The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sanctioned ₹2.47 crore to the Bharathidasan University for upgradation and maintenance of some of its advanced scientific equipment.
The funds had been sanctioned under the “Support for upgradation, preventive repair and maintenance of equipment” (SUPREME) scheme. Of this, ₹1 crore will be released as first year grant after the formalities are completed.
The grant will be used for repairing, retrofitting, and maintenance of highly sophisticated scientific equipment such as confocal laser scanning microscope, field emission scanning electron microscope, and Raman spectrometer at the University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC), and the Centre for Nanoscience and Technology of the university.
The USIC has a wide range of sophisticated instruments and more equipment such as inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), element analyser, high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector and electrochemical detection (HPLC-PDA-ECD), digital droplet PCR and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer will be shortly procured under RUSA 2.0 -Thematic Research Projects, according to a press release from the university.
The department has recognised the USIC for its contribution to research and development and had lauded it for adapting unique QR code system for displaying the facility, instruments and its application.
Recently, the latest version of liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometer (LCTMS) was procured at a cost of ₹3.17 crore under RUSA-2.0 Biological Sciences. The LCTMS is a powerful analytical instrument capable of a wide range of analysis, including tracing pollutants, identification and characterisation of protein/ protein complex, screening for metabolic disorders, pharmacodynamics, drug absorption and distribution, identification of biomarker for early-detection of disease and pre-clinical analysis. The facility is a first-of-its-kind in a State University, the release said.
The university has taken up the expansion of USIC with funds received from the State and Union governments and had equipped it with state-of-the-art tools that would be of immense use for students and faculty of university departments, affiliated colleges and neighbouring institutions to carry out their research work.
M. Selvam, Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, said it was a matter of pride that the USIC was the only facility in a State university of Tamil Nadu recognised by the Department of Science and Technology under the SUPREME scheme. “The USIC will continue to serve researchers in physics, chemistry, and biological sciences and will soon emerge as a nodal centre of Bharathidasan University to foster and support research innovation and start-ups,” he said.
He complimented the core team members, K. Emmanuvel Rajan, Coordinator, USIC and Head, Department of Animal Science; and K. Jeganathan, Director, Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Department of Physics, Bharathidasan University, for their joint efforts in getting funds under the SUPREME scheme.
