A research team led by Professor K.S. Ganesh Prasad, who is India’s leading scientist in Plasma applications, is conducting ground breaking research and development on the industrial applications of Plasma including levitation of dust particles, rotating electrode process for the production of micron sized spherical particles of a range of materials including metals, de-binding and sintering process, Plasma smelting and reduction of ferrous ores fines, and microwave plasma.
One of the important research areas at the IAR the neuro-inflammatory and neuro-degenerative disorders. Damage to the brain, infectious or sterile, is a pressing problem in the world. Patho-physiological processes and possible intervention strategies are not yet available. Several researchers are exploring the mechanism of neuronal developmental processes, altered machinery during brain insults and possible interventions to restore the functionalities. This research is being led from a range of perspectives by Dr. Anand Tiwari, Dr. Reena Agrawal-Rajput.
A team of researchers is working on various cellular signaling pathways of apoptosis, inflammation and their cross talk and implication in cancer. This work involves understanding molecular mechanisms in inflammation and inhibition of apoptosis and mechanisms of signal integration between inflammasomes and other immune pathways. This research is led by Dr Reena Agrawal-Rajput.
We have a growing activity in sensors. An interesting development under Dr Alok Pandya’s team is the design of nano-sensors to sense the risk of cardiovascular disorders and to detect toxic substances.
The IAR has been granted the status of Distributed Information Sub-Center by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for research work in emerging areas of computational biology. One of the prime focuses is on identifying novel lead molecules against the pathogenic target and validates it through various biochemical and biophysical techniques
Other important areas of research include Synthetic Biology to produce novel chemicals, biofuels and biomaterials, New strategy to develop vaccine against enteric pathogens such as Shigella, Salmonella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli.