Process Engineering and Computational Biology
Process Engineering is at the heart of any biological process intended for energy, health, environment, food or agriculture and water. It dates back to making bread and wine to one of the most advanced and challenging metabolic engineering of organisms to produce products that are useful to human mankind. Computational biology focuses on knowledgebase development, QSAR and drug design, metabolic engineering, pathway modelling and simulation, and cellular image analysis. It integrates experimental research with computational analysis including big data analysis. The domain interface is between multiple disciplines such as Biological or Life Sciences, Computational Sciences and Engineering, Mathematics and Informatics, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.
Objectives
- To develop processes and technologies for health, energy, environment, agriculture or food and water to meet the demands of sustainability by biological means.
- To create or establish laboratories suitable for biological processes and computational biology.
Recent Accomplishments
- Project: Production of bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacteria
- Project: Prediction of Protein Structure from invariant configurations
- Project: ChemDetect: A microcontroller based detection method for identifying and storing chemicals in the stock room
- Project: Developed a prototype that can identify the chemical bottle through wireless technology
- Project: Integrated Computational Tools for Identification of Spore Wall proteins inhibitors: Homology Modelling, Virtual Screening, Molecular Dynamics Simulations and 3D QSAR Analysis. Identified the target proteins through Bioinformatics approach
- In Collaboration with Dr. Krithika Rajesh, Department of Zoology, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India, Study of molecular interaction of Andrographolide with TGF-β for anti-cancerous property. Performed the docking studies of Andrographolide with 1KLC (TGF-β) and validated the binding affinity from binding energy and inhibition constant values.
- Paper (submitted): M. Veerabhadraswamy, Bhimashankar B. Molkere, Somantha V. Patil, Prashantha Karunakar, “Synthesis and Pharmacological activates of substituted Triazoles” to European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Elsevier Editorial System on 23-July-2016.
- No. of students working on various projects presently (Undergrads: 12, Post grads: 3, Research Associates: 2)
