Academics

Animal house in Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre is established in year 2011. It is registered with Ministry of Environment and Forests (Animal Welfare Division), Govt. of India
(Regn. No. 602/PO/a/02/CPCSEA). The Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) was established in the Institute itself, as per the rules of expansion. The IAEC scrutinizes each project to ensure that it
follows ethical guidelines. The members of this committee are within and outside the institute.

Animal House conducts various workshops for the graduates, post graduates, PhD candidates, teachers etc. This workshop will cover topics and discussions.
• Ethics Guidelines for carrying out experiments
• Introduction to Animal house environment i.e. infrastructure
• Introduction and nutrition to Laboratory Animals
• Animal handling and restraining technique
• Mode of drug administration
• Collection of blood and segregation of organs
• Dissection and survival surgery
• Pre and post operative care

We at the Biochemistry Lab at Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center (PIMS&RC) are equipped with the latest HPLC facility (LC-2010CHT, Shimadzu). Currently, we offer HPLC diagnosis for inborn errors in metabolism and receive samples for testing aminoaciduria. We also extended this facility to train individuals on various aspects of HPLC.

Learning objectives associated with HPLC training:

• Introduction to HPLC
• Preparation of buffers, standards, and samples
• Prepping the instrument for running
• Conditioning of the column
• Performing HPLC using standards and samples
• Data acquisition and interpretation

Please feel free to contact the Biochemistry Lab for all your queries regarding training and testing services.

Contact:

Dr. Sherin Jacob, M.Sc, Ph.D (Biochemistry),
Senior Resident/Scientist,
Biochemistry Research Lab,
Puhpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center,
Thiruvalla – 689101, Kerala, India.
Mobile : +917736301273,
E-mail: iamsherinjacob@gmail.com/sherinjacob@pimsrc.edu.in

Cell culture lab in Pushpagiri Research Centre is a well equipped sterile lab with biosafety cabinet, CO2 incubator, inverted microscope, refrigerator and cryocans. The major techniques employed in our lab are
cytotoxicity (MTT and trypan blue dye exclusion assay), wound healing assay (scratch assay) and is mainly focused on determining the toxicity or efficacy of various herbal compounds, nanoparticles, microencapsulated compounds etc in normal and cancer cell lines.

The clinical importance of the bacterial biofilm mode of growth is becoming increasingly renowned since biofilms are associated with over 65% of hospital-acquired infections and 80% of all known human diseases.

Though, both the research community and medical companies aim to implement biofilm research into their portfolio, it is clear that biofilm research is still in its infancy and development studies of novel antimicrobial drugs and their efficacy tests do not consider the biofilm-associated microbes. To address this, the Medical Biotechnology Lab (MBL) at Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (PIMS&RC) is equipped with different biofilm models (both static and dynamic) and assay systems which are most suitable for research studies and product evaluation(s).

The MBL extend with all support such as providing training on various biofilm models, assay systems and novel drug testing methods. We also offer these testing facilities to researchers and industries for testing anti-microbial and anti-biofilm drugs.

Details of biofilm models and assays that established at MBL:

• High throughput biofilm models based on the micro titre plate assay
• Minimum biofilm eradication/inhibition assays (MBEC/MBIC – ASTM E2799)
• Drip flow biofilm reactor (ASTM method E2647)
• Static and continuous flowing systems
• Biofilm inhibition assays (chemical, molecular and microscopic methods)
• Studies on biofilm matrix components
• Gene expression studies on biofilm associated phenotypes

In addition, variations in the different models can be adapted to the materials and medical devices. Well established animal house facility gives the opportunity to accommodate in vivo biofilm studies as well.

Please feel free to contact the MBL for all your queries regarding training and testing services.

Contact:

Dr. Sherin Jacob, M.Sc, Ph.D (Biochemistry),
Senior Resident/Scientist,
Biochemistry Research Lab,
Puhpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center,
Thiruvalla – 689101, Kerala, India.
Mobile : +917736301273,
E-mail: iamsherinjacob@gmail.com/sherinjacob@pimsrc.edu.in

Training programmes and Project/ Dissertation works in Microbial Technology and Infectious disease laboratory

Microbial Technology and Infectious disease laboratory offers short term training programmes for BSc students with the objectives of understanding the sample collection of clinically relevant specimens, the methods of sterilization & disinfection, the commonly used culture media, how to identify bacterial by the colony appearance and morphology in gram stain, the various biochemical reactions and the common methods of antibiotic susceptibility testing like disk diffusion and dilution methods.

Specific Learning Objectives:

• Sample collection
• Sterilization & disinfection
• Culture media
• Bacterial identification- Colony morphology, Biochemical reactions.
• Antibiotic susceptibility testing

Microbial Technology and Infectious diseases laboratory offers a wide array of microbiological applications for MSc Microbiology, Biotechnology, Medical and Dental postgraduates including bio-degradation experiments, antibacterial and antifungal efficacy testing, and comparison of activities of various dental pastes, resin composites, adhesives and other biomaterials. Also facilities for isolation, identification of pathogenic bacteria from various infections and detection of antimicrobial resistance exist.

Standard ATCC strains including common gram positives, gram negatives and candida strains are maintained which will be used for validation and confirmation of results. In addition special or and clinical strains like MRSA, S. mutans and special oral flora like anaerobes are maintained for optimum performance of various experiments. Incorporation of novel research ideas and collaborative works based on the feasibility, cost and time.

Facilities for molecular identification and characterization of pathogens as well as normal flora by help of PCR are available and can be incorporated into the projects.

 
For more details, kindly contact:
Dr. Sherly Antony, Scientist, Department of Microbiology,
Pushpagiri Institute Of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Thiruvalla- 689101
Mobile No:  9655649543
Office Tel:  +91 469 2700755, Extn: 7603
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8317-5225
Research gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sherly_Antony
Email: drsherlyantony@gmail.com, drsherly@pushpagiri.in