bioinformatics, Genomics and Proteomics, Mathematical Modeling of Bioprocesses, and Artificial Neural Network based bioprocess control.

Area of specialization of the centre

The main teaching and research focus of the Department is in Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology. It has a very popular Dual Degree program (B.Tech & M.Tech) in Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology. The above program has elective courses on Bioinformatics, Genomics & Proteomics data analysis for DNA Microarray apart from the courses in other emerging areas of Biotechnology listed above. The main research areas of the department are: Biochemical Engineer- ing / Industrial Microbiology / Fermentation / Bioinformatics

Major activities of the centre during the year

Research and Training

Infrastructure facilities in the bioinformatics centre A. Computer & Communication facilities

IBM Netfinity 5000 Server : 1, Dell Server with dual Processor : 1, Intel Xeon Server : 1, Desktops (Pentium IV/III/II) : 4/2/1, Workstations (Intel Core 2 duo/ Dual core): 10/5, Silicon Graphics Workstation : 1(From Institute grant), Color LaserJet Printer: 1(From Institute grant); LaserJet Printer: 3, Deskjet Printer : 2, Scanner: 2, Fax Machine: 1, Xerox Machine: 1, Networking speed through IIT, Delhi network : 2X5 Mbps.

B. Major Databases /Software packages:

Academic licensed : Accelyrs Gene 2.5, Matlab (R2008a) with Bioinformatics Tool Box (Access through Institute LAN),

Discovery Studio 2.1 modules (Application areas – Sequence Analysis, Protein Modeling and Simulation)

Vendor licensed : Chem Office 2005 (version 13.1), LaserGene (version 5.0), Endnote (version 7.0), Reference Manager 10,

Design Expert (Statistical Optimization Software), Office XP professional, Java 1.1, Lotus Smartsuite (version 9.6),

Operating System media : Windows XP professional, Windows 2000 NT server, Windows 2000 academic, Windows 98,

Other: Derwent Biotechnology Abstract (1982-Till date) (on CD), Medline(1982-1998) (on CD), Science Direct by Elsevier

Science (On-line Access), Institute is the member of INDEST consortium initiated by MHRD, Institute has the provision for

procurement of printed as well as electronics version of selected journals.(Details on www.iitd.ac.in).

C. Databases & other information resources:

Bibliographic Database of research publications of the department Catalogue of Departmental Library

Bibliographic Database of Departmental Theses Full Text Database of Departmental Theses

Details of staff members working in the Centre:

In addition to the above positions, we also have two positions of Studentship/Traineeship each who are trained regularly.

Types of Services Provided:

Literature Search: Information retrieval and storage facility from its rich In-house / on line database(s) & Journals to the

faculty, student and researchers of IIT Delhi/ Neighboring Institutions.

Bioinformatics Courses & Project work: For the elective courses on Bioinformatics, Genomics & Proteomics for the dual

degree (B.Tech & M.Tech), students heavily use the infrastructure facilities of the center. Beside the final year M.Tech students of the department and students from the other universities also do their dedicated 6-12 months major project work using the Centre’s facility.

Educational activities with details of placement

The courses on Bioinformatics (2-0-2, 3 credits), Genomics and Proteomics (3-0-0, 3 credits) and “Data Analysis for DNA Microarrays” (3-0-2, 4 credits) are offered for the B.Tech/M.Tech/M.S. students at IIT Delhi.

Ongoing student projects in Bioinformatics

(A) Comparative study of the synergistic and modular modes of binding of zinc finger proteins to DNA (Harshit Malhotra - Supervisor D. Sundar, DBEB), 2012-2013

(B) Finding the genes in eukaryotic genomic DNA (Armaan S. Sandhu – Supervisor: D. Sundar, DBEB), 2012-2013.

(C) A computational study of DNA-protein interactions (Shayoni Dutta – Supervisor: D. Sundar, DBEB), 2011 - till date.

Initiative to validate the outcome of bioinformatics resources

The Centre has been publishing papers in the area of Bioinformatics.

S.No. Name of the staff Designation Working since Absorption status

1. Khusboo Bafna Project Associate 2012 – present Contractual

 Custom-made softwares for Bioprocess Modeling & Simulation

 Catalogue of “Departmental Library” comprising about 2,000 records, searchable by author, title and keywords

 Bibliographic database of Ph.D and M.Tech thesis of the department comprising about 572 records; about 150

full-text versions of the Ph.D. and M. Tech. theses of the department using “Greenstone Digital Library Soft- ware”

 Institutional repositories of theses, dissertation and other biological information

 Other In-house developed specialized databases like Plant Cell Culture (PCC), Animal Cell Culture (ACC) etc.

Papers presented in the conference with reference:

Chatterjee, B., Katiyar, S.P., Dutta, S., Sundar, D. and Chaudhuri, T.K. (2012). Role of Celastrol in Hsp90/Cdc37 complex disruption and kinase binding of Cdc37. Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB-2012), Bangkok, Thailand, October 2012, p-159.

Initiation of R & D activities in Bioinformatics

The department faculty are involved in research projects (Extramural and Intramural)

(i) Funding Agency : Department of Health Research (DHR), Govt. of India

Principal Investigator – Dr. D. Sundar Period of Support : 2012-13

Amount of Support : Rs. 30 Lakhs

“Program support for Computational Genomics”

(ii) Funding Agency : Lady Tata Memorial Trust

Principal Investigator – Dr. D. Sundar Period of Support : 2011-14

Amount of Support : Rs. 31 Lakhs

“Towards modifying nature’s DNA recognition system for highly specific genome editing”

(iii) Funding Agency : Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India

Principal Investigator – Dr. D. Sundar Period of Support : 2011-14

Amount of Support : Rs. 16.2 Lakhs

“Betraying the parasite’s redox system: Studies on spermidine synthase of Leishmania donovani”

Details of the training/workshop organized and total no. of user trained.

 Mr. Akil Z. Surti, Lecturer in Gujrat Technological University, Ahmedabad, Gujrat and Ms. Akansha Gupta,

Lecture in IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad, UP were selected for the “Summer Faculty Research Fellow Program 2012” under the “Continuing Education Program” of IIT Delhi for doing research under the guidance of Dr. D. Sundar, the faculty mentor at IIT Delhi. The objective of this program was to facilitate and orient the faculty fellows to undertake research. The faculty fellow also got an opportunity to interact and work with the research students of Dr. Sundar’s lab group and got exposure to the equipment and lab facilities associated with bioinformatics research.

 Organized a Indo-UK Workshop on ‘Next Generation Sequencing and Data Analysis for Microbial Applications’

along with Newcastle University, UK during March 29-30, 2012. The objective of this workshop was to foster an understanding of the concepts and application of next generation sequencing (NGS) to the biology of engi-

neered systems. This workshop was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK.

 Organized a two-day Short term Training Course on Bioinformatics during October 22-23, 2012.

Impact shown by the centre on the growth of biotechnology and allied areas. i. Patents & Technology Transfer

Bisaria V.S., Srivastava A.K., Baldi A, Jain A., Gupta N. (2007) A process for enhanced production of bio-active compounds, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi , India. Patent Application No. 1266/Del/2007.

ii. Research Papers published in peer reviewed journals by using BTIS Sub – Centre’s Support.

The Department has published more than 400 journal papers, 30 Books / Book Chapters, More than 150 conference publications since 1990 in different peer reviewed journals with the help of BTIS facilities of the centre. Details of the publication are available Faculty/Area wise on our website www.iitd.ac.in.

ii. Bioinformatics Research Papers Published, in peer Reviewed journal by the Centre.

01. Roy, S., Dutta, S., Khanna, K., Singla, S. and Sundar, D. (2012). Prediction of DNA-binding specificity in zinc finger proteins. Journal of Biosciences 37(3): 483-491.

02. Kumar, V., Punetha, A. and Sundar, D. and Chaudhuri, T.K. (2012). In silico engineering of aggregation-prone recombinant proteins for substrate recognition by the chaperonin GroEL. BMC Genomics 13(7): S22.

03. Grover, A., Katiyar, S.P., Jeyakanthan, J., Dubey, V. and Sundar, D. (2012). Blocking Protein Kinase C signaling pathway: mechanistic insights into the anti-leishmanial activity of prospective herbal drugs from Withania

somnifera. BMC Genomics 13(7): S20.

04. Grover, A., Shakyawar, S.K., Saudagar, P., Dubey, V.K. and Sundar, D. (2012). Epitopic analysis of potential vaccine candidate in Leishmania infantum for development of human vaccine. Letters in Drug Design and

Discovery 9(7): 698-705.

05. Grover, A., Katiyar, S.P., Jeyakanthan, J., Dubey, V. and Sundar, D. (2012). Mechanistic insights into the dual inhibition strategy for checking Leishmaniasis. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics 30(4): 474- 487.

06. Grover, A., Katiyar, S.P., Singh, S.K., Dubey, V. and Sundar, D. (2012). A Leishnmaniasis study: structure-based screening and molecular dynamics mechanistic analysis for discovering potent inhibitors of spermidine syn- thase. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - BBA: Proteins and Proteomics 1824(12): 1476-1483.

Future Activities

Due to increased emphasis on Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Genomics etc. in the present scenario attempts will be made to train more students for Bioinformatics related projects. The centre will focus on the development of user-friendly interactive software tools for Modelling & Simulation of Bioprocessing, Bioprocess control, Genomics, Proteomics, etc. which is the unique area of expertise of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology Department in the country. The centre has excellent expertise in strategic and emerging areas of biotechnology. Attempts will be made to develop Multimedia