Govt of India gives Rs four crore grant for establishing Centre of Excellence in AMU

The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India has approved a substantial grant of Rs four crores for establishing ‘Centre of Excellence on Translational Research on Bioinspired Nanomaterials and Drugs from Endophytes’ at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Interdisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre, AMU will act as a nodal-lab to carry out the meticulous task of mass fabrication of bio inspired nanomaterials, bio-nanoconjugates and complete characterization. The five-year project has been endorsed to Professor Absar Ahmad, Director, INC, who will be the Project Coordinator and the Principal Investigator.

This prestigious project will be done in active collaboration of esteemed researchers from reputed national institutes such as Prof Sanjay Gambhir (Head, Nuclear Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow), Dr Dhanasekaran Shanmugam (Principal Scientist, CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, Pune) and Dr Mahesh Kulkarni (Senior Scientist, CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, Pune).

“The project is aimed at mass production of chemically and physically difficult to synthesize nanoparticles, studies on metal accumulation in plants and employing them for bleaching of technologically important nanoparticles, conugation of nanoparticles with various anti-dibetic and anti-material drugs, radiolabelling of nanoparticles/nano drug formulates and animal studies, biological synthesis of carbon supported metal/oxide/sulfide/quantum dots nanoparticles, nanomaterials embedded in fungal biofilms or uptake studies, evaluating exact target site and location of nanoparticles inside cells and evaluation of anti bacterial/fungal/algal activity of nanoparticles among other things,” said Prof Absar Ahmad. 

He added, “With the support of AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor, excellent faculty, infrastructure and enthusiasm of students; INC will soon be recognised as one of the best nanotech research institutes.”

Prof Ahmad has made pioneering contributions in bio-nanoscience and technology. He is a recipient of Tata Innovation Fellowship, VASVIK award, NCL Research Foundation’s Scientist of the Year Award, Materials Research Society of India medal and Dr Shome Memorial Award among other honours. He has over 110 publications in journals of international and national repute to his credit.

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