(ii) The chemistry may occur at much lower temperatures than those commonly encountered on Earth, e.g. at temperatures as low as a few Kelvin in the interstellar medium thus emphasizing so-called ‘barrierless’ chemical reactions.

(iii) Chemical species not commonly found on Earth may play a key role in astrochemistry e.g. the molecular ions H3+ and HeH+ both of which are believed to have played a key role in the first chemical reactions to have ever occurred in the history of the universe.

Obtaining information on the different chemical environments within our universe has relied critically upon the continuing technological advances in observational astronomy, astrophysics and computer modelling combined with a growing experimental programme that seeks to recreate such conditions in the laboratory. However, it has only been in the last two to three decades that our knowledge of the major chemical processes underpinning the chemical evolution in the Universe has developed sufficiently that we may now, with some confidence, propose reasonable hypotheses to describe some of the observational data and explore how chemistry affects star/planet formation and postulate the role of astrochemistry in the formation of molecules essential to the emergence of life - the latter being a core part of the new scientific discipline of ‘Astrobiology’ upon which much of the space programmes will be focused in the 21st Century.

Astrochemistry had entered a new era with the advent of new telescopes operating in the radio to terahertz wavelength exploring the interstellar medium. It is a long-standing aspiration to use chemical properties of various interstellar species for the measurement of physical properties of molecules clouds and star forming regions. Circumstellar disk is a natural by-product of a rotating cloud collapse. These disks are the birth sites of the planetary systems and are thus called the protoplanetary disks. Study of the chemical composition of these disks will provide some estimation of the initial chemical composition of future planets.

Session Chair:

Dr Bhalamurugan Sivaraman (INYAS) Reader, Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Email: bhala@prl.res.in

Session co-Chair:

Dr Pankaj Kumar (INYAS) Scientist E, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Group, Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi -110067, Email:pkb@iuac.res.in

2.Optical Techniques for Diagnostics

Non-destructive testing and label free diagnostics are cutting-edge research areas across several disciplines of science and engineering. Particularly in physical systems as well as in health monitoring device technology these diagnostic techniques are of immense use. Be it either detecting the microfractures in a semiconductor chip or a stress levels in a novel material or defects in a fabricated device, optical diagnostic techniques play an important role. Needless to say, they are also used in early detection of diseases in humans. Quantitative information coupled with image analysis makes this area highly interdisciplinary one involving researchers from varied background and expertise. In this session we will see the culmination of researchers using optics for different applications.

Session Chair:

Dr. V. Ramanathan IIT(BHU) Varanasi Email: vraman.chy@iitbhu.ac.in; vraman.iitk@gmail.com

Session co-Chair:

Dr. Rajan Jha Department of Physics, IIT Bhubaneshwar Email: rjha@iitbbs.ac.in

3. 2D Materials and Spectroscopy

Over the last few years, graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted much attention due to their rich physics and potential practical applications, e.g., quantum devices, high speed memories, bio-sensors, actuators, filters, components for nanoelectronics. Nevertheless, recent advances in 2D materials have raised pertinent questions about their interactions with biological moieties. Especially graphene, which was the first demonstrated 2D atomic crystal defying Mermin- Wagner theorem !, has been at the heart of research in nanoscience and engineering owing to its extraordinary strength, stiffness, thermal and electrical conductivity, as well as other exceptional physical properties. Graphene research has also revealed many new aspects of basic science due to the special quality of the graphene quasi-particles behaving as massless Dirac fermions owing to linear dispersion relation near six symmetry points.

The central dogma of unlocking the properties of 2D materials is the understanding of low energy quasi-particle excitations such as magnetic, electronic and phononic excitation, associated with spin, charge and mass degrees of freedom, respectively. Spectroscopy, Raman in particular have played a crucial role in the present understanding of these exotic 2D nano-scale systems via unravelling the coupling between phonons and quasi-particle excitations as a function of different external stimuli. This session is aimed to focus on the current development in the field of 2D materials, a field which started with the invention of Graphene in 2004 and has been now joined by a large number of other 2D materials, covering the aspects from basic science to applications.

Session Chair:

Dr. Pradeep Kumar, School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi- 175005

Session Co-Chair:

Dr. Yogesh Chauhan, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Email: yogeshsingh.chauhan@gmail.com

4. Genome Editing and Specialized Forms of DNA

The discovery of DNA double helix in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick was a hallmark for structure function relationships in biomolecules, paving the way for enormous conceptual advances in modern molecular biology. Apart from B-DNA described by them, we are now aware of diverse roles played by specialized forms of DNA, such as Z-DNA (transcription and RNA editing), G-quadruplexes (regulation and telomere maintenance), i-motifs (promoters), ADNA in double-stranded RNA and a few RNA-DNA hybrids etc. On the other hand, our understanding of genome organization and regulation is also improving constantly, enabling in vitro DNA manipulations using enzymes such as DNA polymerase, restriction endonuclease, DNA ligase, etc. Recombinant DNA technology has emerged as an effective tool to study functional genomics. Despite major technological advances over past six decades, there are several challenges in the field of genomics and DNA function that need our attention and this session will address two of these, namely, structure based functionality of DNA molecules, and site-specific alterations in the genome.

Genome editing using CRISPR Cas9 has revolutionized the field of genome editing because of its adaptability to a wide variety of applications. The method, per se, refers to editing nucleotides in the genome of cultured cells or living organisms, and has advanced incredibly in past two decades with the advent of engineered nucleases and the intrinsic DNA repair mechanism. Several engineered protein and RNA-guided nucleases such as ZFN, TALEN and CRISPR-Cas9 has been developed not only to model and investigate disease mechanisms but also to study the underlying complexities of basic biological processes. Numerous gene therapy trials based on the technology are currently underway and the method has been used to successfully manipulate genetic information in diverse organisms and plants with tremendous potential for health and social benefits. Efforts are also being made to enhance the efficiency of CRISPR Cas9 system based on structure based design principle.

Together, these two themes have a wide range of potential applications ranging from basic research, agriculture, biomedicine, generating germline animal models, somatic genome engineering, functional genome screening and in treating genetic diseases. This session aims to bring young researchers working on diverse areas of genome editing and role of unusual nucleic acids in cell biology in India together for networking and brainstorming session in the proposed FoS meeting along with scientists from interdisciplinary areas.

Chair of Session:

Dr. Moulinath Acharya, NIBMG, Kalyani (INYAS) Email: moulinath@gmail.com

Co-Chair:

Dr. Rohini Garg, SNU, Noida, (INYAS), Email: gargrohini20@gmail.com

5. Soft Matter Science & Engineering

Soft materials include a wide variety of materials such as liquid crystals, polymers, biomaterials, and colloidal systems with a unique common feature that these can be deformed even by room temperature thermal fluctuations. Soft materials are involved in every aspect of our lives such as adhesives, food ingredients, paints, cosmetics, optical devices, surfactants, and biomaterials and therefore there is a great need to understand the underlying science of soft materials which cannot be simply predicted directly from molecular understanding. Tendency to self-organize at mesoscopic scale make the soft materials scientifically more complex in understanding or predicting their behavior.

This field has seen a tremendous growth over the past few decades worldwide. Even in India, there is a very active soft matter community working on cutting edge areas of this highly interdisciplinary field. International conference, Compflu and a meeting of young researchers, Soft Matter Young Investigator’s meeting are being organized regularly from last few years. There is a very active platform of Soft matter researchers in Pune-Mumbai region including various institutes like IIT Bombay, NCL Pune, TIFR, BARC, ICT Mumbai, IISER Pune and Pune University.

This proposed session on Soft Matter Science and Engineering will create an interface between young scientists from Physical, Chemical, Biological, Materials and Engineering sciences in line with the theme of Frontiers of Science meeting to understand the biological phenomenon from different perspectives.

Session Chair:

Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma, Dept. of Chemical Engg., IIT Hyderabad, Email:cssharma@iith.ac.in

Session Co-Chair:

Dr. Mudrika Khandelwal, Dept. of Materials Sci. & Engg., IIT Hyderabad; Email:mudrika@iith.ac.in

6. Chemical & Nanoscience Strategies for Disease Biology

Many human diseases can be better understood through comparative investigations of cellular function and mechanism between healthy and affected individuals. Improved healthcare measures can be developed via such mechanistic investigations that may allow monitoring of disease progression with advanced tools for detection and treatment. This session is based on generation and application of new strategies for disease biology based on innovative chemistry and nano science technologies.

Newly developed chemical strategies for effective therapeutics can detect diseases at earlier stages and also provide greater sensitivity and efficiency of observations. Currently, various chemical strategies that are being used for better understanding of disease biology. Current chemical strategies include: (i) Molecular imaging techniques for revolutionary point-of-care diagnoses; (ii) Rational drug design and repositioning for discovery of biological targets, (iii) innovative and sustainable healthcare for enhanced global access to medicines.

Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize our ability to screen, diagnose and treat disease conditions ranging from cancer to cardiovascular diseases to diabetes. Nanomedicine is an emerging new field and Nanotherapeutics have demonstrated an edge over traditional therapeutics by way of: (i) targeted drug delivery i.e. medicines work best when they get to the part of the body where they are needed; (ii) increased absorbability i.e. nanomedicine can increase the time period in which a drug remains active in the body; (iii) increased specificity i.e. avoid damage to surrounding healthy cells; (iii) reduction in drug volume i.e. to avoid the problem of accumulation in healthy tissues.

Session Chair:

Dr. Rohit Kumar Sharma Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh Email: rohitksg@pu.ac.in

Session Co-Chair:

Dr. Ranjit Kumar Sinha, Dept of Chemistry, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Deemed University, Agra. Email: rkschem@rediffmail.com