Team:MRIIRS FARIDABAD/Human Practices
Integrated Human Practices
INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICES is an integral part of iGEM and it has tremendously helped us in shaping our project. We were in constant contact with various scientists, researchers and organisations.
1.Dr. Siddharth Manvati
Dr. Siddharth Manvati holds MS degree in Molecular and Human Genetics from Jiwaji University and received his PhD in Biotechnology from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India. Currently he works as a Research Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is the Co-founder of ClearMeat, India's first lab-grown meat company.
The initial project idea was discussed with him. He gave us many useful insights such as adding a constitutive ada promoter and helped us in designing basic biobrick. Also gave valuable inputs about reporter genes in degradation biobrick. Dr. Manvati has been our go-to person for technical approvals in designing the technical framework of Li-Koff. We have incorporated his inputs throughout our iGEM tenure.
2.Dr. Nandula Raghuram
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Current Role: Chair Professor and Former Dean, School of Biotechnology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.
A modern biologist by training, Prof. N. Raghuram’s main research interest is in understanding the functional biology of nitrogen response, as well as the phenotype and genotype for improving nitrogen use efficiency in rice. More recently, he led the Indo-UK virtual Nitrogen Centre in India and is currently part of the GCRF South Asia N Hub led by Mark Sutton from CEH (UK). Dr. Raghuram helped us in giving key insights regarding our idea and the checkpoints we needed to base our project. His research across reactive nitrogen helped us to understand the chemistry of our chosen compounds and implementation of our idea.
Our crux with biosensors started with a fortunate meeting with Dr. Raghuram. With his aid we understood the parameters to base our biosensor on. We even learnt wider aspects and applications of our idea which gave us a new direction and approach to design our project. His Lab helped us in by giving us our required primers as a keen gesture to help us build the idea.
3.Dr. Satyakam Paitnaik
Dr. Satyakam Patnaik is currently positioned as Scientist at Indian Institute of Toxicology and Research (IITR), Lucknow. He completed his M.Sc and P.hD in Chemistry from Delhi University. His areas of specialization are Water Technology, Nanotechnology, Drug Delivery, Nanotherapeutics, Scaffoldings etc.
Through virtual meet-ups Dr. Patnaik helped us in designing the proposed implementation of our project and ease of use of applications outside the laboutside the lab in the real world situation. We have taken all his remarks into consideration and would try to do the same if we are able to attain promising results.
4.Dr. Christopher Michael Sales
His thesis has been a boon for us. It was our foundation for literature survey and data extraction to understand severity of the problem. Through virtual meet, he not only appreciated us but also gave us valuable pointers to look upon like diffusion of NDMA across membrane, selectivity and specificity of the biobrick. His thesis helped us in designing degradation biobrick.
5.Dr. M C Gupta
He is Senior Scientist at Rasi Seeds Pvt. Ltd. He did his graduation from College of Agriculture, Gwalior.
We had an in person meeting with him. He found our project to be valuable enough and gave us good remarks. He complimented that this product can definitely help in reducing Nitrosamines percentage in the environment.
6.FSSAI
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is a self-directed organization acknowledged under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. .This government body looks after the food businesses in India and checks if they follow the regulation specified by the government or not. Their work is to ensure that the food is unadulterated and as per the specified standards. Their job is to get rid of sub-standard food products. This organization is responsible for registering and licensing FBO or Food and Business Operators in India.
Since Nitrosamines are present in packaged and processed foods. It was important for us to know to what extent the general public is exposed to such compounds which have hitherto been hidden for its long term adverse effects on health. For this we met Vijay Pal Singh, Joint Director at FSSAI, New Delhi, through Linkedin which resulted into fruitful virtuale meet-up a couple of days later. His views about nitrosamines, the way industry deals in handling such compounds and bringing small but significant changes to regulate their levels brought us to think of ease of application of our project. It directed us to dig out more data and vulnerability the current mechanisms have in testing out these compounds.
7. Delhi Jal Board
Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is the government agency responsible for supply of potable water to the most of the National Capital Territory region of Delhi, India. Delhi Jal Board always aims to be environmentally sensitive provider of a quality,reliable and reasonably priced drinking water and wastewater collection and treatment system services. DJB focuses on providing safe drinking water, and efficient sewerage services in an equitable and sustainable manner.
As per our literature survey, we set out to visit Jal board and understand the mechanics at ground level in real life solutions. We met the director Mr. Ashutosh Kaushik, Delhi Jal Board Wazirabad Waterworks Delhi to understand how and why of entire procedure disinfecting water. It was here we learnt how our project should be applicable and how it should benefit our targeted audience potential end users.
8. CDSCO
The CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organization) is the national regulatory body for pharmaceuticals and Medical Device Registration In India. It’s a licensing authority. It approves any new chemical entity (drug) which is to be imported to India.
Since nitrosamines are present in drugs and cosmetics. We needed to know the regulating levels of these compounds and their permissible limits so as to design range of concentration of biosensing solution or would work in. With the help of Dr. J.S Dheer, our doubts were cleared. His comments helped us in designing the mathematical stance of our project.
