From different cell architecture to developing a bifunctional catalyst, research into metal-air batteries is gathering pace

The need for India to grow out of (Chinese-dominated) lithium for energy storage is well recognised. Lithium is scarce, less safe, and lithium-ion has energy limitations. As such, India needs to leapfrog lithium into something way better – like metal-air batteries, which have been in focus for some years now, because they pack more power.

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Ties up with VIT Chennai, Queen Mary University of London and Magneto Cleantech.

Indian Institute of Technology- Madras (IIT-M) and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai, are collaborating with Queen Mary University of London to develop India-centric air sanitisation technologies and guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus and tuberculosis.

The joint research is aimed to develop a low-cost bio-aerosol protection system to suppress air-transmitted diseases in indoor locations. In collaboration with Magneto Cleantech, a Delhi-based start-up, the testing and implementation will be done with real-time applications in various Indian environments, said a press release from IIT Madras.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed over four lakh lives in India alone. TB killed over 4.45 lakh people In India during 2019 and is among the top 10 causes of death worldwide.

Focus on Indian subcontinent
The target geographies for this project are India and its neighbouring countries. The major factor working with this area is the high population and heavy urban pollution. It is expected that this project, when successfully implemented, will benefit nearly 10 crore people in the Indian subcontinent.

The project will be aimed at developing an experimental proof-of-concept of a revolutionary air filtration system using ‘Ultraviolet-C’ radiation. It has a strong potential to increase the effectiveness of eliminating viruses and other airborne pathogens and reduce maintenance costs as compared to the available filters, which is important for developing countries such as India, the release said.

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There is minimal damage to the cell, promoting effective research for new drug discoveries
Transfection, or introducing foreign genetic substances such as nucleic acids into cells, is often needed for gene research and therapy. Now a cell is very small – about 10-thousandth of a millimeter. How do you ship stuff inside them, past the wall (membrane)?

Well, it can be done. Though several techniques have emerged in the recent past, transfection is an evolving science. Now, a team of researchers from IIT-Madras, in collaboration with scientists from the UK and Taiwan, have achieved a signal breakthrough.

Broadly, there are three ways of doing transfection. First, biological, in which the desired genetic material is introduced into a virus; the virus is then used as a truck to take the material inside the cell. Easy method, but there are undesirable side-effects – it could trigger an immuno-response from the body or set off harmful genetic mutations.

Second, the chemical method – you attach your shipment to the positive ions of certain chemicals (cationic polymer, cationic amino acids) and they get attracted to the negatively charged cell membrane. This is tough, because you have to match the chemicals to the type of cell, or else the ‘transfection efficiency’ will be low.

The third method, physical, is gaining ground. Here again, there are different techniques, such as micro-injection, biolistics and electroporation. Micro-injection is straightforward injection but demands high skill and is laborious. ‘Biolistics’, or biological ballistics, is expensive as it needs equipment for mixing the shipment material with gold and shooting it into the cell using a gene-gun.

Electroporation, a more fancied technique, involves applying an electric field to the cell, so that its permeability increases – the holes in its walls get bigger, so that our shipment passes through. For this, of course, you would need extremely small electrodes (at least one-thousandth of an mm).

Researchers often need to work with a single cell because bulk transfection techniques, involving millions of cells together, provide only average data. In contrast, single-cell transfection techniques (SCTT) provide a better understanding of the interactions between molecules and organelles, which can help in the development of therapeutics and diagnostic tools.

Professors Tuhin Subhra Santra of IIT-Madras, Srabani Kar of the University of Cambridge, and Fan-Gang Tseng and Hwan-You Chang of the Hua University of Taiwan have jointly developed a device for electroporation that uses nano-, rather than micro-, electrodes.

Now, that is extremely small. A nano is one-thousandth of micro. The researchers fabricated a very precise array of nano-electrodes with the help of advanced micro/nanofabrication techniques. The gap between two nano-electrodes was 70 nanometers and the interspace between an array of nano-electrodes was 5 micrometers. The electric pulse creates temporary hydrophilic (water-loving) pores, through which the desired cargo could be slipped in. In the experiment, the researchers used their device to deliver into a cell material such as cell-impermeable dyes, quantum dots (nano crystals that can ferry electrons) and plasmids (a kind of DNA).

But why bother with nano-electrodes and what is wrong with micro-electrodes? With nano-electrodes, the voltage applied is small (4V to 6V) and, because of this, the cell lives longer (3 to 4 days). With micro-electrodes, the voltage needed is large enough to kill the cell within minutes after the cargo gets in. Due to the smaller nano-electrode surface area, the electrolysis effect was almost negligible, which enhanced cell viability, Santra told Quantum.

Also, with nano-electrodes it is possible to choose where to puncture holes in the cell membrane. This brings in two advantages. One, you deny the entry of other unwanted materials into the cell. Two, you can do parallel transfection of multiple drugs and see how they interact. “This nanodevice provides a spatial and temporal dosage control technique, offering high transfection efficiency and cell viability,” Santra said.

As such, this technology is a significant breakthrough in transfection techniques, which can aid drug research.

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Will coordinate complex engagements with ‘memory’ from different institutes including cultural studies centres as well as neuroscience laboratories and industry research on AI and related fields.

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has launched the ‘Indian Network for Memory Studies’ (INMS), the first formal national network in the field of Memory Studies in Asia, which has been formed under the aegis of the international Memory Studies Association (MSA), Amsterdam.

Inaugurated virtually
The INMS will coordinate complex engagements with ‘memory’ from different institutes including cultural studies centres as well as neuroscience laboratories and industry research on AI and related fields. The Network was inaugurated virtually on Wednesday in an event witnessed by around 600 participants from India, Iraq, Finland, France, Germany, Mauritius, Sweden, UK and the US, says a press release from IIT Madras.

The Indian Network for Memory Studies is founded by Dr. Avishek Parui and Dr. Merin Simi Raj, Assistant Professors (English), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, who will also be its Chairpersons.

Dr. Parui is also a nominated member of the Advisory Board of the International Memory Studies Association. The Indian Network for Memory Studies has emerged from the Centre for Memory Studies, IIT Madras, which has been funded by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. The other funding to the current projects in this research cluster comes from XR Lab, TCS Chennai, and Anglo-Ink, Chennai, the release said.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said that this Network has already built a commendable critical mass which reflects its relevance and reach success in this case will be to get the activities going, establish a lot of collaborations, conferences, workshops and form a community of people working in this field. For India, memory studies can be very important, for a lot of historical developments are captured only in memories and not in documentation.

India-centric model
The vision of Indian Network for Memory Studies includes offering an India-centric model of memory studies departing from the established Eurocentric models in theory and practice and producing and promoting an innovative interdisciplinary engagement with the complex cognitive, cultural, and machinic modes of memory

The Chairpersons Dr Avishek Parui and Dr Merin Simi Raj formally inaugurated the official INMS website, membership form, and the newsletter, the release said.

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