Centre Of Excellence in Natural Products and Therapeutics

Sambalpur University has received a Grant of Rs.4.0 crores from the Dept. of Higher Education, Govt. of Odisha through World Bank for the establishment of a "Centre of Excellence in Natural Products and Therapeutics (COE-NPT)" in the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics. Various medicinal plants have been utilized by the traditional healers for the treatment of different kind of illness by trial and error methods. In this backdrop,the centre aims at scientific inter-disciplinary investigation of medicinal plants of the Gandhamardan (the biodiversity hotspot of Western Odisha) to understand their chemical properties and identification of bioactive molecules, so as to evolve strategies to develop natural and synthetic products that are efficacious for the treatment of malaria,filaria,tuberculosis,cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The promising natural products develop in the centre along with their detailed experimental data will be used to obtain patent from National and International agencies to move them from bench to clinic.

Objectives:
  • • Collection of preferred medicinal plants from the Gandhamardan with therapeutics potential, their authentication, preparation of herbarium and germplasm conservation
  • • Extraction of phtyochemicals, activity guided fractionation, purification, and structural elucidation of lead molecules
  • • Development of standardized, efficacious and safe natural products for therapeutic uses
  • • Rational design of derivatives of lead molecules, chemical synthesis and strategic formulation for better therapeutic efficacy
  • • Comprehensive precilnical and toxicity evaluation of the natural products in its crude form, partially purified form, pure form and in synthetic form
  • • Translation of knowledge of the development of natural products and their uses for the treatment of various diseases to local communities for their socioeconomic development and better health care delivery

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Virtual Tour of Center of Excellence
Natural Products and Therapeutics
Laboratory Facilities
Research Areas
The Department is actively involved in research by having the distinction of running externally funded R & D projects worth Rs. 10 crores from various Govt. of India agencies such as the Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science & Technology, ICMR, AYUSH, Following are our major research thrusts:
Cancer Reserach Facility
  • • Animal cell culture lab with required instruments.
  • • Culture of cell lines and cryo preservation.
  • • Cytotoxicity evaluation of the drugs.
  • • Study on induction of apoptosis.
  • • Measuring of mitochondrian membrane potential and super oxide radical.
  • • Fluoroscence imaging to study the apoptosis.
  • • Immunoblot of apoptosis marker proteins.
  • • In-vitro toxicity evaluation of the compounds.
  • • Cellular and Tissue imaging.
Phytoanalytical Reasearch Facility
  • • Extraction of Phytochemicals, Essential Oils, Fragrance and Flavour compounds from Plant material using ETHOS Easy, ETHOS X and SOXHLET extraction
  • • Making Concentration/ powder of extract samples.
  • • Phytochemical profiling using LC-HRMS.
  • • Quantification of Marker compounds using HPLC.
  • • Bioactive guided fractionation and analysis of grid molecules.
  • • Development of Synthetic derivatives of Lead molecules.
  • • Development of Nano Formulation, Nano polymer.
Microbiology Research Facility
  • • Antibiotic susceptibility test
  • • Morphological, Biochemical & molecular characterization of clinical isolates(ESKAPE Pathogens)
  • • Screening of medicinal plants, phtochemicals & essential oil for antibacterial activities (Agar well diffusion test)
  • • Determination of biofilm inhibitory activities of medicinal plant extracts, phytochemicals & essential oil against ESKAPE pathogens
  • • Evaluation of multidrug resistant efflux pump inhibitory activities
  • • Determination of synergistic activities of phytochemicals with antibiotics against ESKAPE pathogens.
Parasite Research Facility
  • • Culture facility of parasites (malaria and filaria)
  • • Natural, synthetic and antiparasitic drug screening
  • • Cytotoxicity analysis of antiparasitic drug in macrophage cell lines
  • • Phenotypic analysis of parasites before and after treatment
  • • Cryopreservation of parasites
  • • Gene expression analysis of marker genes using RT_PCR.
Plant Tissue Culture Research Facility
  • • Sterilization of explant and media preparation.
  • • Inoculation of explant
  • • Commercial level cultures racks for explants grow and regeneration
  • • Primary hardening in green house in controlled environment
  • • Secondary hardening in green shade net at environmental temperature
  • • Ex-situ and germplasm conservation in medicinal plant garden
  • • Demonstration plot for tissue culture generated plants
Animal Research Facility
  • • The animal house research have quarantine, behaviour, dissection, haematology, histopathology facilities
  • • Experimentation of laboratory animals for toxicological, dermatological, cancer, behaviour(Using ANY-maze), neurological, nephropathological, Bone tissue engineering studies
  • • The facility is GLP compliant for conducting toxicological, behavioural, haematological, histopathological and dermatological studies
  • • The in-vivo experimentations, animal health and well-being are monitored by trained technicians, experienced researchers and veterinarians.
Server, Simulation & Bioinformatics
  • • High end server: Tyrone-Camerero DS400TN-48R and Tyrone-Camerero for simulation work.
  • • Workstation, Desktop and 64 PC's withh intel i7 chipset processor
  • • Pipeline programming for trascriptome / NGS data analysis
  • • In-house data warehouse and data mining algorithm for clinic data analysis
  • • MD-simulation using Grow Macs, Amber.
Training Program Modules
ANIMAL CELL CULTURE RESEARCH:

  • Hands on training module on animal cell culture & screening of drugs

    • PARASITIC RESEARCH:

  • Hands on training module on skill development on in vitro culture of parasites and there maintenance, screening of anti-parasitic activity of natural and synthetic agents

    • PHYTOANALYTICAL RESEARCH:

  • Training module on skill development in phytochemical profiling and screening of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants using sophisticated analytical instruments

    • MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH:

  • Hands on training on preparation of media, inoculation of bacterial strains, maintenance of bacterial culture (pour plate method, streaking, slant, glycerol stock)

    • PLANT TISSUE CULTURE RESEARCH:

  • Hands on training modules for internship in micropropagation of plants using plant tissue culture techniques, primary hardening using green house and secondary hardening using net house for field trials

    • ANIMAL HANDELING AND RESEARCH:

  • Hands on training module on skill development in animal handeling and care, management of laboratory animals & in vivo experiments

    • BIOINFORMATICS:

  • Hands on training modules for python programming and data analysis with MySQL, NGS data analysis, potein modeling and computer aided drug design techniques

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    Collaborator institutes and Mou's Exchanged
    National:

  • • SOA University (SPS and CBT)
    • National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Hyderabad
    • CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad
    • CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow
    • UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai
    • S.S.N Ayurved College & Research Institute, Nrusinghnath
    • Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Burla
    • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar
    • King George’s Medical University, Lucknow
    • State Pollution Control Board, Bhubaneswar
    • National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow

    • International:

  • • Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia, USA
    • Filariasis Research Reagent Resource Centre, The University of Georgia, USA
    • Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Optimisation, Torrens University Australia