Major Research Interests

Nanomaterials as anti-amyloidogenic agents

Neurodegenerative diseases viz., Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD) and systemic lysozyme amyloidosis, caused by the accumulation of amyloid protein inside the brain, have become one of the major health burdens worldwide. Amyloid aggregation is a hallmark of several degenerative diseases affecting the brain or peripheral tissues, whose intermediates (oligomers, protofibrils) and final mature fibrils display different toxicity.  We are working on designing new nanomaterials which can be used against these amyloid aggregation.

(Follow our research papers for more details)

​

Nanomaterials as anti-biofilm agents

Resistance to most antibiotics has significantly increased in the recent years. Infectious diseases due to bacterial infections are the second most common cause of death. Bacterial infections lead to chronic states, where the bacterial colonization grows into biofilms.  The bacterial cells secrete extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) which consists of exopolysaccharide, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and lipid due to which the bacterial cells adheres and forms biofilms.  We are working on the development of novel nanomaterials which can specifically target the bacterial biofilm.

(Follow our research papers for more details)

​

Nanomaterials for biosensing and enzymatic applications

We design and develop new nanomaterials which specifically bind with the target analyte.  We use this approach to detect the biomarkers of specific diseases.  We are actively working on the development of Point of Care (PoC) diagnostics.  A good number of nanomaterials have been evaluated for their intrinsic enzyme-like activity which can be tuned via control of nanoparticle (NP) size, doping agent and surface modifications etc.  We are interested in developing metal free nanozymes.

(Follow our research papers for more details)

​

Biomolecule-NP interaction and the fate of nanomedicine

After the entry of the NPs into the biological system the interaction of NPs with the biomacromolecules (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids etc) present in the medium inevitably gives rise to the formation of biomolecular corona around these NPs. It is now well known, that the interaction of proteins on the surface of the NPs leads to the formation of protein corona under both in-vitro as well as in vivo environmental conditions. We are trying to understand different molecular interactions responsible for protein corona formation.

(Follow our research papers for more details)

​

Nanoparticle cocktail of micronutrients and their impact on growth and secondary metabolite production of plants

We are interested in evaluating the effects of nanonutrients towards Himalayan medicinal and aromatic plants.  We closely look into the effect of the developed nanomaterials on seed germination, growth, aromatic oil and secondary metabolite production of plants.  Further, we are also working on the phyto-toxicity assessment of the developed nanomaterials.

(Follow our research papers for more details)

​