Editorial Board Chairman KSRCT. Principal KSRCT. Professor

KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student Branch Chapter Newsletter
(K.S.Rangasamy College of Technology
Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society)
Volume 7 / Issue 2
Publishing House
Publish Date
Department of Biotechnology
Editor’s Desk
Editorial Board
A warm welcome ..!
Chief Patron
Lion.Dr.K.S.Rangasamy MJF
Chairman KSRCT.
Patron
Dr.K.Thyagarajah
Principal KSRCT.
Branch Mentor
Dr.P.Ponmurugan
Professor & Head
Department of Biotechnology, KSRCT.
Staff Advisor
Ms.S.Poornima
Assistant Professor
Department of Biotechnology, KSRCT.
Editor in Chief
K.Dheenadhayalan
III
B.Tech.
Department of Biotechnology, KSRCT.
Associate Editor
M.Uthira
28.07.2015
III
B.Tech.
Department of Biotechnology, KSRCT.
Editorial Executives
N.S.Yoka Barrathi III
Krishna M Das
B.Tech.
III B.Tech.
Department of Biotechnology, KSRCT.
We the Editorial Board Members of
KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student Branch
Chapter feel happy and privileged to
release the Newsletter-Volume 7
Issue 2, the Measure of Progress in the
Department of Biotechnology.
Biotechnology is the patenting of
innovations, technology transfer to
industries and close interactions with
them. With the pristine purpose of
presenting all that transpired in a
marked period of time, we are
coming-forth with our half-yearly
Newsletter. The small initiatives that
we take to go a long way in building
upon the edifice of knowledge that
empowers us, is the publishing of this
Newsletter which is coverlet of the
verdant landscape of scientific,
technical and literary outpourings. A
heartfelt thanks to Dr.P.Ponmurugan,
Branch Mentor and Ms.S.Poornima,
Staff Advisor of KSRCT IEEE-EMBS
Student Branch Chapter for their
support. We are thankful to
Mr.V.S.Rajha,
Chair
and
Ms.G.Gayathri, Vice Chair of KSRCT
IEEE-EMBS Student Branch Chapter
for supporting the
Editorial Board
Members in making the Newsletter
come alive in a successful manner.
- Editorial Board
About the newsletter
The Student Branch Chapter has been
commenced for the benefit of students.
Technical and financial support
provided by the section makes the students more dynamic. The events
organized under IEEE should be of
high quality. It is mandatory that the
branches have to report to the section
after completion of the event. It is
documented in a publication called
Newsletter. It is to compile the events
of
the branch. The Newsletter is
published twice a year. Newsletter
gives you a free insider’s look at all
the activities of the branch chapter.
Technical Sponsorships and
funding to the students
IEEE Madras section provides
financial support to the activities such
as conferences, workshops, seminars,
symposia etc. The norms for the
financial support are based on the
number of student members in the
student branch.
Educational Activity
Faculty Development Program (FDP)
was organized by IEEE Madras
section for the betterment of faculty
members. Student still development
program was also conducted by the
IEEE Madras section for the
development of the students.
Awards Announced
Best student branches
Section Highlights
Best chair
Best Vice-chair
IEEE All India Student Congress
Best secretary
All India student congress is to bring Cash awards and appreciation certifitogether young IEEE student and cates are announced. The branches
professional members of interacting having maximum number of members
are also awarded. The awards are
and networking opportunities.
distributed during Annual general
Student Project Proposal from
body meeting.
student branches
Project proposals are invited from all
the student branches. The proposals
are scrutinized by the IEEE members
and are short listed.
IEEE Section Newsletter
The Newsletter is a link that connects
the different student chapters. The
section circulates the softcopy of the
Newsletter released by the branches
in order to achieve more members
and repute the society .
Technical Activities
IEEE Madras section has 18 Technical
society chapter and 2 Affinity groups.
These chapters and groups organize
the activities and events for the
benefits of the student members.
Social Events
IEEE Madras section organizes various social activities in order to create
awareness among the society. It has
organized 8 social events so far.
KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student Branch
Chapter comes under this dynamic
Madras section.
Departmental Activities
Popular Lecture Series
processing and its implementation in
medicine.
Popular Lecture Series in
Biotechnology was held in the
department. The Lecture series was
split into three days-21.01.2015 &
23.01.2015. On 21.01.2015, Dr.S.Umesha
Professor,
Department
of
Biotechnology, University of Mysore,
headed over the session by showering
his useful words on “New Frontiers in
Guest Speaker Dr.S.Venkatesan
Marine Biotechnology”. The session
giving a keynote address on Biofuel
was for about 2hours and it has been
production by marine organisms
very useful to the students. On
22.01.2015, Dr.S.Venkatesan Professor.
Department of Petrochemical
Guest Lecture
Technology, Anna University Trichy,
headed over the day-2 session. The A Guest Lecture was arranged by the
venue was filled with useful ideas and Department of Biotechnology on
13.03.2015. The lecture program was
thoughts by his valuable messages.
graced by the presence of
Dr.S.Selvam Professor Department of
Economics, PVKV Government
college, Chitthor, Andhra Pradesh. His
valuable lecture was on “ Anti
Corruption Act”. Students were
brought to light about corruption and
were given legal methods and advices
to stop corruption.
Guest Speaker Dr.S.Umesha felicitated
by Dr.B.Bagyalakshmi
Guest Lecture
A guest lecture on “Biomedical Imaging” was held on 24.02.2015 at
Kanini Karutharangam. The guest
speaker was Dr.K.B.Jeyanthi, Profssor
& Head, Department of ECE. She gave
her valuable lecture on the
application of image processing in the
biomedical field. The students were
enlightened with new ideas on image
Spectators crowd for Guest Lecture on
“Anti Corruption Act”
IEEE-EMBS KSRCT Student
Branch Chapter Events
BIOELECTRONICS-2K15
Bioelectronics 2K15 is a student
technical quest organized jointly by
Department of Biotechnology and
Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering, dated on
Delegates presenting their work during
23.03.2015 at cyber dome. The themes
BIOELECTRONICS 2K15
o f
th e
p ro gram
w e re
Nano-Biotecnology, Biosensors,
Biomedical signal processing, Medical
IEEE-EMBS Student Branch
Electronics, Digital image processing,
chapter Inaugural
Nano Electronics & Embedded system
for Healthcare. It was sponsored by The inaugural function of KSRCT
IEEE-EMBS Student Branch Chapter
IEEE-EMBS, Madras Section.
was
held on
07.07.2015
at
The technical events of the intra K.S.Rangasamy College of Technology,
college program were Project Design Tiruchengode. The function was inaucontest, Project expo and Technical g u r a t e d b y D r . B . S a n t h a n a r a j ,
quiz. Around 70 students participated Pres ide nt , IE EE - E M BS Mad ras
in the technical quest and won prices. Sectio n, Che nn ai . I n a dd it ion
The valedictory function was graced Neo-mutants Biotech Association was
by the presence of Dr.B.SanthanaRaj, inaugurated by him. Mr.V.S.Rajha
President IEEE-EMBS Madras Section. Chair, KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student
During the function, the Bio-zoom Branch Chapter, gave a key note on
Magazine Volume 7, issue 2, of the IEEE-EMBS and introduced the office
Chapter. He
Biotechnology department and the bearers of the Branch
Newsletter of IEEE-EMBS Student listed out the annual events planned
for the academic year 2015-2016.
Branch Chapter were released
Dr.P.Ponmurugan,
Head
,
Department of
Biotechnology,
encouraged the activities to be held by
the student branch chapter.
Dr.K.Thygarajah, Principal, KSRCT,
felicitated the gathering with his
valuable comments on IEEE-EMBS. He
also appreciated the students for their
efforts to start student branch
chapter.
The
chief
guest
Dr.B.Santhanaraj,
addressed
the
A Delegate explaining his project model in
students
about
the
benefits
of
the
BIOELECTRONICS-2K15
membership in IEEE-EMBS Student
Branch Chapter.
He asked the present members to
conduct social awareness programmes
which would be useful to the society.
He spoke in detail about the funds
generated to the students for various
activities organized by the Student
Branch Chapter.
Dr.D.Santhanaraj felicitated by
Dr.K.Thyagarajah
General Articles
Mantis shrimps can see cancer
and scientists developed a
camera to mimic it
Dheenadhayalan K III B.Tech.
Biotechnology
Have you ever dreamt that
you can vizualize your deadliest
enemy- the cancer??? Congrats!
You can now do that just by using
the camera in your smartphone
and scan your body yourself!!
Mantis shrimps are widely
known for their typical visual system.
While there are only three colour cone
receptors in the human visual system,
mantis shrimps have 16 colour cone
receptors!!!! Their eyes are the most
complex in the animal kingdom and
their eyes can move independently of
each other. Their compound eyes can
vizualize both polarised light and multispectral images.
Polarised light is one which is
reflected differently off from different
tissues including cancerous tissue. The
eyes of these shrimps have groups of
photocells called ommatidia. Each
ommatidium has several microvilli
that can filter polarised light; and also
light sensitive receptors. This marine
creature can see a variety of cancers
inside our body. To mimic this in the
camera, the scientists used aluminium
nanowires
to
replicate
the
polarisation-filtering microvilli, and
placed these on top of photodiodes,
which convert light into electrical current. It converts the invisible messages
into colours that our visual system is
comfortable with. Currently, there are
imaging systems to detect cancer
using polarised light but they need
large equipments and there are also
limitations for the size of the tumours
they could detect.
By replicating the eyes of these
shrimps, scientists are trying to incorporate this kind of camera into our
smartphones so as to reduce the
prevailing detection systems of
cancer, such as biopsies. These
cameras are currently successfully
used to monitor the activity of nerve
cells in brain-real time! This could be
an ad di tion al reas on to buy
smartphones in the near future.
The ancient Anti-oxidant!
Kisore R II B.Tech.
BioTechnology
Somras, weird Indian elixir,
a life longevity enhancer was a
complex potion; recorded from
2000BC in the Indus civilization,
renowned as magnum opus architecture of humans ever. Indians mastered in medicine, warfare, art &
architecture, they were fellows of well
formulated monarchy. The legend says
that mythical devas mend a secret
elixir in their society, which reasoned
for their life expectancy of 300years.
This article decodes magical elixir
somras for the sci-fi analysis.
can be used, but how? curiosity
knocks, the reason hidden beneath is,
that a man sheds his dead cells while
bathing , so these public baths served
as a stabilizing alternative for
bacterial cells. This evidence the
elixir’s existence in the past.
Conscience provokes why for no
reason these technologies were
bannered under theistic society. Every
technology has its verdict of curse. As
it imbibed a Catastrophic curse. The
main constituent itself is cursive
predominant. Sanjeevni being
volatile anti-oxidant, it’s carcinogenic
and prolonged intake may lead to
sterility.
The nature’s game which
played out to sustain from this evil is,
draining saraswathi which is the only
stabilizing source.
Remarkable
devastation was also caused by the
drained effluents which was
pandemic, i.e., the effluents were
drained out in northern Himalayan
region (Tibet) as they felt it remains
non-toxic in cold temperature, but the
Tibetan tsang-po river (Brahmaputra)
reverted back into the Indian
sub-continent, which broke plague in
Bangladesh
(branga)
where
Brahmaputra confluence with ganga
which optimize the temperature for
activation of bacteria present in the
effluent. So the idea circumvents to a
pivotal breakthrough that ancient
Indians besides mastering medicine,
played supremacy over an era. Our
past deny us from the community of
Even in the grand public bath of
such scientific wonders, as the technolMohenjadaro, the reason of fact
ogies were fictioned to the old book of
behind is, that in absence of
granny tales for some good cause.
saraswathi water instead this water
Somras was unveiled by an ancient scientist, Brahma. Somras is an
anti-oxidant made of certain reactive
compounds, which prevents ageing by
denying oxidation of cells in our body
so their effluents are certainly toxic.
That’s why the ancient indo-folks built
their cities with efficient drainage
system for safe discarding. Its chief
constituent is Sanjeevni tree; besides,
the myth says somras can be made
only using water of saraswathi (dead
Indian river). Sanjeevni, a powerful
anti-oxidant, which is highly volatile
and decay within an hour if barked
off. So there was need of water to stabilize it, specificity for the need of
saraswathi water is mystified that it
contained high population of bacterial
cells which were the essential reason
for their stabilizing property.
HIV plays Hide and Seek in
the brain and the artefact that
ART drugs have to cross to
seek them
turned out to be very favourable for
the virus to attack the brain.
Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) for
HIV wasn’t so successful. So, scientists
invented a combination of drugs
called CART/HAART (Combinational
Uthira.M III B.Tech.
Anti-Retroviral Therapy/Highly
active ART) which was very successBiotechnology
ful in decreasing the viral load in the
blood but the pathetic condition is
Have you ever thought that the
that they couldn’t cross the BBB to
deadly virus can play hide and
gain access over the viral load in the
seek like you do?! Yeah, true, it brain.
plays in the brain and leads to a
complication which is worse than
Scientists even tried to play the
the
normal
AIDS.
T h i s same hide and seek game to seek virus,
complication is called as neuro that is, they used monocytes as
carriers for CART but that was also
AIDS.
Our brain has a blood brain
barrier (BBB), made up of endothelial
cells with astrocytic end feet between
them, which is selectively permeable
only to some molecules. This is to prevent some toxic substances in the
bloodstream from entering into the
brain. But, HIV hides into the
monocytes of the blood cell and fools
the BBB and thus enters into the
brain. Due to its entry, the astrocytes,
which are the housekeeping cells of the
brain,
release
Monocyte
Chemoattractant Protein-1(MCP-1)
more abundantly. As a result, more
and more, infected monocytes are
attracted inside the brain thus by
drastically increasing the viral load
in the brain. The chemokines and
other cytokines released by astrocytes
during this infection greatly affect the
function of the neuron. Thus the virus
attacks the neurons indirectly and our
body’s own immune response has
unsuccessful. Recently, scientists have
developed a new method of opening
the BBB that could last for 6 hours
which might pave the way for
successful delivery of drugs. They
introduced a tiny ultrasound brain
implant followed by microbubbles. The
pulses produced by the implant
collided with the microbubbes, causing
a vibration, which pushed the BBB
cells apart. MRI results showed that
the microbubbles are successfully
crossing the BBB.
“The price of success is hard
work, dedication to the job at
hand and determination
whether we win or lose. We
have apply the best of ourselves to the task at hand”
-Author Unknown
A Squirt of Stemcell Gel Heals
Brain Injuries
Gayathri G III B.Tech.
Biotechnology
Scientists have developed a gel that
helps brains recover from traumatic
injuries. It has the potential to treat
head injuries suffered in combat, car
accident, gunshot wounds. The gel was
developed by Dr.Ning Zhang at
Clemson University in South Carolina.
The gel is injected into the liquid it
stimulates the growth of stem cells at
the site of injury. Brain injuries are
hard to treat since injured tissues
swell up and cause additional damage
to other cells. This secondary damage
is relieved by lowering the
temperature and pressure at the site
of injury. However this technique is
not much effective. More recently,
scientists
have
considered
transplanting donor brain cells into
the wound to repair damaged tissue.
This method has so far had limited
results when treating brain injuries.
The donor cells fail to grow or
stimulate repair at the injury site, ,
possibly because of the inflammation
and scaring present there .
The injury site also typically
has very limited blood supply and
connective tissue which might prevent
donor cells from getting the nutrients
they require. Dr. Zhang’s gel,
however, can be loaded with different
chemicals to stimulate various
biological processes at the site of injury. In previous research done on rats,
she was able to use the gel to help
re-establish full blood supply at the
site of brain injury. This could help
create a better environment for donor
cells. The new gel could treat patients
at varying stages following injury,
and is expected to be ready for testing
in humans in about three years.
LICHENS AS THE
MEDICINAL FORTUNE
Karthikeyan T R S II B.Tech.
Biotechnology
Many lichens are known for its distinctive antibiotic property. Lichens
are used in the traditional system of
medicine including Traditional
Chinese Medicine(TCM), Traditional
Indian Medicine (TIM), homeopathic
and western Medical Herbs. Lichens
have presence of secondary compound
like of usnic acid and atranorin. . It
also antimicrobial, antitumor, and
immune-modulator activity. Lichens
such as Lobaria
pulmonaria have
been used for the treatment of the
pulmonary and
cranial diseases,
respectively. Resemblingly, Xanthoria
parietina(L.) ,which is yellow in
demeanour is used for the treatment
of the jaundice. Some of the lichens are
used for the coughs, jaundice, rabies
and restoring of the lost hair . In the
Arabian medicine, Alectoria usneoids
was used in the treatment of the
splenomegaly (enlargement of the
spleen.
Tea
prepared
from
Flavocetraria nivalis(L.) is used for
the treatment of the motion sickness
and cardiac arrest. Irish moss is folk
remedy for the lung disease, and
valued in dyspepsia and loss of
appetite and for the cancer treatment.
Ash of the Parmelia sancti-angeli ,
mixed with the mustard or linseed oil
is applied to the ringworm affected
area on the skin.
Parmelia physodes(L.) Ach. was reported as the antiobiotic. Usnic acid
isolated from the lichens has the high
activity against the gram negative
bacteria. Parietin, anthraquinone
isolated from methanol extract of
Teloschistaceae has been reported to
have significant antifungal activity .
Usnic acid isolated from Teloschistes
chrysophthalmus and parietin isolated
from Ramalina celastri demonstrated antiviral
activity against the
arena viruses Junin and Tacaribe.
Phenolic constituents from the lichen
Parmeliaceae showed moderate antioxidant activity. Pannarin inhibited
cell growth and induces cell death in
human prostate carcinoma DU-145
cells . Tenuiorin and methyl
orsellinate were further tested for
anti-proliferative activity on cultured
human breast, pancreatic and colon
cancer cell lines. colleflaccinosides
isolated from Collema flaccidum (Ach.)
Ach. (Collemataceae) were reported to
have antitumor activity.
Biological Power Station
Hudson Samuel.R II B.Tech.
Biotechnology
An African
“Thomas Scarborough” who had constructed this
power station which supplies free energy. The electricity is generated by
electrolysis process of dna with ironnails .The plant which we are using
produce energy as long as they remain alive. A potential difference of
0.4V-0.5V produced between the plant
and the soil it grows in. This energy is
too low but, when you connect the
plants in series it will increases. For
example, if you connect this with six
or seven plants it will produce 1.5V1.6V.It is also little. But, with this energy you can operate a calculator,
electronic thermometer, electronic
clock…etc.Terminal which is connected to the branch act as positive(+ve)
and the soil act as cathode(-ve). It
forms a single battery producing
0.4V . To make the series connection
the negative terminal alligator clip is
connected to another plant branch
(+ve terminal) and as for all plants. If
you do this with plants which are
placed in earth all base acts as same.
Member Achievement
M.Uthira-III B.Tech.Biotechnology
- Associate Editor, Newsletter,
KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student
Branch Chapter shared her
experience at National Brain
Research Centre,NewDelhi.
I was offered a fellowship program by Indian Academy of Sciences,
Ba ng a lo re at N at i on al B ra in
Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar. I
was working in the NBRC campus for
2 months. It was a very pleasant experience and I was very happy to enter
into an institution which I had longed
to be a part of. I was working with
Dr.Pankaj Seth in neuro-AIDS lab.
My guide and my lab members
invited me with great enthusiasm.
Each and every member of NBRC was
very friendly and helpful. They wanted me to gain more from this internship mainly because I was from a very
distant place. I felt very encouraging
because of their kind approach. I got
motivated to the core because I got an
opportunity to work in one of the
prominent research institutes of India.
They continuously insisted me to
learn, practice, and also interact with
other lab people. I was allowed to
roam in the campus, go to any lab I
wish and learn about other researches.
This gave me good exposure to new
people at the same time I struggled to
interact because I am not that good in
interacting. But I took this as an opportunity to get rid of my hesitation.
This institute has a national
Our Associate editor at National Brain
neuroimaging facility with fMRI.
Research Centre
During my internship program, I
learnt and performed some important
molecular techniques like western They inculcated me a very important
blotting, immunocytochemistry, etc., habit-the habit or inward thirst of
asking “why” to each and every small
and basic cell culture techniques.
thing I see or do. This is the greatest
thing I got which was very useful for
me to gain more knowledge called as a
participant for fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan, which
I enjoyed being a part of. I also participated in journal clubs which was held
weekly once. During my weekends, I
also visited some historical places in
our capital city.
Immuno staining of Astrocytes-The star
avatar of brain cells
BIOELECTRONICS-2k15
Winners
I was working on the star avatar of
brain cells-the astrocytes. When I visualized the astrocytes after
performing immunocytochemistry, I realised
how blessed am I to be a
biotechnologist; they were just
awesome. People in the lab gave me a clear idea of
neuro AIDS and the
researches going on in the lab. They are trying to
find out the mechanisms behind neuroAIDS so as to obtain a successful
cure for this disorder. This is a complicated stage of AIDS, which 30% of the
HIV affected individuals develop.
Project Design Contest
1.Deepak Kumar
Biotechnology
P,
IV
B.Tech.
2.Mahendhra Kumar B, IV B.Tech.
Biotechnology
Technical Quiz
1.Prasanth
Biotechnology
S,
IV
B.Tech.
2.Kaleeshwaramurugan K, IV B.Tech.
Biotechnology
presence of any women pioneer being
a member of IEEE.
Winners of Project Design
To empower the members with
communication skill, a guest lecture
on
“Brain
storming
tools
of
communication” has been planned.
This lecture would definitely help the
members
develop their
skill
in
building upon new innovations.
Contest
The edifice of knowledge is
brought in hand to the members by
“Distinguished Lecture Program”. This
program would be an eye opening to
the members of student branch chapter where in the guest speaker will be
called on from abroad. An eminent
scientist who is a member of IEEE
would stuff the students with their
valuable ideas and thoughts.
Winners of Technical Quiz
receiving certificates from the
chief guest
Publisher House
Department of Biotechnology
K.S.Rangasamy College of
FUTURE PLANS
Technology
The following are the events planned
for the odd semester of the academic
year 2015-16.
K.S.R Kalvi Nagar
Members Meet has been planned
to insist the members inculcate
knowledge in different domains. It is a
platform where all the IEEE members
of Tamil Nadu would participate.
Tamilnadu -637215.
In view of the position occupied by
women in the engineering field, the
branch has planned for a event
named “Women In Engineering”. This
program will be graced by the
hodbt@ksrct.ac.in
Tiruchengode.
Namakkal District
Website : www.ksrbiotech.ac.in
E-Mail
drponmurugan@gmail.com
rajhavelayutham96bio@gmail.com
Gallery of Milestones of KSRCT IEEE-EMBS
Student Branch Chapter
The Crew of Office Bearers of KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Student
Branch Chapter
Dr.B.Santhanaraj Addressing the
BIOELECTRONICS-2K15 Winners along
Gathering
with the panel Members
Release of KSRCT IEEE-EMBS Students
Branch Chapter Newsletter volume 6 in BIOELECTRONICS-2K15
Audience giving ears to the valuable words
of the guest speaker