Department of Biomedical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

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IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

The community established by the association of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast, or fungi leads to biofilm formation. Microorganisms are embedded in the extracellular polymeric matrix of biofilm adhering to biotic and abiotic surfaces or substratum. Biofilm can grow on medical devices, living tissues, or implants and cause infection in patients. Biofilm is a resistant microbial community due to the expression of the gene that causes its resistance to antibacterial agents and human immunity. These microbial infections are prone to occur in healthcare facilities and are the major sources of morbidity and mortality among patients. Cardiac implants based on cardiac implantable electronic devices-related infections account for 30% of death due to infection associated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Propionibacterium acnes. This chapter includes the role of nanoparticles in the prevention of biofilm on medical devices and human implants. Nanoparticles have important physicochemical properties that inhibit the proliferation of infectious microorganisms and prevent biofilm formation. Nanoparticles follow diverse mechanisms for antibiofilm activities leading to oxidative damage and genetic changes in microorganisms. Nanoparticles could be superior alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Various types of nanomaterials based on lipids, polymers, and metals show excellent potential toward antimicrobial growth. Nanomaterial coverings or coatings on medical devices, healthcare kits, and implants can overcome the biofilm associated with infection and mortality. © 2019 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

World University root node

ACS Symposium Series

Nanomaterials for Antibiofilm Activity

Development of smart bioactive materials which can be ideal for cancer therapy is the need of the hour. In the current study, we have entrapped a bioactive hydrophobic plant fraction into a polymeric and liposomal nanoprobes. Various parameters like size, photothermal efficacy, release and therapeutic efficacy in cancer cells were evaluated. We found that both the nanosystem are efficient in terms of the photothermal transduction efficacy. However, the relative cellular internalization and therapeutic efficacy were higher in the case of the polymeric nano probes. Further in-vivo studies can help to translate them as technology-driven active cancer theranostic agents. © 2019 IEEE.

2019 7th E-Health and Bioengineering Conference, EHB 2019

Photothermal therapy assisted bioactive nanoprobes for effective cancer theranostics

Oral cancers are a major health burden, and patients suffer from low survival rate owing to their late detection. Optical techniques are rapid, objective, and noninvasive methods with the potential to serve as adjunct screening/ diagnostic tools, especially for cancers. This chapter highlights the advancements in oral cancer exploration using optical coherence tomography (OCT) with a discussion on basic principles of OCT, followed by a detailed description of oral cancer studies, subgrouped into animal studies, and ex vivo and in vivo human studies. We have included full-field OCT system-derived in vivo oral mucosa images in a healthy volunteer at different subsites showing standard microanatomy at various depths and also narrated some strategies to improve OCT results by multimodal approaches as well as through contrast enhancement for improved visualization. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019.

Oral Cancer Detection: Novel Strategies and Clinical Impact

Optical coherence tomography: Emerging in vivo optical biopsy technique for oral cancers

Aim: We investigated the role of induced endothelial cells (iECs) in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)/iECs co-culture and assessed their osteogenic ability on silk fibroin nanofiber scaffolds. Methods: The osteogenic differentiation was assessed by the ALP assay, calcium assay and gene expression studies. Results: The osteogenic differentiation of the iECs co-cultures was found to be higher than the MSCs group and proximal to endothelial cells (ECs) co-cultures. Furthermore, the usage of isogenic iECs for co-culture increased the osteogenic and endothelial gene expression. Conclusion: These findings suggest that iECs mimic endothelial cells when co-cultured with MSCs and that one MSCs source can be used to give rise to both MSCs and iECs. The isogenic MSCs/iECs co-culture provides a new option for bone tissue engineering applications. © 2019 Srinivas Madduri.

Regenerative Medicine

Isogenic-induced endothelial cells enhance osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells on silk fibroin scaffold

In this study presents materials and design optimization of clinically approved hydroxyapatite (HA) using extrusion based 3D printing process. The effect of various printing parameters including print speed, extrusion pressure, accuracy and infill density to produce defined porous structures is established using various techniques. Particularly Scanning Electron Microscopy, Micro Computed Tomography have been employed to study internal and external accuracy. Mechanical testing was employed to study the effect of porosity on compressive properties of 3D printed structures. This study shows that, the infill density and shrinkage of 3D printed HA scaffolds post sintering have a linear relationship. Porosity and mechanical strength of 3D printed scaffolds depend on the infill density of the designed CAD file. Tailoring infill density also helps in altering mechanical properties in a predictable manner. Finally, a case study on hydroxyapatite printing of a patient specific bone graft demonstrates the ability of this material and technique to print complex porous structures created on CT-based anatomical bone models and pre-operative 3D planning, providing further promise for custom implant development for complex bony designs. © 2018 The Authors

Materials and Design

Optimization of extrusion based ceramic 3D printing process for complex bony designs

Sodium alginate and gelatin are biocompatible &amp; biodegradable natural polymer hydrogels, which are widely investigated for application in tissue engineering using 3D printing and 3D bioprinting fabrication techniques. The major challenge of using hydrogels for tissue fabrication is their lack of regeneration ability, uncontrolled swelling, degradation and inability to hold 3D structure on their own. Free hydroxyl groups on the surface of SiO2 nanoparticles have the ability to chemically interact with alginate-gelatin polymer network, which can be explored to achieve the above parameters. Hence validating the incorporation of SiO2 nanoparticles in a 3D printable hydrogel polymer network, according to the patient's critical defects has immense scope in bone tissue engineering. In this study, SiO2 nanoparticles are loaded into alginate-gelatin composite hydrogels and chemically crosslinked with CaCl2 solution. The effect of SiO2 nanoparticles on the viscosity, swelling, degradation, compressive modulus (MPa), biocompatibility and osteogenic ability were evaluated on lyophilized scaffolds and found to be desirable for bone tissue engineering. A complex irregular patient-specific virtual defect was created and the 3D printing process to fabricate such structures was evaluated. The 3D printing of SiO2 nanoparticle hydrogel composite ink to fabricate a bone graft using a patient-specific virtual defect was successfully validated. Hence this type of hydrogel composite ink has huge potential and scope for its application in tissue engineering and nanomedicine. © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering

Fulltext

RSC Advances

3D printable SiO2 nanoparticle ink for patient specific bone regeneration

This paper reports the proof of concept for a novel qualitative technique for detection of cervical cancer using optical properties of gold nanoparticles formed with residual acetic acid collected after visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA). A colorimetric strategy employing the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles is proposed. The varying sizes of the gold nanoparticles formed in the presence of different % of acetic acid resulted in different colors. The reasons for the difference in colors were understood by through characterization of nanoparticles formed with different % of acetic acid. The proof of concept for application of this technique is demonstrated at laboratory level by detecting the different percentages of acetic acid. The quantification of acetic acid has the scope and potential of being used as an extension for the existing visual inspection with acetic acid technique. With the merits of simple procedures, ideal portability, short detection times for detection, this platform could be applied as an extension to the existing visual inspection with acetic acid technique in the future for colorimetric screening which requires further clinical sample analysis validation. © 2019 IEEE.

2019 IEEE 14th Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference, NMDC 2019

Optical properties of plasmonic gold: A possible application for screening of cervical cancer

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading causes of death worldwide. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a cardiac biomarker exploited extensively for early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We report a highly sensitive microfluidic biosensor for the electrochemical detection of human cTnI in real patient samples. In this device, a patterned mesoporous nickel vanadate hollow-nanosphere modified chitosan (Ch-Ni3V2O8) was integrated with a microfluidic structure. Owing to its excellent redox activity and biocompatibility, larger surface, and tunable oxidation states (V5+, V4+, and V3+), the Ch-Ni3V2O8 matrix was used to functionalize the cardiac antibodies of troponin I (cAb) and amplify the electrochemical readouts. This device offered a high sensitivity of 38.88 μA ng-1 mL-1 cm-2 at a wide range of cTnI concentrations (0.005-100 ng mL-1). A low limit-of-detection of 5 pg mL-1 and high stability, high reproducibility and good selectivity were achieved due to integration of microfluidic elements with a hollow-nanosphere Ch-Ni3V2O8. This microfluidic device can be implemented to detect B-type natriuretic peptide, myoglobin, cardiac troponin C, and cardiac troponin T by functionalizing the specific antibody recognition elements and could be used for real point-of-care applications in biomedicine. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Journal of Materials Chemistry B

A hollow-nanosphere-based microfluidic biosensor for biomonitoring of cardiac troponin i

Light energy is utilized as an extensive tool for actuation of fluid flow in microfluidic devices. We report a novel method of droplet actuation using LED (light-emitting diode) that can be utilized for microfluidic mixing applications. This low power LED which emits light of peak wavelength 395 nm delivering luminous power of less than 300 millicandela (mcd) was used to create an interfacial tension gradient on solid–liquid interface containing photoresponsive molecule of azobenzene (C12H10N2). LED-induced photoisomerization of azobenzene creates a spatial gradient in interfacial energy on the solid–liquid interface, which enhances the droplet movement. The concept of LED-enhanced fluidic actuation was demonstrated using droplets of water, urine, blood serum over photoresponsive substrate. The substrates were prepared by coating the surface of silicon substrate with azobenzene dissolved in silicone resin solution. Detailed experimental characterization of LED-actuated droplet velocity was performed, where the effect of parameters such as frequency of light actuation, droplet volume, concentration of azobenzene was evaluated. Droplet transport of DI water (de-ionized) of volume 60 µL was achieved at a velocity of 160 µm/s corresponding to LED actuation frequency of 1 Hz. In vitro quantification of blood calcium and urine pH was performed using fabricated chip scale opto-wetting platforms. The proposed work could be useful in the development of droplet microfluidic chips, where combinatorial mixing can be achieved using an array of LEDs. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Microfluidics and Nanofluidics

LED-based opto-wetting and fluidic transport for droplet mixing

Herein, flower-shaped hydrophilic superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoclusters (IONCs) are synthesized via one-pot thermolysis of iron acetylacetonate using triethanolamine (TEA) and diethylene glycol (DEG)/tetraethylene glycol (TTEG) mixtures at 9:1, 8:2 and 7:3 (v/v) ratios. The as-prepared 24–29 nm sized IONCs have displayed (i) saturation magnetization (Ms) values of ~68–78 emu/g, (ii) hydrodynamic diameters of ~95–192 nm and (iii) zeta potential values of +46 to +65 mV. Due to relatively high magnetization and water solubility, IONCs (prepared using 8:2 TEA:DEG, and 8:2 &amp; 7:3 TEA:TTEG ratios) based aqueous ferrofluids i.e. NCAFF-1, NCAFF-2, and NCAFF-3 are investigated by calorimetric magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) at 0.5–8 mg/ml concentrations by exposing them to the alternating magnetic fields (AMFs, H*f ~2.4–9.9 GA m−1 s−1). The NCAFF-3 has demonstrated excellent time dependent temperature rise (42 °C within 0.7–9.7 min) as compared to the NCAFF-1 and NCAFF-2. Moreover, the NCAFF-3 at 0.5 mg/ml concentration has exhibited enhanced heating efficacies with specific absorption rate (SAR) and intrinsic loss power (ILP) values of 142.4–909.4 W/gFe and 4.2–14.7 nHm2/kg, respectively. Furthermore, the NCAFF-3 has presented better cytocompatibility, and substantially reduced proliferation capacity of HepG2 cancer cells in in vitro MFH studies. Thus, the IONCs based ferrofluids (NCAFF-3) are very promising candidates for MFH therapeutics applications. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.