Annual Report 2006-2007

Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRPHA)

IRHPA is a complementary programme to the SERC programme with activities consisting of setting up of units/ core groups around an eminent scientist and major National Research facilities to nucleate research activities in these areas. The scheme has contributed to augment general R&D capabilities at academic institutions and national laboratories in the areas of Bioseperation Technology, Crystal Structure, Robotics, Laser Spectroscopy, Structural Biology, Surface Science & Technology, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Technical Acoustics, Geocentrifuge for Engineering applications etc.

The department has recently sanctioned an IRHPA proposal on Centre for Psycho-Oncology for Education and Research (COPER) at National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. The focal theme of the Centre would be to undertake research, education and training in the field of psycho-oncology. Primarily it is an exploration of psychological intervention in cancer therapy in the Indian ethos. The Centre would develop models for psychological assessment and intervention specific to various socio-cultural milieus in our country.

A Single Crystal X-Ray Diffractometer facility has been established at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata and a 500 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer facility was granted to Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. These facilities are expected to augment and strengthen the capability of researchers at these institutions and will also cater to the needs of other researchers in the region.

A "Centre for Catalysis Research" has been established at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. This Centre will help in developing human resources in this vital area apart from undertaking advanced research in catalysis. It will also function as a nodel centre for catalysis related information. A Unit on "Applied Biocatalysis" has been established at Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi to undertake focused research in this area.

A facility for studying dynamics at femtosecond time scale was established at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata in the year 2003. The laser and other equipments have been installed and this set-up has been used for the study of dynamics in solutions, supramolecules, biological assemblies and nanomaterials. Special mention may be made of solvation dynamics at the active site of an enzyme, in the pre-molten globule state of a protein, and in two partially folded states of a protein, cytochrome C. The most important observation is that pre-molten globule and partially folded states of a protein contains residual structures and hence, display slow dynamics. Also the two partially folded states of cytochrome C differs only in the ultrafast components (<1ps) which can be resolved only in a femtosecond set up.

Some other new programmes sanctioned during the year are:

• Centre for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at NIPER, Chandigarh
• National Facility for Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (Phase II) at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
• Setting up of a Palaeomagnetism laboratory at Mizoram University, Aizawal
• National Facility for Real Time Imaging of Live Samples at CCMB, Hyderabad

A view of the femtosecond laser facility established at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata

Some of the achievements in the ongoing projects are:

• Another significant project on Bioseparation Technology at Vellore Institute of Technology is progressing well. The Centre focuses on the development of S & T of Bioseparation with its multiple facets of application in medicine, biomedical technologies, pharmaceuticals, cosmoceuticals, agro food and enzyme industries. In addition, the Centre also offers training and educational programmes for young scientists in this emerging field.
• A comprehensive National Facility for Texture and Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) jointly set up by DST, DRDO and IIT, Mumbai at IIT, Mumbai. This facility is being extensivly used by a large number of Institutes including academic Institutes, national Labs and private industries. Usages of this National Facility is as under : I) X-Ray Texture and Resideual Stress: Total Samples:1507; Internal (IITB):934, External (outside IITB):573; Total Measurement Time-2260 h; in addition, each switch on & off: 1h 40 min; Typical working:8-10h/day;II)SEM-OIM:Total ples:822;Internal(IITB):622, External (outside IITB):200; Hours:Total:7506; Internal (IITB): 5611 h, External (outside IITB): 1895 h; Typical working: 24 h/day
• Two SERC Schools were organised on 26-30 January 2006 and 6-10 March 2006 at IIT Bombay for training and guidance to potential users of National Facility on Orientation and Imaging Microscopy(OIM) & Texture. Over 45 participants from academic & research instituions have been benefited from these Schools.
• A short term traning course on Istope Tracer Techniques for Water Resources Development and Management was organised on 25-30 September, 2006 under the Stable Istope Facility for Research in Basic and Applied Sciences at CWRDM, Kozhikode.
• Centre for Soft Computing Research at ISI Kolkatta has ongoing research activities on bioinformatics, data mining, image processing, neural networks, web-mining and centre is in the process of taking up application oriented projects on medical imaging analysis.
• The Facility for research in Technical Acoustics (FRITA) at IISc has number of ongoing and completed consultancy projects with industry and user groups, long term and short term training programmes, teaching courses conducted, publications in national and international journals/ conferences, chapters in books and FRITA has been attracting visitors in the area from leading universities/ institutes.

Linkages with the FIST programme have already been built during this period. These linkages would be further strengthened by complimentary support. In additions, linkages will be established with the SAIF initiative to avoid duplication. Some of the areas where further support planned are: Structural Chemistry Centre, Large Gamma Ray Detector facility, Support for Biomaterials Research Low Temperature-High Magnetic field facilities, Catalysis Centre etc.