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Manipal Centre for Virus Research gets $1.143m US grant
August 23,2013
Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR), Manipal University, Manipal has been awarded a Research Cooperative Agreement Grant worth US$ 1.143 million for a period of five years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United State Department of Health and Human Services through the Coordinating Office of Global Health (GH). The first year grant will be US$ 250,000/- and has an exciting prospect of international research collaboration and additional funding.
National Institute of Virology, Pune and the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, both under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India are the only other recipients of this type of a grant from CDC.
The award was for the grant application submitted by Dr G Arun kumar, Professor and Head, MCVR and Dr TMA Pai Endowed Chair in Translational Virology for the project “Hospital Based Surveillance of Acute Febrile Illness in Western Ghat Region of India” for detecting Etiologies of Emerging Infectious Disease in the Western Ghat Region of Karnataka and Kerala.
The principal investigator for the grant is Dr Arun Kumar and the co-investigators will be from the departments and Institutions of Manipal University. Department of Statistics, Public Health, Microbiology (KMC Manipal/KMC Mangalore), Community Medicine (KMC Manipal) and School of Communication are the co-investigators.
This is a type of grant where, in addition to financial support, there will be technical support from the sponsoring agency leading to significant capacity building in the host institution. This is a landmark achievement for Manipal University in its research endeavours.
Manipal University study shows workplace radiation exposure damages sperm
August 02,2013
Fertility experts of Manipal University have in a study found that long term exposure to radiation at workplace could play havoc on semen quality. The findings suggest that male health workers handling X-rays or gamma radiation sources on a regular basis for a prolonged period of time have been found to produce poor quality sperm cells. The results were published in a leading American Journal “PlosOne” in the last week of July 2013.
It was the first time that a team of Indian fertility experts from Manipal University analyzed sperm quality of 83 men who worked at various hospitals in diagnostic or therapeutic radiation units over a period of 3-18 years. The results were compared with 51 men of similar age group who worked in the hospitals with similar life style, but not exposed to radiation.
The men's semen quality was tested for sperm number, vitality, shape and its DNA quality. The amount of radiation absorbed by the health workers was correlated with sperm quality.
The researchers found more abnormal characteristics in the semen of men exposed to the radiation, such as decrease in sperm motility, altered shape and vitality. More importantly, they found that sperm DNA quality was severely compromised in workers who were exposed to higher radiation dose. Several of the abnormalities correlated with the number of years of radiation exposure.
Though we did not find increased incidence of infertility and miscarriages in these workers, the genetic and epigenetic abnormalities observed in the sperm is a serious concern. If the sperm DNA is not maintained in a right manner, it could impact the next generation's health," says Dr. Satish Adiga, Professor in Clinical Embryology who headed the research team in Manipal.
Dr H Vinod Bhat, Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal University who is also a Professor in Preventive medicine and public health, said “this is an important observation and there is a need to review our exposure protocols and make sure that the health of the professionals and their children are not compromised”.
The research team includes: Drs Guruprasad Kalthur, Pratap Kumar, Dayanidhi Kumar, Shubhashree Uppangala, Sujithraj Salian, Srinidhi Chandraguthi, Sandhya from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Srinivas Challapalli from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Krishnamurthy, Navya Jain from National Centre for Biological Science (NCBS), Bangalore. The study was funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India.
The study was funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India.
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