Newsletter of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (DU)

May 2020

bridges@sriramachandra.edu.in2May ’20

From the Editor’s DeskBridges Committee

Patrons:

Shri. V. R. VenkataachalamChancellor

Shri. R. V. SengutuvanPro-Chancellor

Advisory Board:

Prof. P. V. VijayaraghavanVice-Chancellor

Prof. K.V. SomasundaramProfessor of Eminence &Advisor (Academic)

Prof. S. RangaswamiProfessor of Eminence inMedical Education

Editor-in-Chief:

Dr. C. R. Hemalatha

Editor:

Dr. Nithya Jagdish

Co-Editor:

Dr. P. A. Abhinand

Editorial Board:

Prof. P. Antony Leo Aseer

Dr. Cynthia Milton

Dr. V. Deepa Parvathi

Dr. Krupa M.

Dr. S. Sheela Ravinder

Secretarial Assistance:

Ms. G. Anitha

Photography:

Mr. A. Anand Kumar

Design:

Mr. S. Velayudam

Cherished Readers,

Fennel Hudson claims, “May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most

alive.” We must call it a factual quote indeed, as amidst all chaos this comforting line

spreads streaks of hope far and wide.

A new biobank known as the Microbiota Vault recently received the go ahead signal to move

on to the pilot stage. The ultimate goal is to gather beneficial microorganisms from human

populations whose microbiomes are uncompromised by antibiotics, processed diets and

other ill effects of modern society, divulges Global News. It is one of the best ways to guard

our rich natural resources for future generations near the 'Doomsday' Vault' where the

world's 930,000 varieties of food crop seeds are kept in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago.

thEvery year International Nurses Day is celebrated on 12 May to commemorate the birth

anniversary of Florence Nightingale. This day also celebrates the contribution of the nurses

to the society around the world which has been rightly showcased in the Happenings.

True to William Shakespeare's words, we always feel the vibes that everyone in the SRIHER

family is, “as full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer."

…Stay safe Stay connected…

Dr. C. R. HemalathaEditor-in-Chief

Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists (ASLPs) are professionals who are in high demand both in India and abroad. In India, ASLPs are those who have completed their Bachelor's in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, as double major; and specialised Master's program in Audiology or Speech Language Pathology from colleges recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). BASLP program covers four years with three years of course work followed by 10 months of clinical internship training. Master's program is for two years duration with focused specialty clinics and advances in the field including research. These degrees enable professionals to be registered with the RCI, a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. Registered professionals are authorized to practice as audiologists and/or speech language pathologists (ASLPs) in the country.

ASLPs handle communication (speech, language and hearing) and swallowing problems that arise in a wide age range of population from newborns to elderly. These typically include assessment and treatment of individuals with hearing loss, tinnitus, auditory processing difficulty, voice problems, stroke and related neurological disorders, swallowing disorders, etc. in adults; and developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, delays in speech and language, stammering, poor speech clarity, learning disability, etc. which are more common among growing children. ASLPs are also skilled in assessing and treating newborns and infants. They help identify hearing loss at birth, and feeding issues in new born babies.

The professionals deal with technological advances in programming digital hearing aids, mapping cochlear implants and other amplification devices. Advanced digital signal processing techniques are used by ASLPs to assess refined and coordinated actions of speech and swallow mechanisms which assist the medical team in providing comprehensive care to patients in a hospital. More about the scope of practice, and work settings of ASLPs can be read from

SRIHER takes pride in being the first university to offer B. ASLP degree program in Tamil Nadu since 1995. Post graduate specialization degrees and Ph. D. in this specialty area are also offered since 2004.

https://www.ishaindia.org.in/pdf/Scope-of-Practice-Documents_Feb2016_nocvrpage.pdf

Bridges

Cover Photo Courtesy:

Mr. STG Siva Surya Narayan II yr., M. Sc. Medical Bioinformatics

Did you know?Professional Avenues

bridges@sriramachandra.edu.inMay ’20

Bridges

Dept. of Oral Pathology & M i c r o b i o l o g y conducted a webinar and Facebook live session on

thon 30 May. The speaker was Prof. W. M. Tilakaratne, Head, Dept. of Oral Pathology, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Around 1700 registrants from

India, Srilanka, Malaysia, Nepal and Indonesia participated.

Clinicopathological Correlation of Fibro-

osseous Lesions

IQAC conducted a webinar on

on t h 28 May. T he web ina r

provided a comprehensive u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e Institutional Best Practices. Dr. W. Selvamurthy, President, Amity Science, Technology

and Innovation Foundation, Noida and Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, Founder-President and Chairman, AMITY Group were the resource persons along with SRIHER faculty members. About 1382 faculty members across the country participated.

Best Practices in Higher Education Institutions

Happenings

Centre for Sports Science in association with the Tamil Nadu

Physical Education and Sports University (TNPESU) under the

aegis of the Indian Association of Sports Medicine organized a th thseries of on 28 & 29 May.

The resource persons included international faculty members from

Australia, South Africa, Malaysia and eminent national experts. The

webinars were streamed live on the TNPESU YouTube channel with

over 2000 participants.

International Sports Science Webinars

Dept. of Oral Pathology

& Mic rob io log y, S r i

Ramachandra Faculty of

Dental Sciences conducted

a webinar on

thon 8 May. The speaker was

Prof. Shreenivas Shanrappa Vanaki, Principal & Head, Dept. of Oral

Pathology & Microbiology, PMNM Dental College & Hospital

Bagalkot, Karnataka. 25 participants including faculty members and

postgraduates of Dept. of Oral Pathology, SRIHER (DU) and of

Rajas Dental College and Hospital, Tirunelveli participated.

Dental Caries

- The Acid Curtain Raiser

S r i R a m a c h a n d r a Faculty of Nursing

commemorated the

by organizing online events on the theme, 'Nurses: A Voice to Lead

th th– Nursing the World to Health' from 12 to 16 May a

The events included:

Ms. Nightingale 2020 slogan contest

195 students participated.

th200 Birth Anniversary of Florence Nightingale and the International Nurses Day

thnd 30 May.

·

· Florathan 2020

· Pictosaurus game

About 111 nurses and

3

D e p t . o f O r a l P a t h o l o g y & M i c r o b i o l o g y conducted a webinar on

with Rajas Dental College & H o s p i t a l ,

ndTirunelveli on 22 May. Rare slides were presented by postgraduates from Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Dental Sciences and Rajas Dental College. 25 delegates benefited.

Histopathological Slide Discussion

The Clinical Society Meeting and Student Academic Forum Committee, Faculty of Dental Sciences conducted a series of webinars.

st1 webinar onthon 11 May. The speaker was Dr. D.

Arunachalam, Adjunct Professor of Periodontology & Implantology, Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Dental Sciences, SRIHER (DU). 221 participants benefited.

rd th3 webinar on on 18 May. The speaker was Dr. R. C. Jagat Reddy, Prof. & Head, Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Puducherry. 250 participants benefited.

th st4 webinar on on 21 May. The speaker was Prof. M. Arvind, Academic Head, Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Saveetha Dental College, Chennai. 237 participants benefited.

th5 webinar on on th25 May. The speaker was Prof. Ravikiran Ongole, Head, Dept. of

Oral Medicine & Radiology, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore. 217 participants benefited.

th6 webinar on - a motivational lecture by Prof. S. Rajendiran, Dept. of Pathology, SRIHER (DU) on

th27 May. 113 participants benefited.

·

·

·

·

·

·

nd2 webinar on on th14 May. The speaker was Prof. C. Krithika, Vice Principal,

Administrative Head, Dept. of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Saveetha Dental College, Chennai. 96 participants benefited.

Aerosol and Infection Control Management in

COVID-'19 Era

Basics of CBCT and Applications in Dentistry

Virtual Implant Placement on CBCT

Reviving and Promoting a Vanishing Art

Oral Manifestations of Systemic Diseases

You Are Right

bridges@sriramachandra.edu.in4May ’20

Bridges

The world population keeps growing every day and so does the demand for meat. Certain

estimates show that by 2050 the population will surpass 10 billion people but the available

land for production of meat and agriculture will not grow exponentially high.

Conventional methods adopted to grow meat for the increasing population unfortunately

has many destructive policies. Most of the forests are cut down for accommodating more animals. Animal agriculture accounts for almost

13% - 18% of greenhouse gas emission, one third of earth's ice-free land, 16% of earth's freshwater resources and one third of earth's grain

production. Apart from this, roughly 0.65 gigatons of CO are emitted per year due to extensive clearing of trees and 75% of the Brazilian 2

Amazon was deforested for housing the livestock sector. The hazards include evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and spreading of

zoonotic diseases to humans.

To overcome such hardships of conventional and commercial animal agriculture, few laboratories around the world are trying to produce

artificial meat to meet the current demand. Scientists intend to recreate the meat as close to the one found in nature. Many studies have proved

that this 'artificial meat' is fit for human consumption. This includes recreating the marbled effect of both the proteinaceous muscle fiber

surrounded by fatty tissue.

This cultured meat will be produced by a series of steps, beginning with the collection of cells from a live animal, inducing the somatic cell into

a more specifically induced pluripotent stem cell from which various types of muscles and fatty tissues will be grown. It is necessary to provide

an ambiance replicating that of the actual animal body. These individual tissues will be grown in serum containing the essentials for growth

and later the fibers and fats will be combined thus replicating the original form.

Cultured meat is presented today as a high-tech product that has the potential to be both ecologically and morally responsible. But it can only

become an alternative to traditional meat by conquering the world market – in other words, by being affordably priced for consumers and

profitable for producers, and that requires high-volume, low-cost production techniques.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

The India Vision Institute (IVI), Chennai conducted an online IVI Essilor Young Optometry Researcher Rolling Trophy Symposium thon 12 May. Ms. Shakthi Pradheepa P., IV yr., B. Optom. was one of the five students from various institutions across India, shortlisted

for oral presentation. She won the best paper for her presentation titled, 'Comparison of Facial Anthropometry and Frame Measurements

in Spectacle-wearing Children' and was awarded a travel grant of ₹5000. The rolling trophy was awarded to the Dept. of Optometry.

Believe it or Not‘Cultured Meat’ Market

Bridges

bridges@sriramachandra.edu.inMay ’20 5

Global NewsA Noah's Ark for the Human Microbiomes

In order to safeguard humanity's long-term health, an international team of scientists are

attempting to create a Noah's Ark for microbes. Taking inspiration from the Svalbard

Global Seed Vault which protects the world's crop diversity from natural or human-

made disasters, the team proposes to create the Microbiota Vault to preserve human

microbiome collections that may one day be used to prevent disease. “If we are just at the beginning of really understanding

and elucidating what is the role of the microbiota, it is of course precautionary to at least safeguard part of this diversity

before it just goes away,” says Dominik Steiger, COO, EvalueScience, Zurich.

Studies, mostly in animals, suggest that a missing microbe or a dearth of microbial diversity may contribute to a wide range

of health conditions, from obesity and inflammatory bowel disorders to C. difficile infection and Lou Gehrig's disease.

Researchers suspect that many modern practices contribute to the decline of our beneficial microbial partners, including

being born by cesarean section, eating a low-fiber diet and overusing antibiotics.

“Rural people are urbanizing and traditional people living in savannas and in jungles are moving to cities,” says Maria

Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Microbiologist, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N. J., and a leader of the Microbiota Vault

initiative. “What we see is that we are losing [microbiome] diversity, and in parallel there is a correlation with increase in

chronic diseases.”

Dominguez-Bello has worked with local researchers in Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil to collect and study stool

samples from indigenous populations in those countries. In 2017, she and her colleagues published a study in Science that

shows that the more industrialized a society is; less diverse is its microbiome. The gut diversity of people in the United

States is almost half that of the most isolated Amerindians living in South America, she says.

Dominguez-Bello's research collections have been in jeopardy many times, from political unrest when her lab was based in

Venezuela to Hurricane Sandy after she moved her lab to New York University. So the idea for the Microbiota Vault, first

proposed in a 2018 Science paper, is that microbiome collections, many of which like Dominguez-Bello's already exist in

research or health facilities all over the world, would be maintained locally, as well as stored in a backup vault in a politically

stable location.

The feasibility report recommends Switzerland or Norway, possibly even alongside or within the Svalbard Global

Seed Vault. The report also suggests that specimens could be preserved by cryopreservation, cooling them to very

low temperatures. As a backup, researchers should also consider using a less tested freeze-drying technique

known as lyophilization. The initiative, run as a global nonprofit, would encourage the development of more

microbiome collections by creating courses to train researchers across the globe to collect samples from indigenous

populations in their regions.

“The Microbiota Vault really seems like it has huge potential to benefit human health,” says Matthew Kelly, a pediatrician

and global health specialist at Duke University, who is not involved with the initiative. But Kelly cautions that the ethics of

the project are complex, and researchers will need to clearly communicate with indigenous communities about the benefits,

if any, to their participation in this research. Ethics will be a major component of the courses, says Dominguez-Bello. In a

2016 opinion piece in Nature Microbiology, she and co-authors state that any commercialization resulting from samples

collected from indigenous peoples “should be done with the highest ethical standards, respect for native cultures, and

involving a mediator of their choice, familiarized with financial systems and terms, who can defend their interests.”Many

indigenous communities also recognize the potential health benefit of banking their microbes, as they too are moving

toward industrialization, she says.

Source: M.G. Dominguez Bello et al. Preserving microbial diversity. Science. Vol. 362, October 5, 2018, p. 33. doi:

10.1126/science.aau8816.

6May ’20 For internal circulation only

Bridges

Furry Fondle

Ms. Madhumitha Venkatesh, I yr., MBBS Mr. V. Kaushal, II yr., B.Sc. Clinical Nutrition

Ms. R. Dharshna Varman, I yr., MBBS Ms. R. Balapriya, III yr., B.Sc. BMS

ColorsYour CornerAwesome Array

Smiles of Nature Amber Wonder

Through Mud and BloodTo give and give it allHas always been their callThrough day and night they fightAs a test of their collective mightThe sounds of cry and fearHas always been the one that they hearTheir arms and legs don't get tiredFor that they have been hiredTheir past has been so prettyFor now death has become a certaintyThey face a mighty foeAgainst whom they stand toe to toeThe wounds and scars define their mettleNot all the badges or the medalsWe reap upon their sacrificeEven peace now has a priceThrough mud and blood they perishTheir memories are ours to cherishThrough mud and blood they rideOur soldiers, our nation's pride.

Ms. Anu Joseph, III yr., BASLP

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Ms. E. Sheeba, IV yr., BPT

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