Anjali Anand from Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad explains how researchers from THSTI, AIIMS and IIT Indore found the aptamer originally developed against alpha toxin of Bungarus multicinctus krait snake found in China and Taiwan can be used for reliable detection of B. caeruleus krait species found in the Indian subcontinent. The researchers have developed inhouse … Continue reading Podcast: Diagnosing krait snake venom
Podcast
Podcast: Increasing Li-ion battery’s capacity, charging speed
Kingshuk Roy of IISER Pune explains how the novel anode made of silicon-phosphorene mixture for use in Li-ion batteries has five times more capacity than carbon-based electrodes and can be fully charged in about 15 minutes. The researchers used just 8% of phosphorene to dramatically improve the stability of silicon electrode. The electrode showed no … Continue reading Podcast: Increasing Li-ion battery’s capacity, charging speed
Podcast: How progesterone protects breast cancer patients unravelled
Dr. Amit Dutt of ACTREC-Tata Memorial Centre explains how progesterone administered prior to breast cancer surgery helps in reducing the chances of migration and invasion of cancer cells to other parts of the body. Immaterial of whether patients had progesterone receptor or not, the hormone is equally effective.
Podcast: New diagnostic tests for TB
Tarun Sharma explains how the team developed highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tests for pulmonary TB and pleural TB. The diagnostic tests make use of a DNA aptamer that shows high binding affinity to a TB antigen. The sensitivity for pulmonary TB and pleural TB was 94% and 93% respectively. And specificity was 100% for pulmonary … Continue reading Podcast: New diagnostic tests for TB
Podcast: Treating chikungunya using tamarind seed protein
Shailly Tomar of IIT Roorkee explains how her team found a protein in tamarind seeds that binds to NAG sugar molecule on chikungunya virus and reduces infectivity by 64% and RNA levels inside infected cells by nearly 45%.
Podcast: Making bone marrow transplantation more successful
Vaijayanti Kale from NCCS explains how micro-vesicles containing certain factors increase homing and engraftment potential of hematopoietic stem cells. These micro-vesicles also help in expanding hematopoietic stem cells before transplantation. The micro-vesicles are secreted by mesenchymal stem cells when treated with a nitric oxide donor.
Podcast: Removing oil from water using aloe vera
Uttam Manna of IIT Guwahati explains how his team synthesised an extremely oil-repelling (super oleophobic) membrane using an aloe vera gel-based coating modified with some molecules to remove oil from water. The membrane could be reused at least 25 times to separate light and heavy oil from water with the efficiency of separation remaining above … Continue reading Podcast: Removing oil from water using aloe vera
Podcast: Finding a potential target for treating gallbladder cancer
Dr. Amit Dutt from Tata Memorial Centre explains how the team using different approaches identified the mutations that cause gallbladder cancer. They found that a drug that is already in use for treating colorectal cancer can now be used for treating gallbladder cancer too. By performing molecular profiling of every gallbladder cancer patient it might … Continue reading Podcast: Finding a potential target for treating gallbladder cancer
Podcast: Fabricating a scaffold for cartilage repair
Yogendra Pratap Singh from IIT Guwahati explains how the biphasic scaffold fabricated using silk is superior to the existing ones. Since the entire scaffold is made of silk, the junction between the half that is spongy and mimics the cartilage while the other half is less porous and mimics the bone is seamless. In rabbits, … Continue reading Podcast: Fabricating a scaffold for cartilage repair
Podcast: How Klebsiella bacteria develop colistin resistance
Abdul Ghafur explains how the team deciphered the mechanism by which Klebsiella bacteria develop resistance to colistin, a last-line antibiotic. Mutations and insertional inactivation of the mgrB gene, which is present in the chromosome, are responsible for colistin resistance in Klebsiella. The inserational sequence that moves out from the chromosome to plasmid before spreading to other … Continue reading Podcast: How Klebsiella bacteria develop colistin resistance
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