Discipline and Specialization:

Food & Nutritional Biotechnology; Functional Foods

Training/advance exposure in the area of work:

1. In vitro adipogenesis model at IMTECH, Chandigarh, 2012.
2. Post-doctoral training on probiotics and prebiotics at Prof. Torkel Wadström and Prof. Åsa Ljungh laboratory at Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Medical Microbiology, Lund University, Sweden (May 2009 to Aug 2011).

Contribution to the scientific advancement :

1. Our group, for the first time suggested that whole grain and bran of finger and kodo millets supplementation could protect from high-fat diet induced lipid derangements and inflammatory status.
2. Millets supplementation could beneficially modulate gut bacteria and protects from high-fat diet induced metabolic alterations.
3. This is the first experimental evidence on the protective role of these millets in diet induced obesity (DIO).

Current area of research:

Recent studies suggested a link between obesity and gut microflora. Proinflammatory “Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)” originating from Gram negative bacteria translocate to the circulation causing low grade inflammation (endotoxemia) associated with obesity. Our research goal is to develop functional foods based on millets and its bioactives, dietary fibers, prebiotics, probiotics and other functional ingredients from different plant sources that could beneficially modulate gut microflora and protect from inflammation underlying obesity and metabolic syndrome. We use diet induced obese rodent models, nutrigenomic and metagenomic approach for evaluating the efficacy of bioactive ingredients and functional foods.

Publications (best five):

1. Sarma SM, Singh DP, Singh P, Khare P, Mangal P, Singh S, Bijalwan V, Boparai RK, Kaur J, Mantri S, Boparai RK, Mazumder K, Bishnoi M†, Bhutani KK, Kondepudi KK† (2017). Finger millet arabinoxylan protects mice from high-fat diet induced lipid derangements, inflammation, endotoxemia and gut bacterial dysbiosis. Int J Biol Macromol., In Press.

2. Singh DP, Singh J, Boparai RK, Zhu J, Mantri S, Khare P, Khardori R, Kondepudi KK, Chopra K, Bishnoi M. Isomalto-oligosaccharides, a prebiotic, functionally augment green tea effects against high fat diet-induced metabolic alterations via preventing gut dysbacteriosis in mice. Phramacological Research. 2017, In Press.

3. Deol PK, Khare P, Singh DP, Soman G, Bishnoi M, Kondepudi KK, Kaur IP. Managing colonic inflammation associated gut derangements by systematically optimised and targeted ginger extract-Lactobacillus acidophilus loaded pharmacobiotic beads. Int J Biological Macromolecules. 2017, In Press.

4. Singh DP, Khare P, Bijalwan V, Baboota RK, Singh J, Kondepudi KK, Chopra K, Bishnoi M. Co-administration of Isomalto-oligosaccharides augments metabolic health benefits of cinnamaldehyde in high fat diet fed mice. Biofactors, 2017, In Press.

5.Singh DP, Khare P, Zhu JH, Kondepudi KK†, Singh J, Baboota RK, Boparai RK, Khardori R, Chopra K†, Bishnoi M†. (2016). A novel cobiotic based preventive approach against high fat diet-induced adiposity, non-alcoholic fatty liver and gut derangement in mice. Int J Obes (Lond). 40(3):487-96. (IF: 5.337) († Corresponding author)

Awards and Fellowships

1. Certificate of appreciation for securing 2nd rank in the PhD comprehensive exam at Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras, Chennai, India.

2. Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test of Engineering (GATE 2002); Life Sciences; 88.4 percentile.

3. Cash prize for Distinction at Master of Science in Biochemistry (3rd rank in the University) during 1999-2001

4. Certificate for getting highest marks in Biochemistry during B.Sc. 1st Year, in 1996