In keeping with the research thrust at Amrita, our goal is to develop affordable products of high quality that utilise the novel properties of nanomaterials. The main focus is on tissue engineering and stem cell research using nanomaterials as well as on photovoltaics and storage devices using nanomaterials. In addition, there are funded programs in cancer diagnostics and drug delivery using nanoparticles, nanosurface modification of biomaterials for implant applications, nanotoxicology and processing of nanostructured thin films for sensors and photovoltaic applications.
Amrita Center for Nanosciences has research labs devoted to various aspects of nanoscience and and their research activities.
Infectious Diseases Lab
The lab is equipped with advanced instruments such as Confocal and Fluorescence Microscopes, Scanning Electron Microscope, Laminar Air-flows and Incubators (including culture facilities for bacterial, viral and animal cells), Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS), Centrifuges, DNA Sequencer, PCR, Two- dimensional Gel Electrophoresis System, HPLC, Denaturing HPLC System, Autoclaves, -20°C & -75°C freezers, Lyophilizer, etc.
Cell Culture & Stem Cell Lab
The lab is equipped with Cell/ Stem Cell/ Tissue Culture Facility with Biological Safety Cabinets, CO2 Incubator, Inverted Microscope, Fluorescent Microscope, Liquid N2 Facility, - 80°C freezer, -20°C freezer, etc.
High Resolution Microscopy Lab
The lab has state-of-the-art microscopes including a high resolution Scanning Electron microscope, Atomic Force microscope and Fluroscence microscope. Other additions to the lab include the new generation Spectral Confocal Laser Scanning microscope.
Nanocharacterisation Lab
The lab is equipped with FTIR, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, Spectrofuorimeter, Thermal Analysis Systems (DSC, TGA/DTA) and Particle Sizer with Zeta Potential Analyser for physiochemical characterization of nanomaterials.
Nanotoxicology Lab
The lab is equipped with a non-invasive, whole animal multispectral imaging system having fluorescence and X - ray imaging capabilities.
Nanochemistry Lab
The lab is equipped for wet chemical processing of various types of nanomaterials such as inorganic, metallic and polymeric nanoparticles.
Wet Chemistry Lab I & II
Electro nanoprocessing of one-dimensional nanostructure and wet chemical synthesis of semiconducting oxides and quantum dots are developing in the lab inside the safety fume hoods. A milli-Q water system is also placed inside the lab for the availability of extra pure water for the material synthesis.
Spectroscopy Lab
In this lab, spectroscopic characterisation, especially the absorption and transmittance property of the materials are measured by using a Perkin Elmer Lamda 750 Spectrophotometer. An exciton lifetime measurement setup based on TCSPC will also be set up soon in the lab.
Polymer Processing Lab
This lab is equipped for the melt processing of polymers as well as nanocomposites using Minijet Haake mixing instrument and Minilab Haake moulding machine.
RNAi Lab
The lab is equipped for developing targeted nanomedicine based gene silencing with all facilities for genomic studies.
CVD Lab
A First Nano-Chemical Vapor Deposition unit is installed in this lab, which is used for the fabrication of well-vertically aligned 1D nanostructures for our photovoltaic applications. The lab also has an X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy unit for surface and interface analysis.
Thin Film Processing Lab
The lab is mainly into developing thin films of metals, semiconducting and insulating materials such as polymers, by using sputter and spin coating techniques. Also, the lab has an inert atmosphere glove box for materials processing. The Quantum Efficiency measurement setup (New Port, USA) is used to measure the IPEC percentage for the materials compositions used for both solar cells and biosensor.
Mechanical Testing & X - ray Diffraction Lab
This lab is equpped with Servohydraulic Mechanical Testing System for mechanical characterisation of samples and a powder X - ray diffractometer for studying the crystallinity of samples.
Nanodrug Delivery Lab
The lab is equipped with facilites for carrying out preparation of nano drug delivery vehicles for hydrophobic and hydrophillic drugs using biocompatible, biodegradable polymers and an HPLC system for quantitative determination of drug entrapment and release.
Tissue Nanoengineering Lab
The lab has several equipment for molecular biology studies including PCR, RT-PCR, Western Blotting apparatus, Chemi-doc system, Microplate Reader, Gel doc system, Multimode Plate Reader etc.
Characterisation Lab
The lab is equipped with advanced instruments used for the characterisation of solar cell performance, hence to measure the cell efficiency. This includes a PV measurement unit with Class A solar simulatore (New Port, USA) and Keithley current source. The interface resistances of the cell structures are measured using the Auto Lab System, which can also be used for various electrochemical experiments together with the Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) unit.
Central Facility
The central facility is equipped with state-of-the-art Flow Cyclometer, Multiporator, Genetic Analyzer, DNA Sequencer, Digital HPLC,Real-time PCR, Multimode Plate Reader and core facility for isolation and characterisation of stem cells from various sources including umbilical cord vein, umbilical cord blood, bone marrow etc.
Nanofiber & Surface Modification Lab
The lab is equipped with multiple systems lined up for electrospinning polymeric solutions onto stationary, rotating as well as translating targets and has a setup for fabricating 3D scaffolds. Viscosity, contact angle and surface tensiometer and independent hoods for electrospinning are stup in the laboratory.
Polymer Chemistry Lab
The lab is equipped for processing of polymeric nanomaterials and their composites with Gel Permeation Chromatograpgh for the characterisation.
Nanomedicine Lab
The lab has facilities for preparing varieties of polymeric and inorganic nanomedicines for targeted and non-targeted cancer therapy and diagnosis, malaria, inflammation, etc.
XPS (X - ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) and Ellipsometry Lab
The lab studies high resolution characterisation of chemistry and bonding states in thin films, through thickness chemistry and film thickness measurements.
Bioinformatics Laboratory
In silico drug discovery program is one of the prime objectives of ACNSMM, and recently established Bioinformatics/Nanoinformatics laboratory. Centre provides high quality teaching and research to the post graduate students to make them successful inter-disciplinary application scientist in the future drug discovery program. Centre has different commercial and free software installed on Windows and Linux platforms. Bioinformatics lab provide following functionality by integrating Bioinformatics and Chemoinformatics concepts:
- Sequence alignment, Phylogeny, Molecular Graphics Visualization
- Homology Modeling of Biomolecules, Druggable Target identification and validation
- Computer Aided Drug Design: Molecular docking, Pharmacophore mapping, 2D and 3D-QSAR, Virtual screening, Molecular dynamics simulation.
- Nanomaterial modeling and Toxicity effect.
