Visit IISER Pune India December 2012
Issued: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:42:00 GMT
(Photos at the bottom)
In December 2012, a delegation of researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde travelled to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune for a three-day meeting on Structure and Dynamics. There, we were welcomed by Prof. Madhava Rao and Prof. Krishna Ganesh, Director of IISER Pune, who gave the keynote address on recent advances in the use of cationic peptides for cell transfection. The first session began with a talk from Prof. Klaas Wynne on the use of ultrafast optical Kerr-effect spectroscopy to probe enzymatic reactions. Results from experiments on guanidinium chloride solutions have demonstrated a departure from the Stokes-Einstein-Debye model for these molecular systems. Dr. Mrinalini Puranik presented results on substrate recognition of damaged DNA by repair enzymes using ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy and showed that by correlating shifts in Raman band position with x-ray crystallography, the interactions between DNA and enzymes may be revealed. In the final talk of the first session, Dr. Goetz Bucher showed how the excited (π, σ*) triplet states of a range of molecules containing two adjacent heteroatoms may be calculated and how these may be related to atmospheric chemistry.
Lunch each day was served in a sunshine-filled courtyard, where visiting delegates and IISER researchers had the opportunity to discuss presentations and research overlap. After lunch, Dr. Serena Corr presented some recent results on the use of local structure studies (pair distribution function analysis and x-ray absorption spectroscopy) to probe structural changes occurring in functional metal oxides, including metal-insulator transitions in vanadates and battery cycling in positive electrodes. The final talk of the first day was given by Dr. M. Jayakannan, whose new polymer vesicles can be loaded with the anticancer drug Campthothecin to enhance the stability and effective delivery to fibroblasts. A poster session followed that afternoon, with a chance to meet with many students who presented their latest research. The group also had tours of the laboratory facilities and this provided an opportunity for further discussion between research groups, which continued over a banquet dinner held on the lawns of the IISER.
Our second day opened with a talk by Dr. Malcolm Kadodwala, who showed how the sensitivity of chiral plasmonic nanostructures to the higher-order mesoscale structure of biopolymers can allow for the spectroscopic characterisation of materials such as amyloid fibrils and collagens. Dr. Aloke Das then discussed the challenge of quantitatively studying non-covalent interactions, which play important roles in biomolecular processes, and showed how complexes, prepared using a supersonic jet, have been studied using experimental techniques including mass selective resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionisation and theoretical (DFT) calculations. The final talk of this session was given by Dr. Partha Hazra, who presented the use of time-resolved steady state fluorescence studies in establishing changes occurring on complexation of the anticancer drug Camptothecin by a cucurbit macrocycle and in probing the photophysical changes during host-guest interactions between a molecular rotor (9-(dicyano-vinyl)julolidine) and various sized host cyclodextrin cavities. The Young Investigator session followed, with presentations from five researchers from across Glasgow University and IISER Pune. Dr. Chris Syme introduced Raman optical activity spectroscopy and showed how this technique may be employed in the study of biomolecules in solution. Calum Jack showed how a high throughput injection moulding method can be used as a high-volume low-cost route to substrates of chiral plasmonic nanostructures for potential use as biosensors. K. R. Ramya presented electronic structure calculations to probe the stability, reactivity, and spectra of methane-encapsulated cages. Sumit Kumar discussed differences in the non-covalent interactions of N-H π hydrogen bonding interactions in a cyclic asymmetric trimer compared to similar interactions in cycling symmetric trimers. In the final talk of this session, Abhigyan Sengupta discussed the anticancer drug Ellipticine and how the differing emission spectra of the neutral and protonated forms can allow for its use as a marker to probe protein-DNA interactions. Dr. Hans Senn opened the final session of the day, where the use of hybrid QM/MM approaches for the study of mechanisms and energetics of enzyme catalysis has been demonstrated, with examples of carbon-halogen bond formation in halogenases presented. Dr. Arun Venkatnathan discussed recent molecular dynamics simulations to probe the temperature, solvent uptake and diffusion characteristics of perfluorosulfonic acid and benzimidazole-based polymer electrolyte fuel cell membranes. In the final talk of the day, Dr. Nirmalya Ballav discussed the reactions of NaCl and LiCl with surfaces of tetracyanoquinodimethane to form 2-D ionic metal-organic layers. That afternoon, we were taken by IISER postgraduate students on a visit to the beautiful Aga Khan Palace in Pune, where Mahatama Gandhi, his wife and secretary were interred in the 1940s.
The final day of our meeting began with a talk by Dr. Sujit Ghosh on the link between the observation of functional properties of coordination polymers and the dynamic nature of their frameworks. Dr. Eddie Cussen presented a family of lithium-containing garnets including Li3Nd3Te2O12 and Li7La3Zr2O12, where variation of the Li+ content is reflected in the observed Li+ conductivities, and showed how the use of diffraction techniques are instrumental in understanding lithium migration in these complex materials. Dr. Arnab Mukherjee described how calculated entropy changes in drug-DNA intercalations are found to be in excellent agreement with experimental observations, with possible implications for this in molecular recognition.
The final session of our meeting started with a talk from Dr. Tell Tuttle on using a range of computational methods to shine light on peptide self-assembly, with extended simulations using coarse grain molecular dynamics allowing for the prediction of nanoscale assemblies. Dr. Pankaj Mandal spoke on some recent findings on the use of terahertz spectroscopy for probing ultrafast magnetisation dynamics. The final talk of our meeting was given by Dr. G.V. Pavan Kumar on optical investigations of nanostructured plasmonic and organic wires as new nanophotonic candidates. Our meeting drew to a close with a round table discussion on the development of future collaborations and a look forward to our next meeting, to be held at the University of Glasgow in June 2013.
[By Serena Corr]
Logo of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, where we visited 10-12 December 2012.
A weel deserved beer on the roof of our hotel after arrival in Pune (Malcolm Kadodwala, Eddie Cussen, Chris Syme, Calum Jack)
(Serena Corr, Klaas Wynne, and Goetz Bucher)
Dinner that evening (with Malcolm Kadodwala, Serena Corr, Eddie Cussen, Calum Jack, Klaas Wynne, and Goetz Bucher)
Malcolm Kadodwala in discussion with Prof Krishna Ganesh, Director of the IISER, Pune.
Group photo taken at the IISER, Pune.
Outdoors poster session makes a welcome change from the typical Scottish weather.
We met ~140 of the top Indian high school students to answer questions about science in general and chemistry in particular. Here, Seren Corr is being surrounded by girls.
The nature of quarks? The big open questions in Chemistry? Sure no problem..
Group photo taken on a short outing into the city of Pune with Klaas Wynne, Calum Jack, Chris Syme, Goetz Bucher, Malcom Kadodwala, Eddie Cussen, Serena Corr, and Hans Senn.
Discussion on the final day to set up specific collaborations between the Dynamics and Structure grouping at Glasgow University and at the University of Strathclyde (WestCHEM) and the IISER, Pune.
Bus trip back to Mumbai
A troupe of nerds on a day out in Mumbai...
Gateway to India.
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