Every cell in our body is equipped with a form of housecleaning machinery called autophagy. Autophagy is universally present in all cells from yeast to humans. During nutrient starvation, autophagic processes promote cell survival by degrading superfluous cytoplasmic proteins and organelles. The cytoplasmic cargo is captured by a cup shaped structure (phagophore) which elongates and expands to form vesicles called autophagosomes.
The major research thrust in this group is to harness the power of wet-chemical synthesis methods, to create novel materials that display unique physical properties. In nanoscale particles and composites, one can access a range of physical phenomena, such as quantum confinement or plasmonic effects, whose influences can be modified and balanced through choice of material(s) and careful control over particle size and shape.
Understanding the physics behind these novel properties allows us to identify and target particular materials, shapes and heterostructures that will produce desirable or simply unique properties and helps us to design, perform and interpret advanced spectroscopic probes of synthesized materials to observe the sought-after effects and elucidate the effects of small changes in structure.
Our group is interested in the syntheses and study of electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals and nanoscale assemblies of these particles. The interest in these quantum confined systems stem from the fact that these tiny fragments exhibit a wide range of properties that can be tuned by changing the size of the particles. For example, the emission properties can be tuned over the entire visible region.
Of the approximately ten genetic families (subtypes), HIV-1 subtype-C (HIV-1C) causes nearly half of global HIV infections and is responsible for nearly all the infections in India. What causes underlie the uneven distribution of HIV families and regional domination of certain subtypes?
