Department of Microbiology

Publication Number: 56

• Orientation session was organized for all students & faculties by Innovation Ambassador, Tripura Universityon Innovative microbial approach for sustained environmental health on 12th January, 2021.

• Idea Competition was organized jointly with Department of Chemical and Polymer Engineering, Tripura University on 28th January, 2021.

• A 3-week Hands-on Workshop on Working in Biosafety (BSL2) Laboratory (24th February to 16th March 2021) for students and scholars.

• Webinar organized on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and IP management for startups on 1st April, 2021. Resource person was Mr. ParvezKudrolli, Principal Associate, Khurana and Khurana.

• Online session was organized on Role of incubator and funding opportunities available for innovation on 14th April, 2021.

• Orientation session for all students & faculties by Innovation Ambassadorwas organized on 8th June, 2021 on the occasion of World Environment Day.Title: Innovative Scientific Intervention for Ecosystem Restoration.

• Awareness program was organized on Tripura University Innovation and Start up policy on 30th June, 2021.

• Online session organized on the journey of an Entrepreneur on 24th August, 2021.

• Online Lecture series on “Different aspects of Life Sciences”on the occasion of AzadiKaAmritMahotsav.
  
  Lecture 1: Reovirus as a Therapy for Colorectal Cancer: Role of Autophagy on 25th September, 2021. The resource person wasDr.RadhashreeMaitra, Associate Professor of Biology, Yeshiva University &Senior Scientist at Montefiore Medical Center, New York, USA.

• Lecture 2: Microbial complexity in coastal oceans- what have we learned from mangroves? on 1st October, 2021. The resource person was ProfPunyaslokeBhadury, Department of Biological Sciences, & Head, Centre for Climate and Environmental Studies, IISER Kolkata.

• Cryoelectron Microscopy: A Cutting-Edge Technology for 3D Structural Determination of Biomolecules on 8th October, 2021. The resource person was Dr. Prashant S. Kharkar, Institute of Chemical Technology(ICT), Mumbai.

• Lecture Episode 4: Design and development of high-affinity kinase inhibitors: From theory to therapy on 30th October, 2021. The resource person was Md. Imtaiyaz Hassan, Assistant Professor, Structural Biology, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences JamiaMilliaIslamia, Jamia Nagar.

• Anstudy tour to water treatment plant, Bordowali, Agartala for students for two different Departments as part of Elective Paperon 3rd March, 2020.

• National Seminar on Women in Science: The NorthEast Chapter on 7th November, 2020.

• Virtual Design Workshop on 10th and 11th December, 2020

• Orientation Session on National Education Policy was jointlyorganized with Institution’s Innovation Council, Tripura University on 28th December, 2020

• Organised Workshop on IPR for students and faculty members on 10th January, 2019.

• Idea competition was organized with participation from different Departments on 29th March, 2019.

• Sensitization program on BIRAC BIG-15 Grant funding was organizedon14th May, 2019 with expert from IIT Kanpur.

• Workshop on innovative approach for pollution minimization during natural fiber processing on 8th August, 2019.

• Workshop on assessing the impact of biofertilizer application on scented rice grain on 21st August to 23rd August, 2019.

• Workshop on Brewing Bio-entrepreneurship in Northeast India on 12th July, 2019 with collaboration of BRTC, KIT TBI.

• Hands on Training on natural fiber quality assessment on 10th August to 3rd September, 2019.

• A two days Genomic and Proteomic Analyses Course (17th and 18th July 2018) was organized by the Department for the 3rd semester students.

• In order to enthuse the students about the vast scope of Microbial technology a half day awareness program was organized on 24th August 2018 for the students and scholars of Microbiology Department on the area Ramie quality enhancement by Microbial intervention. The scholars were also encouraged to present.

• Organized a visit by Defense Research and Development Organization team to interact with the Faculty, scholars and post graduate students of Science and Engineering departments of Tripura University on 10th November 2017 from 11AM onwards.

• The department organized the Advanced National Workshop on Microbial Technology for Clean Environment between 18th – 21st September 2017 in collaboration with Centre of Excellence in Environmental Technology and Management, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, West Bengal. About 33 participants were involved in the program. Eminent experts were present from industry and academia to train the nest generation manpower with MHRD funding.

• Demonstration of the COD digester procured from IISWBM Fund on 31st March 2017 with around 30 participants from the department.

• Course on Advanced Instrumentation in Life SciencesThe course was organized by Department of Microbiology, Tripura University with the sponsorship from American Society of Microbiology during 10th to 17th January, 2017. The resource person was Dr. Radhashree Maitra from Albert Einstein College of Medical, New York, USA. The participants included students of 2nd and 4th Semester of MSc in Microbiology; students of MSc course in Human Physiology and three scholars from Department of Microbiology. Four types of advanced instruments useful in life sciences namely Scanning Electron Microscope, Transmission Electron Microscope, Atomic Force Microscope and Fluorescence Assisted Cell Sorter were described in details from sample preparation to data analysis. Hands on workshop on Atomic Force Microscopy were carried out at Central Instrumentation Facility, Tripura University on 12th and 13th of January, 2017. The course was followed by a written assessment.

• Demonstration workshop for the newly installed Rotary Evaporator and Biosafety chamber was organized on 21st February 2017. The guest faculty took care of the organization of the program.

• Awareness Program on Environment and Health on 23rd November 2016 was organized jointly by Department of Microbiology and Department of Botany. The welcome address was given by the Registrar followed by address by the Pro –ViceChancellor and Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Tripura University. The Chief Guest of the function Shri Tathagata Ray, Governor of Tripura also addressed the audience. The first half of the session started after the vote of thanks by Dean, faculty of Science, Tripura University. In the first half of the session lectures were delivered by the eminent speakers on waste water purification, solar energy use for environmental sustenance as well as on diseases such as AIDS, Autism and Cerebral palsy. In the second half, books on Down Syndrome were distributed amongst the villagers of nearby villages and they were made more informed about Water borne diseases, Down Syndrome, Tuberculosis and Management of differently abled children.

• Health Awareness Program on 22nd November, 2016: A health awareness program was organized jointly by Department of Microbiology and Department of Botany which was sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Indo-German Development Cooperation Project. The program was attended by the students, research scholars and faculties of Microbiology and Botany Department along with the villagers from Dhalai District of Tripura. The eminent speakers from the different parts of the country communicated with the audience in Bengali to make them more aware of the diseases, their causes and the preventive measures that should be taken for avoiding them.

• Paediatrics Health Camp on 22nd November 2016 jointly organized by Mohona-Tripura University Women’s Association & Department of Microbiology, Tripura University at Ballavpur J. B. School: Dr. Dipankar Chakraborty and the hostel boarders from Microbiology Department along with the members of Mohona went for the health camp to Ballavpur village where the children were given a health checkup. Three other local doctors were also present and part of this health camp. The villagers were informed about the diseases which could affect the infants and the normal body weight was tested to identify malnourished infants.

• Biological insights into modern drug discovery on 25th September, 2016: The talk was delivered by Dr. Santanu Dutta, Chief Scientific Officer, Bugworks Research, Bangalore (Formerly VP Cellworks India and Principal Research Scientist Astra Zeneca India). The talk was attended by the students, research scholars and faculty of Microbiology Department. Dr. Santanu Dutta discussed about the current trends in genomics driven anti-infective drug discovery. The modern approach of insilico driven validation to fasten the process of confirmation of the specificity of drugs to targets was communicated. Finally, the various phases of testing of new drug was told to the audience along with the novel approach of tailor made drugs for the coming generations.

• Hands on workshop in Microbiology from 5th to 15th September 2016 for the MSc 1st semester students. The certificate distribution was on 19th September following group wise presentation by the participants. It was evaluated by faculty members of different Life Science Departments. The third semester students functioned as training assistants.

• Science for Life: Environment and Health This is the first time in the Department of Microbiology that the students of 3rd semester organized a half day scientific program where they gave a bird’s eye view to the 1st semester students of the kind of research activity ongoing in the Department of Microbiology. The students presented the work they plan to carry out as their MSc project. Their presentation and understanding of the problem was evaluated by the teachers from the Department of Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics as well as Statistics and the first three students were rewarded for their achievement while all the presenters were appreciated for their presentation with a participation certificate. It was indeed a heart-warming tribute to the teachers who have been trying to incorporate scientific temper in the students on 5th September 2016. With this the current batch of students set up a trend which is expected to continue in the coming years. This also reflected the serious effort on the part of the department to plan scientific research in line with the need of the community and hence the Swatchh Bharat Mission.

• Educational Tour: Our department offers an elective paper on Waste water treatment which is taken by 17 MSc students from Department of Microbiology; Zoology as well as Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics. Under the Swatchh Pakhwadah program the students of this course from all three departments; remaining students of MSc Microbiology (1st and 3rd Semester), faculty and staff of this department visited the rubber waste water treatment facility at two sites at Bodhjungnagar, the industrial sector of Agartala on 1st September 2016. This was conducted in collaboration with Tripura Pollution Control Board (Dr Mihir Das).

• Statistics for Life Science: A two day program was arranged for the MSc 3rd semester students along with the RET scholars on Statistics on 13th and 14th August 2016. Dr Indranil Mukherjee, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, West Bengal was the resource person. The classes were held in Class room 1 of the department during the second half during day 1 and since morning on day 2.

• Industry interaction: Since the department has a MoU with Biostadt India Limited, experts from the industry had visited the Department during 3rd to 5th August 2016. On 3rd and 5th August they interacted with the Microbial Technology Group leader for formulating joint research proposal and plans for subsequent student training. On 4th August 2016, the resource person (Dr Sudip Sen) interacted with the students of the 3rd semester from 10AM to 5.30PM giving them a flavour of the industrial requirement of Microbiology, product formulation, industry needs from a Microbiologist.

• Orientation Program: The department organized orientation program for their 1st semester students on 20th July 2016 at 1PM in their class room 2. The fresh batch was introduced to the facilities, manpower and practices at the he students were addressed by all three faculty members (including the guest faculty). Though the classes started from 15th July as per the academic calendar, the orientation program was five days later to ensure maximum participation of the students.

• On 30th March 2016 the Department of Microbiology in association with Tripura State Council for Science and Technology organized the one day workshop on Intellectual Property Rights. The speaker was Prof. Utpal Bora, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Guwahati. About 135 participants from different department of Tripura University as well as different colleges and schools of Agartala attended the workshop.

• On 4th May 2016, Tripura University signed its 1st MOU with industry. This MoU was Between Biostadt India Limited and the Microbiology Department. Biostadt India Ltd, the Indian multinational who are leaders in agriculture and aquaculture products was represented by Dr. Partha Bandyopadhay (Head Aqua Division) who signed the MoU on behalf of Biostadt India Limited and Sri Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, Registrar as well as Dr. Shan Ray Chaudhuri (HOD, Microbiology Dept) on behalf of the University in presence of Hon'ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Anjan Kumar Ghosh, Dean Faculty of science (Prof. M.K. Singh), Dean Faculty of arts and Commerce( Prof. S Podder), Deputy Registrar ( Sri N Bhattacharjee) and Faculty of Department of Microbiology Dr. B.K.Sharma and Mr. S. Ghosh.

• National Symposium on Modern Applications of Electron Microscopy in Interdisciplinary Research was held on 19th March 2016 at the Auditorium in Building 11, Tripura University. The experts from different organizations were present from throughout the country. They gave an overview of microscopic applications in different disciplines with special emphasis on Electron microscopic applications in microbiology. The presentations were further supported by presentations by company reflecting the modern advancements that have been made in the area of EM applications. Eleven participating groups/individuals presented their work as poster presentation. Electron Microscope Society of India sponsored the Registration fee for 20 of the participants while provided the cash award to the top three poster presenters who were from outside the state. There was a discussion session with eminent personalities summing up the event. The Symposium ended with a cultural presentation organized by the Microbiology Department, Tripura University (TU) from members within and outside TU.

• Outreach program for Faculty and scholar of Women’s College Agartala on 22nd to 25th February 2016 on Microbial identification in wetlab and drylab followed by microbial product development

• Hands on Training on Microbial Finishing of Fiber and Microbial Products from 16th to 25th February 2016: Students of the 2nd and 3rd semester of the Department of Microbiology were given hands on training on degumming of Ramie fibre and microbial enzyme application as detergent additive. The students were also taught about bioinformatics based microbial identification by Dr Surajit Basak of Department of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics.

• Presentation by Dr Anjana Bhattacharjee, Department of Psychology, Tripura University on “Motivating self and achieving success” on 17th February 2016.

• “International workshop cum discussion session on drinking water and waste water related issues in Tripura and Bangladesh on 2nd February 2016”. - The program started at 3 PM. The Welcome address was given by Deputy Registrar, Shri Narendra Bhattacharya. This was followed by a presentation by Professor Bilqis Amin Hoque of Environment and Population Research Centre, Dhaka who spoke about the drinking water and waste water quality related issues at Bangladesh and how the country is combating those problems. The sanitation problems were also showed by her in her presentation. Er. Rajib Majumdar (State coordinator of Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) and Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Program (WQMSP); Office director of Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO), Government of Tripura) talked about the drinking water treatment plants and rain water harvesting in Tripura. During the discussion he agreed to offer their laboratory facility to Tripura University. The last talk was by Dr. Shaon Ray Chaudhuri of Microbiology Department, Tripura University who talked about the microbial techniques developed by her group for waste water treatment in order to remove nitrate and phosphate. The vote of thanks was given by Mr. Sourav Ghosh, Guest faculty. A total of 44 participants were present for the event from different department of the University. The foreign delegate had a meeting with the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Tripura University and it was decided to go for a MOU between EPRC and Tripura University. Since Dr Mihir Das of Tripura State Pollution Control board could not attend the workshop, a follow up meeting was organized on 4th February 2016 at the Department of Microbiology for select the areas to be covered under the MOU. This joint proposal involves EPRC (Bangladesh); Tripura State Pollution Control Board (India) and Tripura University (Department of Microbiology; botany; Forestry & Biodiversity as well as Psychology).

• Workshop on Elementary Statistics, quantitative and computational techniques from 5th to 9th January 2016 for students, scholars and faculty of the University. It was jointly organized by Department of Microbiology and Department of Sociology. Participants were from all three categories from the different departments of the University. Keeping in mind the needs of the participants as assessed by the resource persons, two parallel sessions were organized for students from different backgrounds. The Resource persons were Prof KamleshBhaumik, formerly from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata and Dr Indranil Mukherjee from MaulanaAbulKalam Azad University of Technology, West Bengal (also Director, Center of Excellence in Environmental Technology and Management, funded by MHRD).

• Hands on Training on Biophysics and Spectroscopy by Prof Ashoke Ranjan Thakur on 30th Nov and 1st Dec 2015

Upcoming events

For details contact: Dr Shaon Ray Chaudhuri at shaonraychaudhuri[at]tripurauniv.in ; +919485098469 (M) ; +919831034236 (M)]

• BRNS TPDM meeting for Faculty members in 2016. Organized by Department of Microbiology