Sharmila Mande, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist and Head, Bio Sciences R&D, TCS Innovation Labs, Pune
Gut microbiome and health: Moving towards the new era of translational medicine
The microbes inhabiting our body outnumber our own cells by a factor of 10. The genomes of these microbes, called the ‘second genome’ are therefore expected to have great influence on our health and well being. The emerging field of metagenomics is rapidly becoming the method of choice for studying the microbial community (called microbiomes) present in various parts of the human body. Recent studies have implicated the role of gut microbiomes in several diseases and disorders. Studies have indicated gut microbiome’s role in nutrient absorption, immuno-modulation motor-response, and other key physiological processes. However, our understanding of the role of gut microbiota in malnutrition is currently incomplete. Exploration of these aspects are likely to help in understanding the microbial basis for several physiological disorders associated with malnutrition (eg, increased susceptibility to diarrhoeal pathogens) and may finally aid in devising appropriate probiotic strategies addressing this menace. A metagenomic approach was employed for analysing the differences between gut microbial communities obtained from malnourished and healthy children. Results of the analysis using TCS’ ‘Metagenomic Analysis Platform’ were discussed in detail during my talk.
Arathy R and Binoy B Nair
PC based heart sound monitoring system
Heart diseases caused by disorders of the heart and blood vessels, are world’s largest killers. Early detection and monitoring of heart abnormalities is essential for diagnosis and effective treatment of heart diseases. Severalmethodologies are used for screening and diagnosing heart diseases. They are auscultation, electrocardiogram (ECG), echo-cardiogram, ultrasound etc. The effectiveness and applicability of all these diagnostic methods are highly dependent on the equipment cost and size as well as skill of the physician. This paper presents the design and development of a low cost portable wireless/tubeless digital stethoscope which can be used by the physician for monitoring the patient from a distance. The stethoscope system interfaces to a PC and is also capable of analyzing the heart sounds and identifying abnormalities in the heart sound and its classification. Storage of heart sound for later analysis is also possible.This advanced functionality increases the physician’s diagnostic capability, and such a PCG is not still available in most hospitals. Acoustic stethoscope can be changed into a digital stethoscope by inserting an electric capacity microphone into its diaphragm (Wang, Chen and Samjin, 2009).
Pandiaraj Manickam, Niroj Kumar Sethy, Kalpana Bhargava, Vepa Kameswararao and Karunakaran Chandran
Designing electrochemical label free immunosensors for cytochrome c using nanocomposites functionalized screen printed electrodes
Release of cytochrome c (cyt c) from mitochondria into cytosol is a hallmark of apoptosis, used as a biomarker of mitochondrial dependent pathway of cell death (Kluck et al. 1997; Green et al. 1998). We have previously reported cytochrome c reductase (CcR) based biosensors for the measurement of mitochondrial cyt c release (Pandiaraj et al. 2013). Here, we describe the development of novel label-free, immunosensor for cyt c utilizing its specific monoclonal antibody. Two types of nanocomposite modified immunosensing platforms were used for the immobilization of anti-cyt c; (i) Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) functionalized gold nanoparticles (GNP) in conducting polypyrrole (PPy) modified screen printed electrodes (SPE) (ii) Carbon nanotubes (CNT) incorporated PPy on SPE. The nanotopologies of the modified electrodes were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used for probing the electrochemical properties of the nanocomposite modified electrodes. Method for cyt c quantification is based on the direct electron transfer between Fe3+/Fe2+-heme of cyt c selectively bound to anti-cyt c modified electrode. The Faradaic current response of these nanoimmunosensor increases with increase in cyt c concentration. The procedure for cyt c detection was also optimized (pH, incubation times, and characteristics of electrodes) to improve the analytical characteristics of immunosensors. The analytical performance of anti-cyt c biofunctionalized GNP-PPy nanocomposite platform (detection limit 0.5 nM; linear range: 0.5 nM–2 μM) was better than the CNT-PPy (detection limit 2 nM; linear range: 2 nM-500nM). The detection limits were well below the normal physiological concentration range (Karunakaran et al. 2008). The proposed method does not require any signal amplification or labeled secondary antibodies contrast to widespread ELISA and Western blot. The immunosensors results in simple and rapid measurement of cyt c and has great potential to become an inexpensive and portable device for conventional clinical immunoassays.