Mr. Rajesh Srinivasan, PhD student in the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, has been selected for the prestigious Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award (GYTI), 2020. The accolade is for the project to develop a cost-effective method to count CD4 cells and to tackle the HIV condition in rural parts of India.
CD4 (T-cell) count is important to determine HIV infection condition in an individual. Conventional techniques are expensive and could not be accessed in resource-limited regions. This project has been designed with a motive to develop a cost-effective method to count CD4 cells and to tackle the HIV condition in rural parts of India. Basic automated Haematology analyzers are commonly available in rural diagnostics labs. By utilizing the analyzer’s capability to count cells and combining our technology of target cell separation, it is possible to count CD4 cell levels with minimal handling procedure. The highlight of this work is the 3-step process diluting whole blood, incubating it with antibody conjugated SPIONs (superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) and analysis using the hematology analyzer. With these three simple steps, it is possible to determine the CD4 cells count to monitor HIV condition. This technique will create a significant impact in the society by reducing the deaths due to HIV and decrease the rate of new infections. The motivation for this project is to develop a low cost CD4 counting method for HIV infected patients in resource-limited settings like rural parts of India. The major element to reduce the cost of the test is eliminating the need for flow-cytometer. The next important part that is actually a frugal innovation is using the automated hematology analyzer (replacing the flow-cytometer with hematology analyzer). These hematology analyzers are a common clinical laboratory instrument, hence the total cost of the test reduces to less than 150 (INR) from the current testing cost of 2000(INR).
Mr. Sukanta Nandi, , Ph.D. student, Department: Instrumentation and Applied Physics, receives Dr. K. V. Rao Scientific Society Research Award in Physics. The 20th KVRSS Science Award event was held online on 16th September where Mr. Nandi was awarded the first prize in the Physics category. The award is presented by Dr. K.V. Rao Scientific Society, a non-profit organization with the head office stationed at Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The research awards are presented to young scientists (Research Scholars and Doctorates), below 30 years of age, from various branches of basic sciences every year. The award carries a cash award of Rs. 20,000/- only and a trophy for the winner and a cash award of Rs.10,000/- only and a trophy to the runners-up in each category- Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Mathematics.
Title of presentation : Spray Coating of Two−Dimensional Suspended Film of Vanadium Oxide−Coated Carbon Nanotubes for Fabrication of a Large Volume Infrared Bolometer.
A vanadium oxide−coated multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) based suspended bolometer was fabricated by novel spray coating and transfer method. The obtained temperature coefficient of resistance of suspended bolometer was ~486% higher than that reported in the literature for WCNT bolometer. Suspension of the CNT film reduces thermal link with the environment and thus effectively improves the bolometric performance. The developed fabrication technique also allows to attain a thin continuous transparent film of CNT with more than 95% transparency in a wide optical spectrum at room temperature. Spray coating of nanometre scale thick film thus provides a versatile platform to bring highly tuneable device performance on any kind of transparent and flexible substrates.
This work thus provides further insights into bolometric performance of MWCNT−based sprayed suspended bolometer. Further, the spray coating of such films together with the transfer technique opens avenues for developing high performing, large scale flexible devices.
Reference: Nandi, S. and Misra, A., 2019. Spray Coating of Two-Dimensional Suspended Film of Vanadium Oxide-Coated Carbon Nanotubes for Fabrication of a Large Volume Infrared Bolometer.ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(1), pp.1315-1321.
Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.9b16608
In the case of breast cancer surgery, the current protocol to assist the surgeon in determining surgical margin involves intra-operative frozen section examination which requires the surgically removed sample to be sent to the pathology lab. This process is time consuming, requires the expertise of a skilled personal (Oncopathologist), and further suffers from poor sample preparation leading to inconclusive diagnosis. To aid the surgeon and the oncopathologist in rapid diagnosis as well as surgical margin assessment inside the operation room, we have designed and developed a portable diagnostic platform. The platform is integrated with microchips, electronic modules, actuators, and firmware for control and data acquisition in a label-free manner. The electrical, thermal, and mechanical modalities of the breast biopsy tissues are measured and analyzed for delineating normal from cancer. After studying a large cohort of samples, the team envisages this platform to be used inside the operation room for rapid surgical margin assessment.
