National Environmental Engineering Research Institute

The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is a research institute created and funded by Government of India. It was established in Nagpur in 1958 with focus on water supply, sewage disposal, communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution and occupational diseases found common in post-independent India. NEERI is a pioneer laboratory in the field of environmental science and engineering and part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). NEERI has five zonal laboratories at Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. NEERI falls under the Ministry of Science and Technology (India) of central government^[1].

Mandate

NEERI states its mandate^[2] as:

1. To conduct research and developmental studies in environmental science and engineering.
2. To render assistance to the industries of the region, local bodies, etc. in solving the problems of environmental pollution.
3. To interact and collaborate with academic and research institutions on environmental science and engineering for mutual benefit.
4. To participate in CSIR thrust area and mission projects

Environmental Genomics at NEERI is an extension of microbial genome projects. It considers the existence, interaction, and survival of different gene pools with reference to each other in complex ecosystems. Approaches due to monitoring tools with versatile computer modeling and simulation techniques have provided a more holistic view of the interrelated aspects of environmental systems. Complexity of these systems can be understood in terms of its basic processes, i.e., physical, and chemical; and now its relevance being supplemented to biological processes, mainly due to advances in genomics studies. The energy flow and carbon transport in environmental systems is driven by microbial power, whose information is stored in DNA sequences, and with their organizational structure is considered as genes. At molecular level, environmental genomics is the study of structure, function, and interaction of the different gene pools, which are the constituents of the biogeochemical cycles of different components of the ecosystem. The broad area of this research essentially covers the study of either of the environmental factors, which can influence any life form including humans, plants, animals, and microorganisms .

EGD Team: Dr Hemant Purohit (Scientist and Head), Dr Atya Kapley (Scientist), Dr Asifa Qureshi (Scientist), Dr Anshuman Khardenavis (Scientist) Research Scholars: Ms. Leena Agrawal(PhD student), Ms Sneha Sagarkar(PhD student), Ms Sampada Puranik (PhD student), Ms Radhika Deshmukh (PhD student), Mr Rajesh Pal (PhD student), Ms Vasundhara Paliwal, Mr. Ravi P. More (PhD student Bioinformatics), Ms Pallavi, Ms Neeti Jadeja and Ms Sahali Ghosh.

References

External links

• Official website