UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL
North Bengal is blessed with an extraordinary panoramic view, lush green forest, tea gardens, orchids and vast fertile lands. The rich germplasm of crop plants including rice, wheat, jute, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and vegetables needs to be protected. This will maintain the biodiversity distinction of the region ensuring the employment of the local people who are directly dependent on these natural resources and will also enrich the overall health aspects of North Bengal dwellers. In tea gardens, the ground workers are mainly women. They suffer from different health hazards due to chemical pesticides and fungicides. Microbial analysis of tea garden soil through metagenomics and proper formulation of biofertilizers may improve the overall health aspects of tea garden dwellers, especially women. To ensure this, genomic information about the flora and fauna is very much required. Therefore, the University of North Bengal proposes to establish a genome center preferably named “Biswa-Bangla Genome Centre (BBGC)” which will have the essence and distinction of North Bengal as well as the approach will be global. The center will start documenting the rich flora and fauna of the region by NGS techniques and other advanced scientific means. This center will also ensure the overall well-being of the women, nature and the tea garden and forest dwellers.
The limited use of genome-scale data in a conservation context is probably due to the additional challenges presented by the huge data sets. One important consideration is cost. Although the cost of sequencing continues to decrease, most conservation projects have limited budgets that allow genome-scale sequencing of only a small number of samples. The trade-off between the number of samples and the number of loci sequenced is a critical consideration, and the best approach in each case will depend on the specific research question. Another important consideration is data analysis; that is, the specific resources and expertise that are available to analyze whole-genome data. Calling genotypes requires a reference genome, which may not be available for many non-model organisms, and analysis software is not always user-friendly. Finally, once a researcher obtains results from whole-genome analyses, it is often difficult to interpret the results and to translate them into conservation recommendations. In addition to the increased precision of estimates of traditional parameters, the transition to genomic approaches allows researchers to ask qualitatively different questions. This is because our capacity to examine different evolutionary mechanisms increases with the amount of the genome interrogated. In addition to assaying putatively neutral loci and protein-coding regions of the genome, whole-genome sequencing allows the identification of non-coding regulatory regions that control gene expression, and whole-transcriptome sequencing allows the quantification of gene expression differences.
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Seminar & Conference
IRC at North Bengal University (NBU) is one of such Centre started functioning from July 31, 1999 under the leadership of Prof. S. Mukherjee (Ex-Professor, NBU). Thereafter IRC DATA Centre was inaugurated by Prof. A. Basumajumdar, Vice-Chancellor, NBU on February 21, 2011. The computers, storage devices and Ups are supplied by IUCAA, Pune for the DATA centre. An MOU is signed by IUCAA, Pune and North Bengal University to carry forward the program.
Recently, the name of IRC is changed to IUCAA Centre for Astronomy Research and Development (ICARD) which is housed at Physics Department, NBU which is effective from 31st March, 2019. With this achievement, we hope that our department will soon turn into an active center for Astronomy research & development through Astronomy teaching, promoting research and getting involved in public outreach program. IUCAA set up total seventeen ICARD across India; ICARD NBU is one of them. IRC North Bengal University started functioning under the leadership of Prof. Sailojananda Mukherjee. IRC, NBU is already engaged in all these activities since last three decades and has a very active association with IUCAA. Being ICARD, this bonding will flourish with much enhanced Astronomy activities in West Bengal and North Eastern India.
Extension
Shared Facilities
Up-coming Facilities
Healthcare Aspect
Biswa bangla genome Centre is situated in North Bengal University at Siliguri. Since its inception, the center is mainly focusing on bioinformatics of Actinobacteria and perhaps the only centre which is dedicated to in silico Actinobacterial research. During this period the center could show its impact on following fields:
BBGC in Covid-19 & Post-Covod Management
This group started working on SARS-CoV-2 since the emergence of the novel virus. The first study was conducted in silico using natural compounds of Clerodendrum spp. to find its potency against the disease (Kar et al., 2020). In the study they found potential drug candidates such as taraxerol that exhibited significant results against S (spike) protein, Mpro (main protease) and RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) of the virus. It was found in another study carried out by this group that common cold drugs Dextromethorphan along with Prednisolone and Dexamethasone have potential against Covid-19 (Sarkar and Sen, 2020). Well known medicinal plants Justicia adhatoda, Ocimum sanctum and Swertia chirata were extensively studied by this group; in silico studies of compounds anisotine and amarogentin extracted from theses plants showed promising results against spike protein (crucial for host recognition and attachment) and Mpro or main protease enzyme (crucial for replication of viral genome) of SARS-CoV-2 (Kar et al., 2020). Other bio-sources were also studied such as cyanobacteria; cyanobacterial proteins cyanovirin-N, scytovirin and phycocyanin showed promising results in preventing the spike protein, the papain-like protease (PLpro) and the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 that helps in the attachment and replication of the virus (Naidoo et al., 2021). Work has also been done on different mutants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that emerged over the past few years. In silico study based on molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation was carried out to detect inhibitory potential of 605 phytocompounds against spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 wild type as well as mutant variants B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), P.1 (Gamma), B.1.617.2 (Delta), and B.1.1.529 (Omicron) (Kar et al., 2022).
Some symptoms were found to persistent in the survivors of Covid-19 disease, known as Post-Covid symptoms or Long-haul Covid-19. This group has studied effectiveness of Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabivarin (CVN) obtained from Cannabis sativa plant, using molecular docking and simulation, that revealed these compounds’ ability to downregulate post-Covid related central nervous system (CNS) proteins (Sarkar et al., 2021). This can be beneficial in post-covid symptoms treatment strategy. Another in silico study carried out by this group suggests that the natural phyto-compounds derived from Citrus macroptera could be employed in Post-covid inflammation complexities (Lala et al., 2022). Moreover, the emergence of Mucormycosis as a syndemic or synergistic epidemic in the post-covid phase, caused many casualties. The group explored the possible role of traditional antifungal plants, Neem (Azadiracta indica) and Turmeric (Curcuma longa), in management of Covid-Associated Mucormycosis (Datta et al., 2022). The results suggested a triple-front attack on the fungal pathogens through necrosis inhibition, iron chelation and immuno-boosting.
Industrial Aspect
Academic Aspect
Academic Collaboration
Whole-genome sequencing studies of various microorganisms such as Rhizobium, Streptomyces etc, were carried out in collaboration with Hubbard Genome Centre, USA. Another work we have carried out in the University of Birmingham, UK where we have done large-scale sequencing of industrial bacteria like Streptomyces. Dr. Arnab Sen has a longstanding collaboration of one and half decades with the University of New Hampshire. They have carried out several projects to analyze the genomes of terrestrial Actinobacteria and plant-microbe symbiosis.
In the future, Botany Dept. along with Dept. of Tea Sciences, Bioinformatics Facility and Biswa Bangla Genome Centre to form a large consortium to analyze soil and soil associated microbes of the North Bengal region including the tea gardens.
There are a large number of bacteria which cannot be cultured in Lab condition. As a result, most of the microbial resources remain unknown to us. In order to combat this issue, our lab has envisaged the meta-barcoding studies of soils from tea garden, paddy field, mangrove forests rubber plantation etc., and also from fermented foods and drinks of indigenous people of North Bengal. Use of nano-biotechnology to solve various biological problems including the discovery of new drugs which is the need of the hour. The botany department is actively involved in producing metal nanoparticles for drug –designing, drug delivery and management of different types of cancer. In future, Botany Department is planning to extend this technology to other fields of Biology.
Industry level Collaboration
BBGC will have a pivotal role in Institute-Industry linkage and will have a great impact on the local and global industry. North Bengal is famous for tea gardens and a great financial pool is obtained from the tea industry. Research regarding improving the quality and yield of tea will definitely improve the overall status of the tea industry in this region. BBGC with proper infrastructure will be able to help in this matter.
Along with tea, North Bengal and its adjoined regions are also famous for Orange, Orchid and different spices. The high throughput sequencing strategy and the gene bank collection will help us to preserve the germ-plasm of the best variety against their possible extinction and sustainable use and the whole genome, as well as meta-barcoding sequencing, will prove to help improve the quality of different variety as well as the soil quality. This will also help in exclaiming the geographic distinction of the local varieties against possible smuggling and misuse.
Besides, BBGC aims to collaborate with pharmaceutical industries. Researchers at BBGC are in continuous search for better plant-based medications against different infectious diseases. Several papers have already been published from BBGC reporting the role of different phyto-compounds in cancer treatment, covid and post-covid ailments, etc. Efforts are on to collaborate with global pharmaceutical industries for the R&D of new drugs against viral and bacterial diseases. There is enough support staff in the center for excellent industrial training and manpower creation.
BBGC is making collaboration with the Tea Board of India, Orchid plantation in Darjeeling and Kurseong, Food processing Departments of Kurseong, Biokart Pvt. Ltd of Bengaluru, Genotypic technology, Bengaluru, University of Birmingham.