The SSSIHL STAR Lab Research team, led by Asst. Professor Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, has published a new paper in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that explores the use of a novel metal-free, graphene oxide-based photonic crystal framework (GraSP engineering) for Biosensing application. It enhances the performance of plasmonic materials and overcomes Ohmic losses in metals.
New GraSP Engineering to Help Enhance the Performance of Sensing Technologies
Identifying the Issue
- Sensors are of wide-spread use in industrial processes, public health control, homeland security, safety and monitoring
- Plasmonic materials made of metal nano-architectures are world-wide used for sensor technology development. However, their performance is plagued by inevitable intrinsic Ohmic losses, that impede the performance any sensing platform.
- As a result, there is constant hunt for alternative material technology development for global market sensor industries
Objective of the Research
- Identifying the root cause which leads to Ohmic losses
- Finding a cost-effective non-metal-based solution to minimize/stop the Ohmic losses and improve the performance of plasmonic materials, which in turn translates into greater efficiencies for the industries offering solutions based on sensing technologies
- Explore the possibility of the solution aiding in improving the overall sensitivity and specificity by 3-4 times as compared to existing metal-dependent sensor techniques
Who should read this?
Anyone in the industry, working directly or indirectly on sensor development or sensing related technologies including, security, surveillance, monitoring, environmental safety monitoring, medical technologies, and disease diagnostics.
GraSP Engineering – A Eureka moment for the future of Sensing technologies
- The nanophotonic performance of the multistack was analyzed and successfully demonstrated to realize ‘graphene oxide plasmon-coupled soliton emission’ (abbreviated as GraSE) with steering/beaming emission characteristic as well as ‘graphene oxide plasmon-coupled emission’ (abbreviated as GraPE) with directional property
- Since both beaming GraSE and directional GraPE could be captured in a single platform, the combination led to the birth of GraSP emission platform
- An everyday example of soliton is a self-sustaining water bubble that maintains its shape as it moves, all the way from the bottom of the tank to the surface, in completely still water. Similar solitons transporting emitted photons in GraSP platform are successfully demonstrated in this research work for augmented sensor performance.
- GraSP can now simplify the existing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology with enhanced performance
Key Features and Benefits
- Use of non-metal platform to avoid Ohmic loss
- GraSP improves the overall sensitivity and specificity by 3-4 times as compared to existing metal-dependent sensor techniques
- The extreme light entrapment and augmentation via hotspots from surface states and nanoscopic volumes aided in lowering the detection limit of the HuIFN-γ antigen to 1.95 pg mL−1, for superior performance in resource limited settings
- GraSP platform is useful in disease diagnostics in early stages of disease conditions and also help in the advancement of Point-of-Care (POC) devices
Impact
- A simple, user-friendly, cost-effective methodology is adopted to realize GraSP engineering with soliton-aided metal analogues and directional emission patterns on a conventional existing sensor technology based on plasmonic platform
- The subject platform is expected to find immediate deployment for real-time point-of-care medical diagnostics. It is strongly believed that this study presents a stepping stone to a plethora of exciting plasmonic architectures and disruptive diagnostics in near future.
- An industry or market seeking such devices with augmented sensitivity could take forward the proposed methodology for utility in early disease diagnostics, environmental safety and industrial applications
- GrasP is especially beneficial for low- and middle-income countries
Team
Seemesh Bhaskar, Naga Sai Visweswar Kambhampati, K. M. Ganesh, Mahesh Sharma P, Venkatesh Srinivasan, and Sai Sathish Ramamurthy. STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh 515134, India.
Paper Published In: ACS Applied Matter Interfaces.
Read Paper Here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.1c01024
SSSIHL Research Fellow’s Popular Science Story Wins an AWSAR Award
“Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR)” has been an initiative by Department of Science and Technology (DST) that aims to disseminate Indian research stories among the masses in an easy to understand and interesting format to a common man.
In order to bridge the yawning communication gap that exists at the science-society interface, Ph.D. Scholars and Post-Doctoral Fellows (PDFs) in Science and Technology (S&T) streams are encouraged to write popular science articles and to participate in a national competition. DST had received overwhelming responses from various research labs in the country, capturing and revealing the message of science in an easy-to-understand but at the same time interesting format, to connect with the masses.
In this background, Sri Seemesh Bhaskar, DST-Inspire Research Fellow, STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning has been selected to the award, winning a prize of ₹10,000/- along with a Certificate of Appreciation. A panel consisting of eminent science communicators and scientists, constituted by DST, has evaluated the entries. It is a proud moment that, in more than 5000+ participants, Sri Seemesh Bhaskar has secured a position within the top 100 for his popular science story entitled “Unity in Diversity- a Moonshot to Disruptive Innovations”, transliterated on the recently published* article: ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 30, 34323–34336. The award ceremony was streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and India Science websites on National Science Day, February 28th, 2021.
For more on the Award: https://www.awsar-dst.in/results-2020
*Read the Paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.0c07515
SSSIHL DFNS Team Bags I and II Prizes at the International Diabetes Summit 2021
The Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences (DFNS), SSSIHL, won the first and second prizes for Basic Research Category at the 5th International Diabetes Summit (Virtual) – 2021, organised by the Chellaram Diabetes Institute, Pune, from 12th to 14th March 2021. This event hosted the best-in-class experts in the field of diabetes from leading national and global diabetes institutions and had over 5000 participants.
The first prize was awarded to Prof. B. Andallu, an honorary faculty at DFNS, for her presentation on “Antihyperglycemic, antioxidant and cataract retardation effects of mulberry (Morus indica L.) leaves in STZ-diabetic rats“. Her research paper brought out the therapeutic benefits of mulberry in the amelioration of diabetic complications. The award included a certificate and prize money of Rupees One Lakh.
The second prize was awarded to Ms. Ashrita C. Haldipur, doctoral research scholar from DFNS, working under the supervision of Dr. N. Srividya, Head and Associate Professor, DFNS. Her research paper entitled “Glucose regulatory Indian red rice genotypes for diabetes management: Metabolomic, in vitro and in vivo validation”, addressed the dietary challenge faced by the rice-eating population world over suffering from diabetes using advanced and modern research methods.
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) congratulates Prof. B. Andallu and Ms. Ashrita C. Haldipur for their achievement and making the University proud with their wonderful work.
Research Scholar Honoured by ARCI, DST – Bags First Prize
Ms. Sai Kiran M, a doctoral research scholar with Department of Chemistry, SSSIHL, Anantapur won the first prize for her talk entitled “Self- assembled PVA -Based for Effective Defluoridation of Ground Water”* at the Science Technology Innovation Talks (STIN 2021) event, streamed on a virtual platform on 25-26 February 2021.
Organized by the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) on National Science Day, Young Research Fellows from across India were invited to present their research work in the form of a 3-minute presentation in the area of Material Science and Engineering at STIN 2021.
A total of 68 shortlisted participants from premier Institutes like IIScs, IITs, CSIR labs, and Central universities presented their work on 25 February, 2021 to a panel of eminent professors and senior scientists, who chose the winners based on the novelty, scientific and technical content and their relevance to societal needs.
Ms. Sai Kiran was awarded the first prize for her presentation which included prize money of 10,000 INR and a Certificate of Appreciation signed by the Chairman of the Organizing committee Dr. P.K Jain and the Director ARCI,
Dr. G. Padmanabham.
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) congratulates Ms. Sai Kiran for the above-mentioned recognition and for making the University proud.
* Reference: Mani, Sai Kiran, Rajni Bhandari, and Anita Nehra. “Self-assembled cylindrical Zr (IV), Fe (III) and Cu (II) impregnated polyvinyl alcohol-based hydrogel beads for real-time application in fluoride removal.” Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 610 (2021): 125751. DOI:10.1016/j.colsurfa.2020.127571
Read the Paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927775720313443?via%3Dihub
Also view a news report published in 02, March 2021 Hyderabad edition of The Hindu: https://bit.ly/3soGPlj
Langmuir publication – Femtomolar Detection of Spermidine
Noble metals such as gold and silver behave contrastively at nano-dimensions. While silver intrinsically enhances the luminescence of a fluorophore (a fluorescent chemical compound that can re-emit light upon light excitation), gold quenches the same.
In an attempt to overcome this inevitable loss in plasmon-coupled emission platform, Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, Asst. Professor, STAR Labs and Dr. S Prathap Chandran, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, SSSIHL have come up with novel hybridized plasmon engineering methodology.
The research group have innovated a translation application using a cell phone camera to detect spermidine in aqueous samples. Further research could help realize the detection of spermidine in biological specimens as well.
Spermidine is an indispensable natural polyamine compound – found in ribosomes & living tissues, having various metabolic functions within organisms, required for maintaining cellular homeostasis in every living organism. Apart from exhibiting anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, this molecule significantly affects several biological processes including tissue regeneration, cardioprotective and neuroprotective effects, regulation of translation, cell growth and proliferation, DNA and RNA stabilization, and enzymatic modulation to name a few.
The group have published a paper entitled: Femtomolar Detection of Spermidine using Au Decorated SiO Nanohybrid on Plasmon-Coupled Extended Cavity Nanointerface: A Smartphone based Fluorescence Dequenching approach.
Read the paper in ACS Langmuir: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b03869
#SSSIHLChemistry #SSIHLCRIF #STARlabResearch #hybridized plasmons #femtomolarsensing
SAI-GC – for non-invasive cancer imaging
Researchers from the Dept. of Physics, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, in collaboration with Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, have created breakthrough technology to invent a portable, cost-effective and high-resolution Gamma Camera system – SAI-GC – for non-invasive cancer imaging. The research was led by Prof. S Siva Sankara Sai and Dr. Murali Ravi.
The gamma camera is an imaging technique used to carry out functional scans of the mammary, thyroid, kidneys and bone to identify any defects. Gamma scan is a diagnostic test in nuclear medicine, where radioisotopes are attached to drugs that travel to a specific organ or tissue are taken internally and the emitted gamma radiation is captured by gamma cameras to form images, a process similar to the capture of x-ray images – but with additional advantage of providing the functional information of the organ.
The project was funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. The prototype has passed the requirements with Clinical Validation on all the subjects that were part of the study. Based on the results of the study, an additional project of about ₹1.08 crores has been granted to the research group by the Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India, to make a fully handheld product for Sentinel Lymph Node Navigation surgery.
Clinical trials in thyroid scanning were conducted at Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG) Ltd., a healthcare organization headquartered in Bangalore specializing in Cancer imaging, with positive results.
When it comes to market, this device (which offers superior imaging capabilities) will cost almost 8-10 times less than existing large field of view gamma cameras. It will help in identifying ailments related to thyroid, mammary glands, bone hotspots, sentinel lymph node navigation and excision for millions of people who currently cannot afford such medical care.
In India alone, it is estimated that 42 million people suffer from thyroid diseases. Early diagnosis and treatment remain the cornerstone of medical management.
The invention is covered by two patents.
#SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHLPhysics #SSSIHL
Non-toxic nanomaterials with magnetic properties
Dr. (Miss) Deepa Seetharaman, Associate Professor and Miss Lavanya Rathi P, Doctoral Research Scholar, as a part of their efforts to prepare non-toxic nanomaterials with magnetic properties for use in medical, data and energy storage, magnetic sensing, and contaminant removal applications, have published a paper on synthesized magnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide doped with tin by a simple and cost effective method.
Read the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.09.294
#SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHL #materialsscience #nanomaterials
Disruptive Innovations to Lower Healthcare Costs
Prof. Govind Rao, Director, Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) and Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA delivered a guest lecture on Disruptive Innovations to Lower Healthcare Costs at SSSIHL on 30 Jan 2020. The lecture was attended by students and faculty of the University, as well as doctors from Sri Sathya Sai Higher Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram.
Prof. Rao highlighted the growing cost of healthcare in the United States, costing close to $4 Trillion per annum while 71% of world population lives on a $10 per capita per day income. Under these circumstances, where medicare is beyond the reach of the masses, the Center for Advanced Center Technology (CAST) has developed next generation bio-manufacturing technology with the ability to manufacture protein-based therapeutics at the point-of-care. Under Prof. Rao’s able guidance, cell-free systems have been used to produce lifesaving biologics in under 8 hours. His talk centered around the application of non-invasive sensors, minimizing pain and removing infection risks especially for vulnerable infants in neonatal care.
He also spoke about the development of low-cost cardboard incubators for new born babies that is currently in clinical trials in India. Overall, he highlighted the application of sensor technology in reducing healthcare costs and reducing disparity by making disruptive and innovative low-cost devices for use in low resource settings.
They young students and researchers greatly benefitted from the talk and had a chance to interact with him after the lecture.
https://cast.umbc.edu/people/govind/
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03455-x
#SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHL
Amalgamation of plasmonic and photonic crystal-based sensing technologies
Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, Asst. Professor, STAR Lab, Dept. of Chemistry, SSSIHL in collaboration with Dr. Shivakiran Bhaktha B N, Photonics Lab, IIT Kharagpur and alumnus SSSIHL, have been working on amalgamation of plasmonic and photonic crystal-based sensing technologies.
The novelty of this work is the creation of a highly precise platform for the detection (1 femtomolar) of environmentally hazardous aluminium ions in drinking water. In common parlance, it is not just the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack, but even the eye of the needle. This is done using nanocavities; ‘hot-spots’ as they are called.
Under their supervision, Sri Seemesh Bhaskar, Dr. S Venkatesh (SSSIHL) and Mrs. Pratyusha Das (IIT Kharagpur), have theoretically and experimentally investigated electromagnetic modes supported by photonic crystals in different nano-architectures.
Read the paper published in ACS The Journal of Physical Chemistry C: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b11092
#SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHLChemistry #photoniccrystal#femtomolarsensing
Thought and Task – The Connect
Teachers at the Anantapur Campus, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning conducted a workshop for researchers and students, Vantage Point – Thought and Task: The Connect, that stressed on the importance of fostering good research approaches, the proper use of information and tools on how to effectively communicate in this increasingly digital world.
Dr. P L Rani, Associate Professor and Head, Dept. of English Language & Literature spoke on fostering intellectual discipline and focus in the current world of “infobesity” (Excessive availability of information), to achieve relevance and authentication.
Dr. (Miss) U Suma, Associate Professor, Dept. of Management & Commerce said that qualitative research such as positionality, epistemological, personal & critical reflexivity and reciprocity were linked to openness, introspection, empathy, objectivity, and deep enquiry. She also encouraged researchers to pursue research with an attitude of gratitude.
Miss Sai Archana M, Teaching Asst, Dept. of English Language & Literature, spoke on the importance of communication and stressed upon qualities like problem solving, critical thinking, decision making, self-management and continuous updation for better employment opportunities.