School of Biotechnology

Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai

Research Programmes

The major research areas of the School of Biotechnology where active work is in progress are

Genetic analysis of Streptomyces
Studies on antibiotic production
Human and microbial genetics
Regulation of protein expression in E.coli
Structural bioinformatics of Membrane proteins and protein nucleic acid interactions
Molecular modeling studies
Identification of noncoding RNA
Computational biology
Microsporidiasis - Molecular biology and immunology
Genetic engineering of crop plants for viral and fungal resistance
Molecular and structural biology of viruses
Molecular biology and biotechnology of the entomopathogen
Biochemistry and molecular biology of Thermophilic Fungi
Immunochemistry:Biodegradation of Xenobiotics

Research Projects :

Some of the major research projects completed/ ongoing in the School are listed below

Completed

S.No	Project Title	Funding Agency	Period	Outlay	Principal Investigator
1.	Genetic Instability in Streptomyces	D.A.E, Bombay	1992 � 1996	8.15 Lakhs	K.Dharmalingam
2.	Molecular analysis of anthracycline production in Streptomyces	DBT	1992 - 1998	28.66 Lakhs	K.Dharmalingam
3.	Purification and crystallisation of the restriction endonuclease McrA from E.Coli	DST	1992-1995	6 Lakhs	S.Krishnaswamy
4.	Biological control of pests of tea using Bacillus thuringiensis	Parry-Agro Industries Chennai	1993 � 1995	4.50 Lakhs	V.Sekar
5.	Pilot-scale production of a transgenic insecticidal cotton leaf colonizing bacterium	DBT	1994 - 1997	29.5 Lakhs	V.Sekar
6.	Pilot-scale production of a transgenic insecticidal cotton leaf colonizing bacterium	SPIC	1994 - 1998	11.5 Lakhs	V.Sekar
7.	Molecular cloning and characterization of phosphatidyl-D- myoinositol phosphohydrolase	CSIR	1995 - 1998	4.5 Lakhs	V.Sekar
8.	Introduction of the crystal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis into non-symbiotic, diazotrophic bacteria of rice	ICAR	1995 - 1999	7.0 Lakhs	V.Sekar
9.	Development of Agrobacterium based transformation system for indica rice	Rockefeller FoundationUSA	1996 - 1997	10 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi
10.	Mechanism of immunosuppresion in leprosy and analysis of M.Leprae genome	Indo-Swiss DBT-ETH Switzerland	1995 � 1999	116.02 Lakhs	K.Dharmalingam
11.	Structural analysis of S.typhi OmpC	DBT	1999 - 2002	16 Lakhs	S.Krishnaswamy
12.	Analysis of the structure function relations of the McrA endonuclease	DBT	1999- 2002	13 Lakhs	S.Krishnaswamy
13.	Understanding structurally the interaction of S.typhi OmpC with the antibodies specific to it	CSIR	1999 � 2002	9 Lakhs	S.Krishnaswamy
14.	Introduction and expression of cry gene(s) of Bacillus thuringiensis in coffee-associated bacteria	DBT/Coffee Board	1999 � 2002	28 Lakhs	V.Sekar
15.	Genetic engineering of indica rice for salinity and drought	Rockefeller FoundationUSA	1999 � 2000	9 Lakhs	A.K.Gupta
16.	Genetic engineering of chillies for resistance to chilli leaf curl virus	Rallis-India Ltd	1997 - 2000	12 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi & R.Usha
17.	Generation of transgenic Vigna mungo plants with yellow mosaic virus resistance by expressing the viral coat protein and replicase genes	DBT	1999 � 2002	43 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi
18.	Genetic engineering of indica rice for sheath blight resistance	Rockefeller FoundationUSA	1998 � 2000	32 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi
19.	Transformation studies in coffee for fungal resistance using Ti plasmid vectors	DBT	1999 - 2002	23 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi
20.	Centre for Genetic Engineering and Strain Manipulation	DBT	1997 - 2002	2.12 Crores	K.Dharmalingam
21.	Centre for Plant Molecular Biology Genetic Engineering of vigna mungo for yellow mosaic resistance Introduction and expression of cry gene(s) of Bacillus thuringiensis in chloroplasts of crop plants Development of transgenic indica rice with salinity and drought tolerance: Over expression of pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase gene Development of transgenic cardamom expressing the coat protein of Indian cardamom mosaic virus for virus resistance	DBT	1997 -2002	89.1 Lakhs	K.Veluthambi V.Sekar A.K.Gupta R.Usha
22	Evaluation of immunoassay procedure for pesticide analysis	Automic Energy Agency, Austria	1993 - 1999	7 Lakhs	S.R.D.Jebakumar

Ongoing

S.No	Project Title	Funding Agency	Period	Outlay	Principal Investigator
1.	Engineering of yellow mosaic virus resistance in blackgram (inod Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology)	ISCB Switzerland DBT New Delhi	Oct. 2004 to Sep. 2007	46,44,000/-	Dr.K.Veluthambi
2.	Functional Genomics on Rice-Gene expression profiling during flower and seed development and functional validation of identified genes	DBT New Delhi	April 2004 to March 2009	53,13,000/-	Dr.K.Veluthambi
3.	Development of Transgenic Blackgram DBT and Cardamon for virus resistance	DBT New Delhi	April 2002 to March 2007	57,27,000/-	Dr.K.Veluthambi
4.	Study of root specific EST�s in tomato	DBT, Govt. of India	2005 to 2008	38,00,000/-	Dr.Aditya Kumar Gupta
5.	Functional Genomics on Rice-Gene expression profiling during flower and seed development and functional validation of identified genes	DBT New Delhi	April 2004 to March 2009	53,13,000/-	Dr.Aditya Kumar Gupta
6.	Development of Transgenic Blackgram DBT and Cardamon for virus resistance	DBT New Delhi	April 2002 to March 2007	57,27,000/-	Dr.Aditya Kumar Gupta

Top