R&D Programmes

MPTD’s major research focus is on microbial biotechnology. At the division, we undertake research on microbial technologies for various applications which spans food and nutraceuticals to bio-energy. Major activities in the division are listed below. More details can be obtained from the pages of Bioprocesses and Products and Biofuels and Biorefineries sections.

  1. Development of solid state and submerged fermentation processes for production of industrially important and speciality enzymes (eg. cellulase, beta glucosidase, phytase, esterases, amylase, chitinase, substrate specific aminopeptidases, keratinase etc)
  2. Integrated Process for production of second-generation ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass
  3. Biomass hydrolyzing enzyme blends
  4. Fermentative production of chemicals, raw materials and other metabolites (eg. lactic acid, amino acids, 2,5 FDCA, 2,3 BDO, squalene)
  5. Engineered Corynebacteriumfor biorefinery applications
  6. Production of Biopolymers (eg. poly hydroxyalkanoates, poly-gamma-glutamate, poly-L-lactic acid)
  7. Probiotics and nutraceuticals (eg. Lactic acid bacteria, exopolysaccharides, folate)
  8. Algal biotechnology for nutraceutical applications (eg. EPA rich algal oils, selenoproteins, algal biomass)
  9. Waste valorization through biotechnology (eg. biological production of chitin from shell fish waste, inocula for accelerated fibre extraction from biomass)
  10. Molecular rhizosphere ecology: microbiome, diversity, taxonomy, genome and function of root-associated bacteria
  11. Molecular plant-beneficial bacteria interactions under brackish conditions using Pokkalibacterplantistimulans(L1E11T) and Pokkali rice as model system
  12. Engineering of bio-mimicking membrane shapes in giant vesicles for synthetic biology applications
  13. Genomics, Transcriptomics and Proteomics for understanding cellulase regulation in filamentous fungi

Biorefinery wastes/by products to high value products (amino acids from biomass, xylonic acid from biomass, lignin-based wood adhesives etc)

  • Research Area :Microbial Processes and Technology