CHANDIGARH, MAY 28
Six Research Projects have been sanctioned in Haryana with a budget of Rs one crore having upper time limit of three years under Research and Development scheme during the year 2018-19 with a view to improve the socio-economic standard of the general masses and solve their day to day problems with new inventions.
While stating this here today, the Principal Secretary, Haryana Science and Technology Department, Dr. Ashok Khemka said that keeping in view the importance of Research in the field of Science and Technology, the budget under the Research and Development scheme would be further increased so that quality research could be carried out for the upliftment of the socio economic standard of the society.
He said that under this scheme, grant up to Rs. 20 lakh is sanctioned to the Scientists or Professors of Educational or Research Institute for carrying out Research and Development Project in the field of Science and Technology.
The six Research Projects sanctioned during 2018-19 included treatment of cancer, development of hybrid perovskite based energy harvesters for small area devices, waste water remediation, early cancer detection technique, detection of procine Viral Pathogenes Using Next Generation Sequencing Technology (NGS) and production of bioethanol from Parthenium: Parthenium hysterophorus which is also known as congress grass is one of the world's most devastating weeds.
Research project on treatment of cancer is sanctioned to Dr. Ranjana Aggarwal, Department of Chemistry, Kurukshetra University (KU), Kurukshetra. According to a recent report in World's leading medical journal, 'The Lancet', nearly one million new cases of cancer are being diagnosed in India every year. National statistical data of October 2017 indicates that Haryana stands at 39.6 per cent with maximum share in overall death due to cancer in the country probably due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, use of fertilizers, and contamination of soil, water and air with heavy metals. The current chemotherapeutics such as paclitaxel, doxorubicin, vincristine are losing their significance because of development of drug resistance and also being not able to distinguish cancer cell from normal cells thereby causing adverse effects. The research project entitled `Multicomponent Domino approach towards regioselective synthesis of functionalized fused azaheterocycles as DNA-targeting agents' aims to develop small nitrogen containing organic molecules as drugs to treat cancer. It is expected that understanding the interaction behaviour of azahetreocycles with DNA as intercalators or groove binders or as DNA cleavers will lead to anticancer agents which will selectively recognize base pairs, sequences, and conformational features of nucleic acids.
Research project on development of hybrid perovskite based energy harvesters for small area devices is sanctioned to Dr. Manish Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, KU, Kurukshetra. In this work, the inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite based thin films for solar cell applications will be synthesized. The advantages of these solar cells over traditional Si-solar cells include their synthesis from solutions at low processing temperatures, high efficiencies (over 23 per cent), low production cost and potential for large scale manufacturing techniques such as roll-to-roll printing. Like organic solar cells they can be put on flexible substrates and can be lightweight and semi-transparent. Perovskite solar cells can be the future of solar energy if the thermal stability is improved by a suitable doping.
Research project on waste water remediation is sanctioned to Dr. Ashok Kumar Sharma, Department of Materials and Nano Technology, Deen Bandhu Chhotu Ram University, Sonipat. Sonipat is one of the densely populated districts of the state having a variety of industries which includes leather, rubber, plastic, metals, dyes and chemicals oriented works. The coloured effluents contain many harmful and carcinogenic chemicals and need treatment before discharging. The chemicals are harmful for human as well as for flora and fauna. This polluted water may cause allergic problems, dermatitis, kidney problems, cancer and may lead to derogatory effect in living biota. The water resources are already under stress due to over exploitation and pollution from various industries making it worse. Most of the population in industrial areas also include people migrated from nearby states in search of work who can't afford expensive measures available for access to drinkable water. So, most of the population specifically in industrial locality is facing severe scarcity of drinkable water. Keeping in the view these challenges the project entitled- "Functionalized Carbon Nanocomposite for Waste Water Remediation" has been designed. The main objective of the project will be to develop sophisticated carbon based nanocomposites for rapid, economical and effective removal of pollutant from water. The project shall focus on the removal of contaminants like dyes and heavy metals and will be carried out through advanced sonocatalytic and photocatalytic adsorption techniques.
Research project on early cancer detection technique is sanctioned to Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Department of Bio-Chemistry, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh. In Haryana, due to rapid industrialization and poor sanitation, the cancer rate is increasing rapidly. Haryana records highest number of cancer cases in India which is like 39 per cent in 2018. Breast cancer in women and lung cancer in males is the leading cause of death in Haryana population according to the Indian Council of medical research (ICMR). Cancer patients often lose out the early diagnosis and subsequent treatment due to a limited number of public hospitals and expensive treatment. Currently, a defined role for screening exists in some cancer types, but each screening test has limitations, and improved early screening methods are utmost needed. His project entitled "Comprehensive miRNA/circulating tumor DNA profiling at different stages of cancer patients as per WHO and healthy controls as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in biological samples (blood, saliva, urine, and feces) for early detection of cancer in Haryana population." is aimed to improve screening methods and make cancer detection at a very early stage (stage-I and stage-II) by using miRNA. As early detection greatly increase the chances for successful treatment and a decrease in mortality. Project Investigator will be trying to design a microchip that will be coated with different miRNA. A single drop of blood will be sufficient to diagnose cancer, which will justify the efforts and costs of screening. Unfortunately, many cancers still lack effective screening recommendations, or in some cases, the benefits from screening are marginal when weighed against the potential for harm. So this project will help in early detection of cancers and help in decreasing the mortality rate in Haryana.
Research project on detection of procine Viral Pathogenes Using Next Generation Sequencing Technology (NGS) is sanctioned to Dr. Sushila Maan, Animal Biotechnology, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar. Pig husbandry plays a crucial role in providing nutritional security and gainful employment to the weaker sections of society in our country. Among the meat animals, pigs are the most prolific animals with shorter generation interval, high fecundity, and high feed conversion efficiency and relatively require less space for housing. However, the pig rearing is still an unorganized venture that requires science and technology driven support to make it a vibrant enterprise to increase production, to uplift the economic status of the farmer and to help alleviate poverty. Sometimes, various dreaded diseases in the pigs cause devastating loss to country's economy. Nucleic acid sequencing technologies have progressed rapidly in recent years and continue to advance or be improved. Although Sanger method is still commonly used for sequencing specific genes, NGS technologies have been increasingly used in veterinary diagnostics with a good turnaround time and cost-saving. The proposed project aims to use NGS technologies in swine diagnostic medicine, for determining the whole genome sequences of viruses, identifying mixed infections in clinical samples, discovering novel or previously unrecognized agents, and for various future applications requiring characterization of viral pathogens like tracing the origin and movement of outbreaks (molecular epidemiology studies), identification of virulence associated genes and vaccine development studies. NGS can be a choice if Veterinarians have undiagnosed cases and would like to do further investigations in porcine diseases.
Research project on production of bioethanol from Parthenium is sanctioned to Dr. Neeraj Kumar, Department of Microbiology, KU, Kurukshetra. Parthenium hysterophorus is also known as congress grass is one of the world's most devastating weeds. It was imported accidentally in India as a contaminant along with a variety of wheat and since then it has spread to all states of India. The reports have indicated that in India Parthenium hysterophorus has spread over 35 million hectares area in 2018. Several characteristics of this annual shrub such as adaptability to wide range of habitats and climatic conditions, high fecundity, the high regenerative potential, resistance to herbivory and allelopathic effect on other plants; make it a prolific weed. It particularly dominates wastelands, irrigation canals, roadsides, railways track sides, coal mines, growing residential sectors and is also invading crops. It shows serious ill effects on the health of human beings causing dermatitis, hay fever, bronchitis and asthma, and also on grazing cattle causing skin dermatitis, intestinal ulceration and tainting of milk with the parthenin toxin present naturally in all parts of the plant. The management of this dangerous weed is a serious concern all over the world. Many chemical, physical and biological methods are known for its control. But no single method is effective enough to eradicate it completely. Under this project the biomass of this weed will be utilized for bioethanol production. The utilization of Parthenium hysterophorus biomass for bioethanol production will not only offer a constructive approach for the management of this weed but also a potent solution to the problems of energy crisis as well as the environmental pollution due to traditionally used fossil fuels.
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