Arise! Awake! And Stop not till the goal is reached!
VIVEKANANDA INSTITUTE OF
TROPICAL MYCOLOGY
(VINSTROM)
RAMAKRISHNA MISSION
VIDYAPITH
CHENNAI- 600 004
Service through Science
VINSTROM was started on 08.04.2005; till the year 2013,
twenty three papers have been published in peer reviewed
journals such as:
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Biodiversity & Conservation
Botanica Marina
Canadian Journal of Microbiology
Current Science
Fungal Biology
Fungal Biology Reviews
Fungal Diversity
Journal of Basic Microbiology
Mycological Progress
Mycological Research
Mycology
Mycosphere
Sydowia
Equipment Maintained in VINSTROM
Air conditioners
Refrigerators
Deep freezer
Spectrophotometer
UV transilluminator
Rotavapour
Glass distillation unit
Digital pH meter
Autoclave
Automatic shaker
Electrophoresis unit
Binocular microscope
Hot air oven
Microwave oven
Water bath
Incubator
Laminar Air Flow chamber
HP scan jet 2400
Light chambers
Magnetic stirrer
Nikon Bright field Phase contrast
microscope
NUV lamps
Refrigerated centrifuge
Electronic balance
Trinocular Microscope CXR II
and Motic BA 300
Vortex Mixer
Pentax 80-200 Zoom lens
Computer with Laser jet printers
Digital cameras (Sony, Olympus)
Ricoh 35mm SLR camera
Vaccum pump
High speed internet facility
Scheme - Year
Research Projects handled
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (15 years)
RESEARCH PROJECT GRANTS (RUPEES IN LAKHS)
DST 1995
ICFRE 1997
4.94
3.41
MoEF 2000
9.31
DBT 2005
MoEF 2006
27.95
12.6
DBT 2007
DBT 2008
DBT 2010
Total Rs.1,36,03,000
25.8
15.09
36.59
Amount Received
Equipments
Consumables
Contingency
Travel
Salary
Institutional charges
Fungal cultures maintained
• Endophytes
from trees of the Western
Ghats - 545
•Endophytes from marine source - 210
•Litter fungi from Western Ghats forests 105
Ongoing projects
2012-2015-Department of Biotechnology (Government of India),
Twinning Programme - North East grant for the project “Endophytic
fungi of endemic plants of Arunachal Pradesh: Diversity and novel
metabolites”. (Rs.14.80 lakhs)
2011-2014 - Indo–German Collaborative Project (in collaboration
with University of Goettingen, Germany) funded by Department of
Biotechnology (Government of India) on “The potential of fungal
endophytes as biocontrol organisms”. (Rs. 36.59 lakhs)
Collaborations
Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher, Department of Plant Biochemistry, Westphalian
Wilhelm's University Muenster, Germany.
Dr. Florenz Sasse, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig,
Germany.
Prof. Stan Faeth, School of Ecological Sciences, Arizona State University, USA.
Prof. John Johnson, University of New Brunswick, St. John, Canada.
Prof. R. Sukumar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore.
Prof. Mukesh Doble, Dept. of Biotechnology, IIT Madras.
Prof. S. N. Gummadi, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT
Madras.
Dr. N. Thirunavukkarasu, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Biology & Plant
Biotechnology, RKM Vivekananda College, Chennai.
Contd…
Collaborations
Prof. R. Uma Shaanker, Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural
Sciences, Bangalore.
Prof. M. S. Reddy, Department of Biotechnology, Thapar University, Patiala, India.
Prof. N. P. Money, Department of Botany and Western Program, Miami University,
Oxford, OH, United States.
Dr. T. S. Murali, Division of Biotechnology, Manipal Life Sciences Centre, Manipal
University, Manipal.
Dr. Venkat Gopalan, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Center for RNA
Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Vidal, Department of Crop Sciences, Agricultural Entomology,
Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
Prof. Petr Karlowsky, Department of Molecular Pathology and Mycotoxin Research,
Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
Prof. Dinkar Sahal, Research Scientist, International Centre for Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology, New Delhi.
Suryanarayanan was invited to give the Key Note Address at
the 25th Genetics of Microorganisms Congress, São Paulo,
Brazil, March 2006.
Suryanarayanan delivered the Keynote address at
Intergovernmental Framework for European Cooperation in
Science & Technology (COST Action FA1103), Trento, Italy
Nov. 2012.
Suryanarayanan was invited by the Centre for Biotechnology,
Manaus, the Amazon, Brazil for discussion on the use of
endophytes in biocontrol.
Completed projects
2008-2011 – Department of Biotechnology (Government of India), research
grant for the project. ‘Pharmaceuticals from marine and marine-derived
fungi assocaited with seagrasses and seaweeds of Tamil Nadu coast’.
(Rs. 15.09 lakhs)
2007-2010 – Indo-German Collaborative Project (in collaboration with
University of Muenster, Germany)-Department of Biotechnology (Government of
India) research grant for the project. ‘Enzymes of pharmaceutical
importance from tropical microfungi’. (Rs. 27.84 lakhs)
Publications Cited in
Nature
Biological Reviews
Evolution
Annual Review of Phytopathology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, NY.
Fungal Diversity
Mycological Research
Canadian Journal of Botany
Canadian Journal of Microbiology
Ecology Letters
Fungal Biology Reviews
Phytopathology
New Phytologist
Journal of Natural Products
A brief note of Achievements
Prof. Sidney Altman, Nobel Laureate (1989) and Sterling
Professor. Yale University, visited VINSTROM (April 26th
2008) and discussed with students and gave a lecture on his field
of research.
 Suryanarayanan was Awarded Fulbright Nehru Senior
Research Fellowship for studying the feasibility of using
endophytes for ’’greener’’ biofuel at Dept. of Biochemistry, Ohio
State University, USA to study. September 2011 – March 2012.
Visit by Scientists
Prof. Sidney Altman (Nobel Laureate), Yale University, USA
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, MSSRF, Chennai
Mr. Erwin Wendland, German Consulate, Germany
Prof. J. Johnson, Univ. New Brunswick, Canada
Prof. B. Moerschbacher, University of Munster, Germany
Dr. F. Sasse, German Centre for Biotechnology, Germany
Prof. Jim White, Rutgers, New Jersey, USA
Prof. C.A. Reddy, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Dr. R. Geeta, University of Stony Brooke, USA
Contd…..
Visit by Scientists
Dr. Sujaya Rao, Oregon State University, USA.
Dr. Venkat Gopalan, The Ohio State University, USA.
Dr. Baskar, Indian Institute of Technology Chennai.
Prof. A. Raman, University of Sydney, Australia.
Prof. B. Moeschbacher, University of Muenster, Germany.
Dr. N.E. El Gueddari, University of Muenster, Germany.
Dr. F. Sasse, GBF, Germany.
Dr. A. Srinivasan, Harward, USA.
Prof. J.L. Azevedo, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Prof. P.T. Lacava, Brazil.
Dr. H. de Melo, Brazil.
Dr. M.A. Zaman, Dhaka University, Bangladesh.
Dr. Stefen Vidal, George-August-University, Goettingen,Germany.