हिंदी
Chandigarh October 07, 2023:
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) provides financial assistance for Indian scientists working outside ICMR institutes to conduct research in the fields of medicine and allied disciplines aimed at improving health of Indians under its Extramural Research Programme. A research grant entitled “Establishment of vaccine candidate underpinning TLR and NLR dependent regulation of the immune response in Visceral Leishmaniasis” is being awarded to Dr. Deepak B. Salunke of Department of Chemistry and Prof. Sukhbir Kaur of Department of Zoology to conduct research towards the development of new vaccine formulations to prevent leishmaniasis, a clinical manifestation caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania.
Through this collaborative project functionalized TLR7/8 and NOD2 agonists will be synthesized and their nano formulations will be prepared in Dr. Salunke’s lab. to be used as adjuvants for vaccine to provide protection against the deadly disease visceral leishmaniasis.
This disease commonly known as kala-azar is endemic in eastern parts of the country and sporadic cases are also reported all over India. No licenced human vaccines are available for this disease and through this project the lead adjuvantic formulations will be evaluated with leishmania specific purified recombinant protein antigens designed and synthesized by a team of Prof. Sukhbir Kaur. Overall, the three-year project will involve synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry research strongly supported by in vitro cell based evaluation and in vivo animal immunization studies coupled with mechanistic investigation and immunological studies.
