Arise! Awake! And Stop not till the goal is reached!

RAMAKRISHNA MISSION VIDYAPITH CHENNAI VIVEKANANDA INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL MYCOLOGY (VINSTROM)

Service through Science

VINSTROM was started on ; till the year 2013, twenty three papers have been published in peer reviewed journals such as: Biodiversity & Conservation Botanica Marina Canadian Journal of Microbiology Current Science Fungal Biology Fungal Biology Reviews Fungal Diversity Journal of Basic Microbiology Mycological Progress Mycological Research Mycology Mycosphere Sydowia

Equipment Maintained in VINSTROM Air conditioners Refrigerators Deep freezer Spectrophotometer UV transilluminator Rotavapour Glass distillation unit Digital pH meter Autoclave Automatic shaker Electrophoresis unit Binocular microscope Hot air oven Microwave oven Water bath Incubator Laminar Air Flow chamber HP scan jet 2400 Light chambers Magnetic stirrer Nikon Bright field Phase contrast microscope NUV lamps Refrigerated centrifuge Electronic balance Trinocular Microscope CXR II and Motic BA 300 Vortex Mixer Pentax Zoom lens Computer with Laser jet printers Digital cameras (Sony, Olympus) Ricoh 35mm SLR camera Vaccum pump High speed internet facility

Scheme - Year Research Projects handled

Amount Received

Fungal cultures maintained Endophytes from trees of the Western Ghats Endophytes from marine source Litter fungi from Western Ghats forests - 105

“Endophytic fungi of endemic plants of Arunachal Pradesh: Diversity and novel metabolites”. (Rs lakhs)  Department of Biotechnology (Government of India), Twinning Programme - North East grant for the project “Endophytic fungi of endemic plants of Arunachal Pradesh: Diversity and novel metabolites”. (Rs lakhs) “The potential of fungal endophytes as biocontrol organisms”. (Rs lakhs)  Indo–German Collaborative Project (in collaboration with University of Goettingen, Germany) funded by Department of Biotechnology (Government of India) on “The potential of fungal endophytes as biocontrol organisms”. (Rs lakhs) Ongoing projects

Collaborations Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher, Department of Plant Biochemistry, Westphalian Wilhelm's University Muenster, Germany. Dr. Florenz Sasse, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany. Prof. Stan Faeth, School of Ecological Sciences, Arizona State University, USA. Prof. John Johnson, University of New Brunswick, St. John, Canada. Prof. R. Sukumar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Prof. Mukesh Doble, Dept. of Biotechnology, IIT Madras. Prof. S. N. Gummadi, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Madras. Dr. N. Thirunavukkarasu, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Biology & Plant Biotechnology, RKM Vivekananda College, Chennai. Contd…

Prof. R. Uma Shaanker, Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. Prof. M. S. Reddy, Department of Biotechnology, Thapar University, Patiala, India. Prof. N. P. Money, Department of Botany and Western Program, Miami University, Oxford, OH, United States. Dr. T. S. Murali, Division of Biotechnology, Manipal Life Sciences Centre, Manipal University, Manipal. Dr. Venkat Gopalan, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. Prof. Dr. Stefan Vidal, Department of Crop Sciences, Agricultural Entomology, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany. Prof. Petr Karlowsky, Department of Molecular Pathology and Mycotoxin Research, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany. Prof. Dinkar Sahal, Research Scientist, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. Collaborations

Suryanarayanan was invited to give the Key Note Address at the 25th Genetics of Microorganisms Congress, São Paulo, Brazil, March Suryanarayanan delivered the Keynote address at Intergovernmental Framework for European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST Action FA1103), Trento, Italy Nov Suryanarayanan was invited by the Centre for Biotechnology, Manaus, the Amazon, Brazil for discussion on the use of endophytes in biocontrol.

‘ Pharmaceuticals from marine and marine-derived fungi assocaited with seagrasses and seaweeds of Tamil Nadu coast’. (Rs lakhs)  – Department of Biotechnology (Government of India), research grant for the project. ‘ Pharmaceuticals from marine and marine-derived fungi assocaited with seagrasses and seaweeds of Tamil Nadu coast’. (Rs lakhs) Enzymes of pharmaceutical importance from tropical microfungi’. (Rs lakhs)  – Indo-German Collaborative Project (in collaboration with University of Muenster, Germany)-Department of Biotechnology (Government of India) research grant for the project. ‘ Enzymes of pharmaceutical importance from tropical microfungi’. (Rs lakhs) Completed projects

 Nature  Biological Reviews  Evolution  Annual Review of Phytopathology  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, NY.  Fungal Diversity  Mycological Research  Canadian Journal of Botany  Canadian Journal of Microbiology  Ecology Letters  Fungal Biology Reviews  Phytopathology  New Phytologist  Journal of Natural Products Publications Cited in

 Prof. Sidney Altman, Nobel Laureate (1989) and Sterling Professor. Yale University, visited VINSTROM (April 26th 2008) and discussed with students and gave a lecture on his field of research.  Suryanarayanan was Awarded Fulbright Nehru Senior Research Fellowship for studying the feasibility of using endophytes for ’’greener’’ biofuel at Dept. of Biochemistry, Ohio State University, USA to study. September 2011 – March A brief note of Achievements

Prof. Sidney Altman (Nobel Laureate), Yale University, USA Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, MSSRF, Chennai Mr. Erwin Wendland, German Consulate, Germany Prof. J. Johnson, Univ. New Brunswick, Canada Prof. B. Moerschbacher, University of Munster, Germany Dr. F. Sasse, German Centre for Biotechnology, Germany Prof. Jim White, Rutgers, New Jersey, USA Prof. C.A. Reddy, East Lansing, Michigan, USA Dr. R. Geeta, University of Stony Brooke, USA Contd….. Visit by Scientists

Dr. Sujaya Rao, Oregon State University, USA. Dr. Venkat Gopalan, The Ohio State University, USA. Dr. Baskar, Indian Institute of Technology Chennai. Prof. A. Raman, University of Sydney, Australia. Prof. B. Moeschbacher, University of Muenster, Germany. Dr. N.E. El Gueddari, University of Muenster, Germany. Dr. F. Sasse, GBF, Germany. Dr. A. Srinivasan, Harward, USA. Prof. J.L. Azevedo, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Prof. P.T. Lacava, Brazil. Dr. H. de Melo, Brazil. Dr. M.A. Zaman, Dhaka University, Bangladesh. Dr. Stefen Vidal, George-August-University, Goettingen,Germany. Visit by Scientists