Research Projects

State the main problem you seek to address: In India, Karnataka Seafood Industries exports at least 4 lac tonnes of shrimps annually, generating an equivalent amount of chitinaceous waste, containing about 30-58% of chitin. However, due to the insoluble nature of chitin, it has no useful application. However, its breakdown produces chitin-oligomers (COs) with numerous medical and food applications. Hence, it is essential to modify chitin to valuable COs. The current chemical conversion method to produce COs is random and non-sustainable, resulting in the cost of 1 mg purified COs being approximately 20 to 30 USD. Besides, the chemicals released increase the load of environmental pollution. The COs are imported into India. Thus, investigating indigenous methods to achieve cost-effective chitin hydrolysis at a commercial scale is necessary. Enzyme-based green technology may solve all the problems associated with the indigenous production of COs. Chitinase is one such enzyme that can convert chitin to COs; however, this enzyme needs chemically pretreated chitin, which is not sustainable and economical. Therefore, there is a need for an enzyme which can act directly on the insoluble chitin to produce COs sustainably. Why is it important to solve it? Nearby us, every year, around 30–58% of the chitin is extracted by deproteinisation and demineralisation processes from lacs of tonnes of chitinaceous waste produced by seafood industries, which is unfit for human consumption. This chitin is converted to another useful chemical, chitosan, through hazardous acid treatment. However, the chitosan yield is very low due to nonspecific chemical treatment. COs are another high-value chitin product, mainly imported into India, as no sustainable method is available to produce COs in India. Hence, to increase the indigenous chitin-based economy and reduce environmental pollution, it is necessary to convert chitin into COs by sustainable and indigenous methods. Applicant Research Capability to complete the project: Numerous seafood processing industries are nearby, generating substantial chitinaceous waste. My PhD research was related to chitin chemicals, in which I used N-acetylglucosamine (monomeric unit derived from chitin) as a substrate for the enzymatic reaction catalysed by N-acetylglucosaminyl-phosphatidylinositol de-N-acetylase (Gpi12) involved in the second step of the GPI anchor biosynthesis pathway. Thus, during my PhD, I learned the importance of chitin chemicals and their derivatives in several research applications. This connection prompted me to get more insight into this issue. While searching the statistics about seafood industries in Karnataka, I came to know the enormous amounts of chitinaceous waste being generated, not only in Karnataka but also in India, from which chitin is extracted, but it is unfit for human or animal consumption. Initial work has also started with Prof. Raval, to develop a Sustainable Bioprocess to achieve our objectives.