Panjab University faculty invited to be a ‘Distinguished Guest’ on Republic Day

Chandigarh, January 18, 2024: Inventors and patent holders play a very significant role in the economic development of a country. In yet another unique initiative to acknowledge the contribution and ingenuity of Indian inventors, Government of India has decided to invite Prof. Rohit Sharma, Project Leader, BioNEST, Panjab University, Chandigarh as a ‘Distinguished Guest’ to the Republic Day Parade on 26th January 2024 for making substantial contributions in the field of science and technology and raising the stature of India, globally.

Prof. Rohit Sharma has envisioned to foster and promote entrepreneurial ecosystem in Panjab University Chandigarh by creating technology & capacity infrastructure around the potential entrepreneurs/ trailblazers. With the aim of bringing Industry to academia, Prof. Rohit Sharma started his journey as a researcher, innovator, and a teacher. He brought about changes in conventional academic culture, inclining everyone towards protecting and commercializing their intellectual property.

He has worked on product development successfully and now wishes to bring in more focus on developing indigenous technologies so as to contribute towards Atam Nirbhar Bharat. Till now four products have been launched starting from “Apparatus for efficient growth of microbial culture at high temperatures” at Panjab University, Chandigarh in 2017. This is a patented product for efficient growth of microbial culture at high temperatures which was granted in 2023. He and his team won Pfizer IIT Innovation IP award in 2017 for designing and fabricating this incubator for the growth of extremophiles that grow at high temperatures. This incubator has overcome the problem of media drying/ charring caused due to high rates of evaporation at elevated temperatures for enough time.

Another patent entitled, “Nitrile hydrolyzing microbes for industrial use” was granted in 2021.Prof. Sharma and his team have been working on extremophilic enzymes which have a wide range of industrial and biotechnological applications. One such enzyme is nitrilase which has a major application in biodegradation of toxic and recalcitrant industrial wastes and is also a key player in the synthesis of high value multiple carboxylic acid-based compounds. He had also developed an improved culture medium for the efficient growth of these nitrile producing microbes that was recognized for the grant of patent in 2022.

He has undertaken novel initiatives and is leading many projects having a total funding of over 13.5 Cr. envisioning technology transfer and commercialization of the developed technologies/ products/ processes so that society can be benefitted through his efforts. One of his patents was granted in 2019. This focused on the production of esters (for biofuel) using novel enzyme that transesterifies the substrate into a useful molecule, Fatty acid methyl esters. The group has been working on lipase enzyme for over 20 years now and has understood the unleashed potential of this enzyme in industry as well.

Prof. Sharma’s laboratory is multidisciplinary with yet another patent been granted for working on the anti-breast cancer properties of plant extracts, mainly from a wild plant commonly known as ‘Jangli jalebi’ (Pithecellobiumdulce). This was in collaboration with two other faculty members of Panjab Universityback in 2011.He also received the Pfizer- IIT IP award 2018 for the patent of these anti-carcinogenic extracts in 2020.

His research group has already successfully developed many technologies and now the target is to have more of licensing of those technologies through our partner industries or other potential customers or buyers. He is presently working on and hope to have a B2B or B2C business models of operation for such products.

He has successfully mentored over a score of start-ups/ Innovators and has led BioNEST, Panjab University, Chandigarh to be the best incubator among Tier II cities in December 2023 at Global Bio India 2023 held at Bharat Mandapam, PragatiMaidan, New Delhi for their research and innovation. It is a matter of pride that the Government of India has invited Prof. Rohit Sharma to be ‘Distinguished Guest’ in the Republic Day parade on 26th January 2024.