Saturday 7 December 2019

Rural Exposure Program of 1st Year MSc. Students- The Students report

We, First M.Sc. Biochemistry students are extremely grateful for this opportunity to interact and understand the way of tribal life in Wayanad. We left to Kannur on 27th morning at 6.30 am from Mangalore central railway station along with our faculty member Dr. Swarnalatha B.N. We reached Kannur around 10 am approximately and then we continued our journey towards Mananthawady in a KSRTC bus. We arrived at Wayanad Social service Society by 1 pm . Lunch was served and then we started our preparations to guide the tribal communities about Hygiene, Alcohol abuse, Importance of higher education and few other topics. We divided ourselves into three groups and every group was given the responsibility to explain the different topics using either posters or pictures. Everyone of us were so enthusiastic to meet the tribal communities that next day morning we woke up by 5am and got ready by 7 am.
Director of W.S.S.S gave us a brief idea about their organisation and then information about do’s and don’ts for when we are with the tribal people. Mr. Jain Augustine accompanied us from W.S.S.S as our guide, we went in a bus and then walked through scenic beauty of paddy fields where we saw a small water stream carrying fishes away, a lady washing clothes  few cattle drinking water; it was such a pleasure to see mother nature at her best. We soon reached first tribal colony where one of the elderly person gave us a sneak peak into their history about how they fought alongside other Adivasi tribes under the rule of Pazhassi raja against British invasion into Wayanad and that they lost the battle against developed weapons. It was very sad to hear about how much recent floods and land slides have affected their livelihood, death of more than 300 people living in that colony and so on; so they have been traveling to Coorg for employment and they were paid with alcohol as a compensation, when alcohol abuse caused the death of few estate workers there Karnataka police have bought in regulations that they can work in estates and farms only if they register in prior at the police station. Their primary job is fishing as they live by the sides of water streams, it was surprising to see them use indigenous ways and hand-made products for fishing even today. Even though they have been staying there from generations now they don’t have the ownership over the land, The court has allotted 3 cents land which is too less for farming and place for house. Most of the kids here get education till high school in the close-by government school and then majority of them stop studying, kids here have represented in state level athletics competition, they wish they had a coach who could guide them into how to go ahead and consider sports for future. They have one graduate man from the whole tribe and when asked about if they know the importance of higher education their response was that they just want one among them to be able to talk to any person or officials on their behalf. This is when we explained them about how the higher education can get not only a representative but bring about difference in society. Instead of making it a class to explain topics, we tried to learn about their history, culture  and when they bought up their issues in between we made sure to address those issues and helped them have a better knowledge about how to overcome them. There are three tribal communities in Wayanad and they are Paniya, Kurcha and Kurumba. Paniya stayed closer to villages, Kurcha amidst the forest and Kurumba lived deep inside the forests and also they have a hill named KURUMBALAKOTTA as that tribe was settled there for long time. They have their own temple and have a week long festivities once a year. Chapu, crabs and fishes were their main source of food. They performed the tribal dance for music from their own musical instruments. After their performance we moved ahead towards next tribal colony. This journey was much more adventurous in its own way as we had to cross the water body on a really old wooden hanging bridge, after walking for nearly about two kilometres we reached another colony.


This was also the same Paniya tribe whereas their beliefs and the way they live totally differed from the previous tribe we met. This tribe had a head and he was called MUPAN. As they were aware about our arrival all the kids in this tribe had stayed back and were waiting eagerly to welcome us. As we arrived here by noon, our lunch was planned here. Some of us helped them cook while others were  trying to make kids understand about the hygiene, sanitation and importance of higher education. Here we got us the opportunity to enter their place of worship, they had three stones outside the temple which they worshipped and these were the places where the previous MUPAN’s were buried; they believe that their soul is in the stone . Only the head of the tribes are buried near the temple and rest of them beyond the river. We gathered group of adults and  informed them about the ill effects of early and child marriages. Later KAPPA was served with fish and pickle which was a scrumptious meal. This tribe also performed their traditional dance which was somewhat similar to the previous tribe; later they made us learn and perform dance which was very sweet of them to do. By then it was late in the evening around 6pm and we went back to W.S.S.S centre. We cleaned up ourselves , had dinner and went to sleep after a small feedback session about the day with our faculty incharge.



Next morning we were supposed to have a orientation about the programmes of W.S.S.S  but as the convener was not available we had to skip that and travel towards Boys town to visit Botanical garden and Medicinal plants conservation park which was established uder the name of project in 1953. The professor there gave his insights about different herbs, preservation and conservation of endangered traditional wild variety of plants. They were working on two major projects; Extensive survey of medicinal plants in Wayanad region, Documentation of medicinal plants used by indigenous people with the help of national and international fundings. Lunch was served amidst the greenery. Later in the day we got to meet Father Babu, who was well versed in pharmacological effects of locally available plants. He took us through their backyard to display all the medicinal plants and to enrich our knowledge about their applications. Leeches were found on some of us and Fr. Babu then enlightened about the Leech therapy and how beneficial it can be. At the end we returned to Mananthawady with much better knowledge about medicinal plants.

Fourth day we left to puthusseri and Madam Shiny accompanied us to the next tribal community, We got to meet Kurcha tribe whose primary profession was hunting .  in this community unlike paniya community families were dispersed through out the forest due to their own reasons. The families that lived at beginning of forest had proper houses and those that lived deep inside forest still lived in mud houses and huts. While we were walking we got to notice many different types of birds and spiders. The family that lived deep inside the forest displayed the weapons they use for hunting and even taught us how to use bow and arrow. They fed us with sugar cane from their garden. We couldn’t help but notice different kinds of chillies around the house which not only differed in color but also the extent of fieriness in their taste. We savoured the taste of the communal dish KACHILL with chilly paste as the side. Tribal woman entertained us with her singing skills by singing a song in native tongue. When asked about medicinal facilities they said that they generally use ethnic medicine and in case of severe illness they have to travel far to get them to hospital and there was a case where the patient expired even before the ambulance reached. We explained them about hygiene and safety measures to follow at the time of sickness.
We successfully finished the scheduled program by Sunday and as we were free till 4 pm we visited India’s second largest earthen dam BANASURASAGAR DAM  and later returned to Kannur and travelled back to mangalore in a train.

Thursday 3 October 2019

Congratulations to our team excelling at the Mangalore University Fest Vortex 2k19...!!!

The faculty and students of PG Biochemistry congratulates  our student team of 1st and 2nd year MSc. who participated at the Mangalore University fest- Vortex 2k19 on 3rd October, 2019. 
Our team won the following competitions:
2nd Place in Icebreaker
1st Place in Seminar by Ms. Shrilakshmi (1st MSc)
2nd Place in Collage by Ms. Nikitha  (2nd MSc) and Ms. Madhuri (1st MSc)
1st Place in Treasure hunt by Ms. Anusha (2nd MSc) and Ms. Vaishnavi (2nd MSc)








WE ARE PROUD OF YOU... 
HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS...!!!

Wednesday 21 August 2019

Talk by Dr. Sohail K Pinto


Dr. Sohail K Pinto, Assistant Professor from the Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research in Biochemistry, delivered a talk on “Molecular Profiling of the acyl lipid pathway in Neochloris oleoabundans” organized by the Basic Science Forum, St. Aloysius College (Autonomous), on 21st August, 2019 at 3:30PM in the Lecture hall of Department of PG Studies and Research in Biotechnology.
Neochloris oleoabundans was first isolated from a sand dune in Saudi Arabia by S. Chantanachat in 1962. Due to its high lipid content, it has been considered as a candidate organism for biofuel production. Dr. Pinto was able to study the various stress conditions affecting the yield of biomass production and factors that can increase the lipid production. Dr. Pinto worked with Prof. Pavan Jutur, Omics lab for algae, ICGEB, New Delhi as a part of his faculty summer fellowship program in May-July 2019. 



Thursday 15 August 2019

DBT Sponsored Workshop on Foldscope and its Applications

A workshop on Foldscope and its Applications was held at St. Aloysius College (Autonomous) on 10. August 2019. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Innovation Cell and the Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research in Biochemistry, and was sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India and the Mangalore Jesuit Education Society.

The resource persons were Dr. Ch. Tulasi, Associate Professor, Dept. of Zoology, Govt. College for Women, Guntur and Dr. S. T. V. Raghavamma, Associate Professor, Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, Chalapathi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lam, Guntur. Both played an integral role in the organization of the workshop.

The workshop was inaugurated by the resource persons and Rev. Dr. Praveen Martis SJ, the Principal of St. Aloysius College. The workshop was focused on the assembly and use of the Foldscope, an innovative paper microscope developed by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski at Stanford University, USA. Dr. Tulasi introduced the Foldscope and instructed the participants in its assembly and general use. Dr. Raghavamma proceeded to demonstrate the use of the Foldscope in the initial diagnosis of disease such as malaria and filaria, and in how to prepare samples for observation by the Foldscope. Every participant was provided a Foldscope Kit and was guided in its assembly and use.

Despite the inclement weather, all the participants actively took part in the event and prepared their own slides to observe under foldscope. 













Monday 22 July 2019

Workshop on 'Foldscope and its Applications' on 10th Aug, 2019

The Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research in Biochemistry in association with the Innovation Cell of St. Aloysius College (Autonomous) are hosting a workshop on "Foldscope and its Applications" on 10th August, 2019. This Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India initiative will be conducted by Dr. Ch. Tulasi, Associate Professor at the Dept. of Zoology, Govt. College for Women, Guntur and Dr. STV Raghavamma, Associate Professor at the Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, Chalapathi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lam, Guntur. 
The registrations are open at present for the workshop and the deadline for the same is 5th Aug, 2019. (Limited seats are available)


For more details and registration, please write to us at pgbiochem@staloysius.edu.in

Monday 1 July 2019

100% Results in 2nd and 4th MSc Semester Exams of BIOCHEMISTRY


Never run after success; gain worthiness and success will follow you!!! 
Congratulations!!! 
To all our dear PG students of Biochemistry...
We are so impressed with your results and hope you will continue accomplishing more and more. 
Best wishes for passing the exam and good luck for more excellent achievement in the future.

Congratulations Ms. ABHIJNA



The Department of post graduate studies and research in Biochemistry is delighted to announce that Ms. Abhijna K of MSc. Biochemistry (2016-18 batch) has cleared UGC-CSIR-NET exams for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) with an all India rank of 47 conducted by CSIR in December 2018. Ms. Abhijna has also cleared Karnataka-State eligiblity test (K-SET) for lectureship in June 2019 and also Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for Life Sciences in February 2019. We appreciate her outstanding performance in all the competitive exams after putting so much hard work and dedication. Ms. Abhijna also emerged as the topper in MSc. Biochemistry exams in April 2018. Her achievement is an example to all the students of PG Biochemistry. It was her sincere dedication and perseverance that has helped her to get through these competitive exams with flying colors. We wish Ms. Abhijna the very best for a bright future ahead. Congratulations!!!