RESEARCH
Research Area: Production of Microbial Bioactive metabolites and Industrial Enzymes from edible fungi, Purification of Biomolecules, Nutraceuticals and Recombinant Proteins and Enzymes Production.
We are working from Basic to Applied Research area for therapeutic drug and food products.
​
Basic and Applied
Research: Identification of ergesterol and gallic acid from fungal mycelium as a promising anti-COVID-19 metabolites. Collection, Isolation and Screening of fungal species for L-asparaginase production. As it involves the production of L-Asparaginase from fungal species which has massive importance predominantly in chemotherapy applications as well as in food processing industries. Agro-industrial waste as substrates are the best source for these drugs which in turn minimizes the production cost requirement. We are focusing on Solid State Fermentation (SSF) bioreactor design for fungal therapeutic enzyme production and then to evaluate the cost effective studies by SmF.
Solid state fermentation Bioreactor
Biochemical and bioprocessing engineering of enzyme which involves upstream, fermentation, downstream processing, scale-up studies and comparative with submerged fermentation (SmF).
​
Applied research: The other interested area is tissue engineering, the use of autologous implantation /transplantation to the defective area, specifically cartilage and bone regeneration. Our long term aim is to develop scaffold free in - vitro models for damaged cartilage tissue and apply in different regenerative medicine.
Health-promoting bioactive metabolites from edible fungi
Edible mushrooms are consumed across the world due to their enormous health benefits. Bioactive components present in them such as proteins, polysaccharides, terpenes, and lipids have recently sparked much attention to exhibit therapeutic properties such as anti-cancer, immunomodulatory, anti-hypercholesterolemia, antiviral, antidiabetic, and anti-inflammatory effects. Moreover, these isolated compounds have the potential to be used in dietary supplements and medicines. In addition, numerous bioactive compounds such as ergosterol, gallic acid, cordycepin, etc. proved to be essential in preventing or reducing the severity of COVID-19. According to published research so far, it is difficult to distinguish between edible and medicinal mushrooms because many commonly consumed culinary species also have medicinal benefits. Submerged cultivation of mushrooms is a better alternative in which nutrients are added and oxygen is supplied by stirring in the fermentation medium to give high yield of mycelium biomass which can be obtained by vacuum filtration or centrifugation
Fungal lipase production
Lipases which account for up to 10% of the enzyme market are widely used in different processes of industrial importance based on their ability to catalyze both synthetic and hydrolytic reactions. Lipases of microbial origin have greater industrial attraction because they are available in large quantities and can be produced with high yields. Current work focuses on the production of lipase from different microbial sources, with fungal microorganisms as the primary source, and experiments are being done to produce lipase by SSF. The different types of substrates tried were rice husk, wheat bran, cotton seed cake and red gram husk. Different mixtures of substrates rice husk, cotton seed cake and red gram husk were prepared by taking different proportions of them. Using these substrates for SSF, the lipase activity in each case is determined and the maximal lipase activity obtained is noted of all these. Scale-up is the crucial link in transferring a laboratory scale process to commercial production scale. It also provides a large quantity of the product which might be required for product evaluation and toxicological studies. In future, downstream processes for purification of lipases and estimation of protein should be done. Studies to be done on effect of salts, surfactants and metal ions for maximum lipase activity.
Novel Design for Solid State Fermentation:
Fermentation technology has been advancing in the recent years and a great deal of the research has been focusing on the use of cheaper raw materials for the production of high valued products with lesser environmental impact and the Solid State Fermentation (SSF) has shown a wide acceptability in bringing about the required change. SSF has been an effective substitute to the conventional techniques. The use of agricultural wastes as raw material for the production of L-asparaginase enzyme that is used in the preparation of anti-carcinogenic and anti-neoplastic drugs is the primary work that is being carried out in the lab, the work focuses on the use of different agricultural wastes as an independent source or the mixture of these materials which would help in better production of the enzyme. The currents results have shown an effective enzyme activitry of 15 U/mg as opposed to the conventional 7-8 U/mg. The replication of these data on a semi pilot scale is being done now using a novel design of the SSF bioreactor where studies are being done to overcome the heat and mass transfer effects which are the main obstruction to the scale-up of the reactor to an industrial scale. The future work in this area would be to successfully scale up the bioreactor to a pilot scale and later to an industrial scale.
Biosensors for Toxic Analyte Detection:
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is harmful gas releasing from automobile and industrial plant exhausts, which catalyses ozone formation and photochemical smog. To interpret pollution data, detection and monitoring of such toxic gases using sensors is required. The advancement in nanotechnology has given an opportunity in availing the high surface to volume ratio with controlled morphologies that would lead to intense gas sensing properties. Major advantage of biological materials such as luminescent organisms is that they are used in synthesis of highly sensitive biosensors for detection of environmental toxins. In the recent study, nanomaterial and biomolecule were fabricated which attributed to higher sensitivity at ambient temperature. Liquefied petroleum gas sensing showed mixing biomolecule and metal oxide enhanced the sensitivity at low temperature with excellent stability for 30 days. In general, nano sensors are able to detect NO2 in temperature ranging from 500-650 °C using physical and chemical sensors. Despite the availability of the various available gas sensors, a search for an efficient Bio-Nano sensor, which can detect NO2 at room temperature with extreme precision is mandatory.