The Department of Biochemistry offers Bachelors with honours in Biochemistry, one of the most sought-after science courses in the University. It is a branch of science which deals with chemistry of living organisms and that of their biological processes. The Department has a highly experienced and committed teaching faculty which leaves no stone unturned to help students explore their potential and develop scientific aptitude through teaching and various activities, lab visits, and innovative projects. The department has a well-equipped state-of art laboratory with good instrumentation facility.
Teacher In-Charge & DBT Star Advisory Committee Member: Dr Preeti Karwal
Department Coordinators: Dr Kamana Singh, Dr Rajni Jain
Isolation, identification and characterization of contaminating microbes in regular bacterial culturing in lab conditions.
Mentors /PIs: Dr. Preeti Karwal, Dr. Vanshika Lumb
Number of students: 4
Project status: Completed
Description: The contamination that was collected from the Agar petri plates was rich in Fungal and Bacterial colonies whereas the Broth contamination was filled with bacterial colonies. We further inspected the Bacterial colonies for the presence of Endospores, through the Malachite Green Staining process.
Homology Modelling of Proteins and Molecular Docking
Mentors /PIs: Dr. Vineeta Kashyap and Dr. Preeti Karwal
Number of students: 5
Project status: Completed
Description: Homology modeling also known as comparative modeling predicts protein structures based on sequence homology with known structures. It is based on the principle that “if two proteins share a high enough sequence similarity, they are likely to have very similar three-dimensional structures.” It predicts the three-dimensional structure of a given protein sequence (target) based on alignment to one or more known protein structures (templates). If the similarity between the target sequence and the template sequence is detected, structural similarity can be assumed. In general, 30% sequence identity is required to generate a useful model.
Identification and characterization of the potential antimicrobial activity present in natural products (fruits and spices) against commonly found microbes.
Mentors /PIs: Dr. Astha Giri
Number of students: 5
Project Status: Completed
Description: Black pepper showed antimicrobial activity at 0.1g/ml (100%). Orange peel also shows antimicrobial activity but growth was seen on longer incubation. Therefore, it is not as effective as black pepper.
Basic bioinformatic analysis and molecular visualization of bacterial beta galactosidase enzyme
Mentor/PI: Dr. Prabha Arya and Dr. Vineeta Kashyap
Number of students: 5
Status: Completed
Description: After getting acquainted with the in-silico tools for DNA and Proteins analysis, students were asked to retrieve DNA sequence and get the structure of their protein of interest and submit their work in the form of screenshots in word file.
To study the role of Catalase and Peroxidase enzymes in Senescence of attached and detached Saraca asoca L.
Mentor/PI: : Dr. Vineeta Kashyap
No. of Students: 5
Status: 50% completed
Inaugural Lecture of Biospark, 2020: Webinar on Understanding Human Health and Wellness in New Perspectives.
Convenor: Dr. Preeti Karwal
Date of the program: 20th - 21st May, 2020
No. of participants: More than 70
Invited Speakers: Dr. Debojyoti Dhar, Co-founder and Director, Leucine Rich Bio Pvt. Ltd Dr. Tavpritesh Sethi, Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi.
Description : Dr. Debojyoti Dhar, Co-founder and Director of a startup, Leucine Rich Bio Pvt. Ltd, apprised us of the world of “Microbiome” and spoke on the topic: “Gut Microbiota in today’s time implications in Health and Wellness”.
Dr. Tavpritesh Sethi, MBBS, PhD, Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi, shared his journey of developing a smart phone application (App) based on providing correct information and statistics regarding various diseases and more so the Covid-19 pandemic. He spoke on the topic: “Fighting the Covid-19 Pandemic with Data and Computing”.
First Event of the International Webinar Series : Non-invasive Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis
Convenor: Dr. Preeti Karwal
Date of the program: 17th Oct, 2020
No. of participants: More than 80
Invited Speakers: Dr. Aklank Jain, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, Central University of Panjab, Bhatinda.
Dr. Azeet Narayan, Associate Research Scientist in Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, USA
Description: Dr. Aklank Jain, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, Central University of Panjab, Bhatinda, delivered a talk on “Circulating miRNAs as Biomarkers for Cancer.
Dr. Azeet Narayan, Associate Research Scientist in Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, USA, abridged the participants on the topic, “Circulating Tumor DNA in the Blood: Challenges and Opportunities as a Cancer Biomarker”.
Second Event of the International Webinar Series: Understanding Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Strategies for Neurological Disorders.
Convenor: Dr. Preeti Karwal
Date of the program: 29th Oct, 2020
No. of participants: More than 100
Invited Speakers: Dr. Bishwajit Kundu, Professor, Kusuma School of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean (SE), Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
Dr. Amar Nath Kar, Research Assistant Professor in Neuroscience, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
Description: Dr. Bishwajit Kundu, Professor, Kusuma School of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean (SE), Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, presented his work on “Structural Clues of Finding Anti-Neuropathic Biomolecules”. Dr. Amar Nath Kar, Research Assistant Professor in Neuroscience, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA, focused on “Intra-Axonal Mechanisms in Neurodegeneration”.
Third Event of the International Webinar Series: Interactive Session on Scientific Communication and Writing.
Convenor: Dr. Preeti Karwal
Date of the program: 12th Nov, 2020
No. of participants: More than 100
Invited Speaker: Dr. Mythily Ganapathi , Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Assistant Director of Cytogenetics and Personalized Genomic medicine Laboratories, Columbia University, Irving Medical Centre, New York, USA.
Description : Dr. Mythily Ganapathi, (Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Assistant Director of Cytogenetics and Personalized Genomic medicine Laboratories, Columbia University, Irving Medical Centre, New York, USA) conducted an interactive session on “Scientific Communication and Writing”. The webinar was preceded by a preparatory web assignment, which was meticulously analyzed by our respected resource person, Dr. Mythily, and then discussed during the webinar.
Inaugural International lecture of Department academic festival Biospark 2021: Rare Diseases: Rare Insights into the Research, Challenges and Concerns
Convenor: Dr. Preeti Karwal
Date of the program: : 29th Mar, 2021
No. of participants: More than 70
Invited Speakers: Dr. Vinod Scaria, Senior Scientist , CSIR - IGIB , Mathura Road, New Delhi.
Dr. Swati Kunduri, Medical Science Liaison, Chiesi Global Rare Disease, Inc, Ohio, USA
Description : This webinar, under the International Webinar Series started by the department in 2020, hosted two eminent speaker, Dr. Vinod Scaria, Sr. Scientist IGIB and Dr. Swati Kunduri, Medical Science Liaison, Chiesi Global Rare Disease, Inc, Ohio, USA. Dr. Scaria piqued the interest of the audience with his talk on Personal Genomes to Populations- Experience from India. Dr. Swati Kunduri talked about the medical, emotional and social challenges faced by the family and the patients of rare diseases. Her topic of presentation was “Rare Diseases: The Zebra among the Horses”
CSIR-IGIB Online Outreach activity: A talk with Dr. Souvik Maiti on “EXPLORATIONS AT THE INTERFACE OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY”
Convenor: : Dr. Preeti Karwal, Dr. Vineeta Kashyap, Dr. Vanshika Lumb
Date of the program: 30th May, 2020
No. of participants: 25
Invited Speakers: Dr. Souvik Maiti , CSIR-IGIB
Description : The CSIR-Institute of Genomic and Integrative Biology as part of their Outreach Activity organized an online meeting with Dr. Souvik Maiti on 30th May, 2020 at 11:00 am. The topic of the talk was “Explorations at the interface of Chemistry and Biology”. He and his team have designed Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA)-based oligonucleotides and other nucleotide analogs to modulate gene expression. He also discussed about the function of RNA G-quadruplexes, particularly their involvement in the inhibition of translation in vivo in eukaryotic cells.
Biochem Reconnoitre - The Journal Club of the Department of Biochemistry
Activity Co-ordinator: Dr. Astha Giri
Activity date: Every saturday, since Mar, 2021
Participating students: The entire Department of Biochemistry
In an effort to enhance the scientific reading and presentation skills of the student, the department regularly holds a weekly JC meet wherein students and faculties present, discuss and deliberate upon various upcoming research in the field of biological sciences.
Follow the link to reach the Biochem Reconnoitre Webpage: