Division of Microbial Technology

FacultyServices Projects PublicationsResearch Staff

Division of Microbial Technology has the dual role of supporting the mandate of medical device development and understand infections due to use of medical devices in addition to its own research focus.

In its role of supporting medical device development and medical device industry the Division offers a number of tests to public and to scientists within the institute. It is also involved with health monitoring of experimental animals both small and large animals to ensure high quality animals for experimental purposes, Biocompatibility assessments and pro-clinical studies.

Faculty

• Dr. Maya Nandkumar A.
  Scientist 'G' & Scientist-in-Charge
  

Facilities

Division of Microbial Technology maintains Controlled environment a class 10,000 facility for performance of sterility test, Full fledged Microbiology, virology and Tissue culture laboratories to meet the requirements of testing laboratories as per ISO 17025.

Research

The division's research interests focuses on understanding bacterial biofilms to evolve effective strategies to combat medical device related infections.

The second focus is on development of hybrid artificial lung model using suitable scaffold and cells to study cell-material-microbial interactions in the lung to understand alveolar fibrosis, study pathogenesis of respiratory infections, development of suitable testing module for testing of drugs, pollutants etc.

Services

The Division of Microbial Technology was upgraded by 2003 to satisfy norms of ISO 17025 for calibration and testing laboratories and was accredited by COFRAC of FRANCE. Of the twelve evaluation protocols offered by the Division, three are accredited by COFRAC of FRANCE, Four are in support of accredited facility and the rest are non-accredited. These evaluations are applicable at various stages of in the development of medical devices, starting from facility monitoring.

The table below is the list of product evaluations performed by the Division

Training

The division offers training and manpower development to industries in the area establishment of quality systems in Microbiology laboratories and Microbiological testing of medical devices as per International standards.

Publications

1. Keerthi S, Kumar Pradeep SS, Raja K and Nandkumar Maya A. Role of antibiotics in Biofilm formation by Pseudomonas isolates. J Environ.Res.Develop 10 (2), 271 – 276 (2015).
2. Maya A Nandkumar, Ashna U, Lynda V Thomas and Prabha D Nair. Pulmonary Surfactant expression analysis – Role of cell–cell interactions and Three Dimensional tissue –like architecture. Cell biology International doi: 10.1002/cbin.10389 39(3), : 272–28 (2015).
3. A. Maya Nandkumar, Pradeep Kumar SS and H.V. Easwer. Multiple drug resistant bacterial biofilms on Implanted catheters – A reservoir of infection. J of Association of Physicians of India (JAPI) 61: 702 -707 (2013).
4. U. Mereena George & U. Ashna & S. S. Pradeep Kumar & A. Maya Nandkumar Effect of tobacco extract on surfactant synthesis and its reversal by retinoic acid- role of cell–cell interactions in vitro. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.—Animal 49 (4) 260 – 269(2013).
5. Biji Balakrishnan , A. Jayakrishnan, Pradeep Kumar SS and A. Maya Nandkumar “Anti-bacterial properties of an in situ forming hydrogel based on oxidized alginate and gelatin loaded with gentamycin” Trends in biomaterials and Artificial organs Vol 26(3) 139 – 145 (2012).
6. Radhakumary G, Maya A Nandkumar and Prabha D Nair. Hyaluronic acid-G-poly (HEMA) copolymer with potential implications for Lung tissue engineering. Carbohydrate polymers Vol 85 439 – 445 (2011).
7. Ragaseema V Madhavan, Mathirapillil J Rosemary, Maya A Nandkumar, Kalyana V Krishnan, Lissy K Krishnan ‘Silver Nanoparticles impregnated Poly(e-caprolactone) scaffolds: Optimisation of antimicrobial and noncytotoxic concentrations’ Tissue Engineering Part A Vol 17 (3&4) 439 – 449 (2011).
8. A. Maya Nandkumar, M.C. Ranjit, S.S. Pradeep Kumar, P.R. Hari, P. Ramesh and K Sreenivasan. Antimicrobial Silver Oxide Incorporated Urinary Catheters for Infection Resistance. Trends Biomater. Artif. Organs,Vol 24(3)pp 156- 64(2010).
9. Maya A Nandkumar. “Multifunctional alveolar epithelial model – alternate in vitro system to study effect of aerosolized toxins/ drugs”. Toxicology International 12(1):29 (2005).
10. Maya. A. Nandkumar, M.Yamato, A.Kushida, C.Konno, M.Hirose, A.Kikuchi and T.Okano. Two dimension cell sheet manipulation of heterotypically co-cultured lung cells utilizing temperature responsive culture dishes results in long term maintenance of differentiated epithelial cell function. Biomaterials 23: 1121 - 1130(2002).
11. A Maya Nandkumar, M Yamato, A. Kushida, C.Konno, A. Kikuchi and T. Okano. The revival and maintenance of alveolar epithelial characters over prolonged periods of culture using PIPAAm – grafted dishes. Artificial Organs 25 (10) 835 (2001).
12. A. Maya, K. Jayaraman and A. Balakrishnan. Necrosis of lung epithelial cells by filarial parasitic proteins via an early induction of c-H-ras and TNF- expression. Cell biology International 21(5): 273-280 (1997).
13. S. Usha, A. Maya and A Balakrishnan. Mitogenic stimulation of primary cultures of lung epithelial cells by linoleic acid. Biochemical cell biology 74: 289-293 (1996).
14. A. Maya, S. Usha, Baba Krishnan, M. Sukumar, K. Jayaraman and A. Balakrishnan. Interaction of filarial proteins on growth regulation of normal lung epithelial cells in vitro. Cell biology International 19(3): 223-231 (1995).
15. A. Maya, S. Usha, M.L. Nagalakshmi and A. Balakrishnan. Mitogenic response of rat lung and tracheal epithelial cells in monolayer primary cultures – modulation of TNF- expression. J of Biosciences 19(2) 207-218 (1994).
16. S. Mahanty, C.L. King, V. Kumaraswamy, J. Regunathan, A. Maya, K. Jayaraman, J.S. Abrams, E.A.Ottesen, and T.B. Nutman. IL-4 and IL-5 secreting lymphocyte populations are preferentially stimulated by parasite derived antigens in human tissue invasive nematode infections. J immunology 151: 3704-3711 (1993).

Book Chapters : 2

Patents : 4

Staff