Prof. (Dr.) Nilanjan Das

Head of Department

PhD

Email: nilanjan.d@snuniv.ac.in

R E S E A R C H   I N T E R E S T

Prof. Das is involved in research on bioactive compounds from plants and vegetables particularly his focus is on finding key bioactives from foods, spices or vegetables from Indian and Asian origin and to establish their efficacy and mechanism of action towards disease prevention.  He is also interested on the area of specific diets, phytochemicals and human health and on the mechanistic interplay of specific pre and probiotics in human health. His focus also lies in finding the interrelation of genetic and dietary factors in regulating various metabolic and biochemical pathways involved in the development of chronic diseases.

Another key research interest of Prof. Das is to explore the epigenetic mechanism of cancer development with emphasis on the role of fat diet and inflammation and their interplay. Preventive and/or therapeutic potential of plant bioactives while working in synergy to this catastrophe of cancer development involving epigenetic regime.

Prof. Das is also interested in identifying the synergy between bacteriocin, defensin and plant bioactive molecules towards the regulation of microbial genetic alteration for MDR.

The fundamental purpose of any diagnostic test is to help in determining whether a patient has or does not have a particular condition. Early detection always gives a better chance towards treatment and recovery from any diseases or disorder. To that end, several studies going on in this area for long time to improve specificity and sensitivity of the tool or to make it easy and pocket friendly. One of the research interest of Prof. Das is to develop suitable diagnostic kit for the early detection of nutrition related disorder.

P R O F E S S I O N A L   E X P E R I E N C E

Prof. Das has 2 years of teaching and 15 Years of Research experience.

He has 10 international journal, 12 national journal, 2 book chapter and several conference publications.

Prof. (Dr.) Somsubhra Thakur Choudhury

Assistant Professor

PhD

Email: somsubhra.tc@snuniv.ac.in

RESEARCH INTEREST

Prof. Thakur Choudhury is involved in research on two major areas. Drug delivery system deals with the delivery of a therapeutic agent to the specific site in our body. The therapeutic agents or drugs have long been used to improve our health, to fight against the diseases and providing us an extended life. But the majority of the therapeutic agents face some major drawbacks like toxicity, resistance and poor bioavailability. In this respect, the drug delivery technology has opened a new avenue to improve the therapeutic efficacy of the drug. Prof. Thakur Choudhury’s research interest is to explore the drug delivery field specifically liposomal and nanoparticulated drug delivery. Primarily he wants to develop new formulations of conventional drugs to improve their therapeutic efficacy. In future, the prime objective will be to develop target specific delivery of cytotoxic drugs for critical diseases like cancer. Diagnosis of a disease is very important for proper and timely medication. In recent years a major thrust in the field of research is to develop an easy as well as efficient diagnostic tool for detection of disease. His objective is to develop easy, field adaptable diagnostic kits with higher sensitivity and specificity for the early detection of different infectious diseases as well as for different neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Prof. Thakur Choudhury has 2 years of teaching and 10 Years of Research experience.
• He has 12 international journal and several conference publications.

Fatema Calcuttawala

Assistant Professor

PhD

Email: fatema.c@snuniv.ac.in

RESEARCH INTEREST

Soil-dwelling actinomycetes are the most relevant class of microorganisms to expand one’s knowledge on antimicrobial substance production. Most clinically important antibiotics originate from them. However, multidrug resistance is threatening the future continual use of antibiotics. Hence there is a need to develop alternative environmentally friendly processes of nanoparticle synthesis which involves utilization of biological systems as nanofactories thereby promising an environmentally clean, nontoxic and economical process. Dr. Calcuttawala’s research interest is directed at sampling the soil actinomycetes of East Kolkata Wetlands (EKWs) and screening them for antimicrobial substances and nanoparticle production against a wide panel of phytopathogens. The EKWs have been designated as "wetland of international importance" under the Ramsar Convention in 2002. Microbial richness of this region is its hidden asset. Soil samples collected from the wetlands are expected to show the presence of various new strains of Actinomycetes which are not only ecologically important but also have commercial value. Furthermore, the nanoparticles synthesized may exhibit a synergistic effect with the antimicrobial substances produced by them and can serve as effective tools in overcoming the roadblock of controlling those phytopathogens which are difficult to eradicate using the conventional agricultural methods.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Prof. Calcuttawala has 2 years of teaching and 8 Years of research experience.
• She has 4 international journal and several conference publications.

Prof. (Dr.) Moumita Das

Tutor

PhD

Email: moumita.m@snuniv.ac.in

R E S E A R C H   I N T E R E S T

Dr. Das is interested in research involving nutraceuticals in the prevention of lifestyle induced non-communicable diseases and drug delivery system. The present global scenario projects two major problems in public health sector; the lack of healthy sustainable lifestyle and the lack of drugs at affordable rate. Moreover, the drugs/therapeutic agents available in the market are also often associated with high cost, toxicity and low bioavailability. Keeping in mind these social issues, deriving health benefits from commonly consumed herbs, vegetables and spices could be an effective alternative. This could lead to new arena of research in nutraceuticals and their efficacy in preventing lifestyle induced several diseases.

Dr. Das’s field of research includes exploring commonly consumed vegetables and spices for their nutritive and pharmacological benefits and identifying their active components. In addition, owing to the low bioavailability of certain nutraceuticals, proper formulation of nanoparticles or nanoparticle encapsulated nutraceuticals for targeted drug delivery has also been studied by Dr. Das. The nanoparticle formulation of nutraceuticals improves the efficacy and bioavailability of the therapeutic agent and is potential in preventing lifestyle induced diseases like, Diabetes, Cardiovascular disorders, Obesity and certain cancer as well.

P R O F E S S I O N A L   E X P E R I E N C E

•Dr. Das has about 1 Year of teaching and 7 Years of Research experience.

•She has 13 publications in national & international journals and several conference proceedings.

Ms. Beepsa Basu

Lab Instructor (Dietetics)

M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition

Email: beepsa.b@snuniv.ac.in