Bioprocess Development and Scale up; Fermentative production of polysaccharides; Polysaccharide based biomaterials.
The main areas of interest include fermentative production of various commercially important biomolecules. Our laboratory is actively working on polysaccharides which are one of the most abundant and relatively less exploited biomolecules. We are trying to cover every research aspect involved in the field of polysaccharides ranging from screening, production and scale up of polysaccharide fermentation to developing biomaterials which can find application in various fronts. One of the major achievements of our laboratory has been the development of economically feasible bioprocess for production of Pullulan and the process has been optimized for 500L fermenter. We are currently working on government as well as industrially funded projects for developing bioprocess for large scale production of various biopolymers. Our group is also interested in isolating novel exopolysaccharides having unique and remarkable properties suitable for diverse industrial sectors. For this purpose, we are screening novel marine microorganisms for their exopolysaccharides production potential and characterizing the physical and chemical properties of the biopolymers. Simultaneously, our group is also inclined towards developing polysaccharide-based materials like hydrogels and studying their physical, chemical and rheological properties and also attempting to develop novel biomaterials for industrial applications.
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