In the last few decades, various viral diseases have spread across continents and caused massive fatalities.  The latest in the list is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put the healthcare system of various countries out of gear. Protection of the general population needs efficient clinical masks and sanitisers, suitable devices for screening and detection, homebased ventilator systems to complement healthcare facilities and other products and technologies to monitor and control the spread of diseases.  

The Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body under Department of Science & Technology invites proposal applications from Indian companies and enterprises to address protection and home-based respiratory intervention for COVID-19 patients. The proposal may include technologically innovative solutions like low-cost masks, cost-effective scanning devices, technologies for sanitization of large areas as well as for contactless entry, rapid diagnostic kits and oxygenators, and ventilators. 

The Board provides financial assistance by means of soft loans (up to 50% of project cost @ 5% simple interest per annum), Equity participation (up to a maximum of 25% of the project cost) or grant in exceptional cases, for encouraging the commercial application of indigenously developed technology; and for adapting imported technology to wider domestic application. 

Proposals may be submitted online via TDB website www.tdb.gov.in on or before 27th March 2020.  The details can be downloaded from www.tdb.gov.in. Queries may also be raised via the Feedback/Query option on the TDB website. The submitted proposals will be evaluated on the basis of scientific, technical, commercial, and financial merits.

The areas in which the technologically innovative solutions are invited include the following: 

• Low-cost masks which can capture virus from the air and absorb respiratory droplets
• Cost-effective Thermal Scanning
• Large area sanitization and sterilization (including electrostatic spray and Ultra Violet treatment for various available surfaces like glass, ceramic, wood, textile, etc.)
• Bioinformatics and Surveillance
• Rapid and Accurate Diagnosis kit (paper-based and other point of care devices)
• AI and IoT based solution for contact-less entry
• Oxygenators and ventilators (Low cost and portable)
• Or any other related technology

International Advanced Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST), has developed ultrafast laser surface texturing technology, which can improve the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines.

Laser surface micro-texturing, which offers precise control of the size, shape and density of micro-surface texture features has gained momentum as a way to control friction and wear. In this technology, a pulsating laser beam creates micro-dimples or grooves on the surface of materials in a very controlled manner. Such textures can trap wear debris when operating under dry sliding conditions and sometimes provide effects like enhancing oil supply (lubricant reservoir) which can lower friction coefficients and may enable reduced wear rate.

The texture surfaces were created on automotive internal combustion engine components, piston rings and cylinder liners using 100 fs pulse duration laser. The micro dimples of 10-20 μm diameter and about 5-10 μm deep which have been created with laser beams had a regular pattern.  The created textures were tested in an engine test rig under different speeds and temperatures of coolant and lubrication oil, and it was observed that there was a 16% reduction in the lube oil consumption with the use of texture on the piston rings. The 10-hour lube oil consumption test shows that the blowby substantially reduced with textured rings.

Fabrication of a pattern of micro dimples or grooves on the surface of materials results in a change in surface topography which generates additional hydrodynamic pressure, thereby increasing the load-carrying capacity of the surfaces. Hence these become useful for trapping wear debris when operating under dry sliding conditions and sometimes provide effects like enhancing oil supply (lubricant reservoir) which can lower friction coefficients and may enable reduced wear rate.

 In order to control the friction, it is important to understand the mechanisms which occur during the conformal or non-conformal contact in dry and lubricated conditions. Ultrafast lasers create micro or nano features without vacuum conditions.  These features are smaller than the diffraction-limited laser focal spot diameter - a unique property of ultrashort duration laser-matter interaction. The process is a thermal, and pulse durations are orders of magnitude smaller than thermal diffusion times.

Recipient of the Inspire Faculty Award instituted by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, Dr. Shobhna Kapoor from IIT Bombay is using biologically active lipid molecules as chemical biology tools to elucidate their biological disease-causing function.

Dr. Kapoor’s group is interested to explore how lipids play critical roles in infectious diseases by intervening in cellular signaling, membrane trafficking, and protein function—all of which are intimately involved in host-pathogen interplay. Lipids are important components of living cells and are responsible for maintaining the integrity of our cell membrane, which allows nutrients and drugs to pass through the cell. These are commonly breached during infection and in diseases.

Lipids play a major role in altering cell membrane properties modulating lipid and protein diffusion and membrane organization. Thus, changes in membrane properties control the proper functioning of cells and are harnessed by pathogens for their survival and infection.

Dr. Kapoor’s group works with lipids from Mycobacteria tuberculosis (Mtb), which synthesizes atypical lipids predisposed on its surface to interact with the human host membrane. Using Mtb lipids as tools, her group combines chemical synthesis, biophysics with cell biology to elucidate a direct correlation between human host lipid membrane modification and modulation of associated signaling pathways by these exogenous Mtb lipids.

 They have recently shown that mycobacterial lipid insertion induces the re-modeling of the host plasma membrane and alters the host autophagy signaling pathway. Thus, their collective work is substantiating the host cell membrane insertion and modification of cellular immune processes as a well-accepted mode of action of virulent mycobacterial lipids. The mechanism of action of Mtb lipids on human host membrane and related cellular events represents a golden opportunity to deepen the understanding of the function of Mtb lipids in membrane-dictated bacterial survival, pathogenesis, and drug resistance.

Dr. Kapoor also investigates the role of Mtb lipids in drug-membrane interactions, underscored by the fact that lipids critically dictate the molecular interactions of drugs with membranes influencing drug diffusion, partitioning, and accumulation, thereby underpinning a lipid-composition specificity. Chemical differences between Mtb and mammalian lipid structures make this research work even more intriguing. Spurring selective passive drug diffusion is an obvious solution to combat growing antibiotic resistance with minimized toxicities. They have developed membrane scaffolds specific to mycobacterial outer (mycomembrane) and inner lipids and demonstrated them as ‘cell-free’ platforms for anti-tubercular drug interactions.

The outcome of their research has myriad implications in drug discovery, basic sciences, and biotechnological applications. First, the membrane lipid scaffolds envisioned are expected to serve as perfect platforms to quantitatively investigate antibiotic interactions with mycobacterial (causative agent of Tuberculosis) specific membranes, enabling cell-free high-throughput screening of compounds for future antibiotic design. Second, capturing the whole spectrum of interactions between the drug and lipid membranes rendered by incorporating the natural mycobacterial lipid moieties would provide an insightful toolbox for shaping the effectiveness of already existing anti-TB drug molecules and foster development of new chemotypes. Third, the chemical, biological output of individual Mtb lipid molecules in host cells (studied using cell and molecular biology) would help the investigation of host cellular pathways rewired by pathogenic factors and elucidate possible therapeutic targets in Tuberculosis, which small molecules can hit.  Her current work as an INSPIRE fellow got published in Scientific Reports, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta BBA Biomembranes, Biophysical Journal, which are peer-reviewed scientific journals of high repute.

Using the Inspire fellowship Dr. Kapoor will pursue further research for discovering novel approaches to tackle tubercular infections and antibiotic resistance-associated problems in general. This fellowship also helped her to conduct independent research, train students, and develop innovative thinking in her students.

The WOS A fellowship of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), provided Dr. Akanksha Singh with the initial platform to return back to mainstream science after a phase of career gap due to her marriage.

The alumnus of the Banaras Hindu University has now joined as a Scientist C at CSIR CIMAP and says she owes it to this fellowship.  

The WOS-A scheme is a major component of the Women Scientist Scheme of DST under the KIRAN scheme, including other schemes to empower women in science and technology. It provides a platform to women scientists and technologists for pursuing research in basic or applied sciences and offers them opportunity to work as bench-level scientists. This scheme plays a pivotal role in gender mainstreaming as it not only prevents brain drain from the S&T system but also train and retain women in the system.

“Women Scientist Scheme by DST came as a ray of hope in my life as before getting the fellowship, I was in the phase of career gap due to my marriage. That was the period which made me realize that I am made for science, and I can be happy in my married and personal life only if I am satisfied in my professional career. This thought triggered me to apply. When the result came out that I was selected for WOS A scheme, my happiness knew no bounds. Not only me, but my entire family was ecstatic with the news as I was supposed to be doing what I had always aspired for in my life, ” recollects Dr. Singh.

“The world needs science, and science needs women and girls. As a woman, I can confidently say that we are the best managers, and therefore we need to identify our potential, break the shackles and open our wings. If we can bring about this slight change in our perception, the sky is the limit for us.”  Dr. Singh stressed.

“After successfully completing my WOS A scheme with three international publications, I applied for other schemes of DST. I was fortunate enough that I was funded with another extension oriented project focusing on the upliftment of the socio-economic status of rural women through the propagation of low-cost technologies by WOS B scheme. This was my first exposure to work at the grass root level and working for the people who truly need scientific intervention. Now when I have joined as a Scientist at CSIR-CIMAP; I have decided that apart from working in the core research area of plant-microbe interaction I will also keep working for societal issues because mobilizing science for the masses is the ultimate aim of scientists and researchers around the globe,” she added.

“It was during the WOS A fellowship that I was blessed with a beautiful daughter. And I always proudly tell people that she was one of the main driving forces in achieving the objectives of my project and not a hurdle in my scientific career. Therefore, I always make it a point to encourage women around me to never give up their hopes whatever the situation is. The sooner we accept our life and our reality, the better it becomes for us to move ahead,” Dr. Singh pointed out.

“It is never too late to be what you might have been, so if you are really looking to come back in mainstream science, strive hard, chase your dreams, and then there will be no looking back. It is always difficult for a woman to maintain work-life balance, but the ones who overcome their fears can only conquer the world,” she added.