CoronaVirus – The KGP Chronicle

Alumni have done a Good Samaritan Act

IIT Kharagpur Foundation, USA has bestowed twenty oxygen concentrators of 5 LPM capacity (by Philips Respironics Company) to IIT Kharagpur.

The oxygen concentrators have been delivered to B C Roy Technology Hospital with the hope of dealing successfully with the immense oxygen crisis for Covid-19 affected patients.

“I will never be able to thank Ron Gupta and all our alumni enough for such a generous venture. Not many people have the privilege to associate with someone as caring and understanding as them. Their sincere effort in resolving the crisis of oxygen is much appreciated. We hope to make the best out of it and also to hear more from them in near future”, mentioned Professor Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director of IIT Kharagpur.

With the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc in India, there is huge demand oxygen concentrator, as they are considered to be life-saving for patients with breathing difficulties. Oxygen concentrators can help Covid-19 patients to get the required oxygen when the oxygen levels drop and cylinders’ supply is scarce.

“Our sincere gratitude to those people who have been Good Samaritan in these tough times. Words cannot describe how truly thankful we are to the IIT Kharagpur Foundation, USA and all our alumni who are associated with this noble initiative for standing with the institute and the community during this unprecedented time. Their help and support in dealing with this pandemic would be and shall be an inspiration for others”, said Prof Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, Dean Outreach of IIT Kharagpur.

(Inputs from Rituparna Chakraborty, Branding Executive)

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

SARS-CoV-2 Alters Lung Cell Metabolism – IIT Kharagpur Research Model Shows, Model Could Help Therapeutics

Model development by IIT Kharagpur researchers predicting alteration in metabolic reaction rates of lung cells post SARS-CoV-2 infection
The research would lead to a better understanding of metabolic reprogramming and aid the development of better therapeutics to deal with the viral pandemics

COVID-19 pandemic has been posing unprecedented threats to the whole world. Among its many perils is the cellular metabolic system of those who tested positive. Coronaviruses are known to hijack the metabolism of lung cells. This threat makes it absolutely imperative to understand the mechanism of metabolic reprogramming of host human cells by SARS-CoV-2.

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have, for the first time, have reported a method to find an alteration in metabolic reaction rates inside lung cells when they are affected by virus/pathogens. As the method finds and reports critical aspects of physiology, which are affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection, it will enable the discovery of therapeutic targets.

“We have used the gene expression of normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE) infected with SARS-CoV-2 along with the macromolecular make-up of the virus to create this integrated genome-scale metabolic model. The growth rate predicted by the model showed a very high agreement with experimentally and clinically reported effects of SARS-CoV-2,” said Dr. Amit Ghosh, Assistant Professor, School of Energy Science & Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

Scientists have been trying to extract information from the human genome sequences for the past two decades to gather a better understanding of genetic disorders thus allowing us to penetrate deeper into the fabric of life and enable better therapeutics.

Talking about this new development researcher Piyush Nanda (B.Tech.-M.Tech Dual Degree, Biotechnology, 2020, currently a graduate student at Harvard University) explained, “In this model development, we have explored how metabolism works and how it is altered in diseases. Our work involved measuring how the tens of thousands or more complex chemical reactions change when biological cells are intruded on by an uninvited guest like SARS-CoV-2, which would help improve our understanding of diseases.”

Using the power of genomics the researchers posed the operation of reactions as a set of mathematical equations and solved it to obtain which reactions are altered in the cells when SARS-CoV-2 infects a person.

“A better understanding of metabolic reprogramming would aid in the design of better therapeutics to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic,” remarked Piyush.

Further, the researchers have identified pathways like fatty acid synthesis and lipid metabolism that can be targeted by novel drugs. This model is based on genome-scale differential flux analysis (GS-DFA) in context-specific metabolic models.

“Analysis of the rates of all intercellular metabolic reactions in disease biology is opening up new avenues for therapeutic interventions. Numerous diseases lead to metabolic pathway alterations and it is becoming increasingly important to be able to quantify the difference under normal and diseased conditions. Using our method we have observed the alterations between diseased and normal metabolic states in the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection which have been proven using human patients data. The model will allow researchers to understand the wide spectrum of viruses that manipulate human metabolism and will help to design better therapeutics in COVID-19 treatment leveraging the power of systems biology,” added Dr. Ghosh.

In the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the researchers predict that lipid metabolism particularly fatty acid oxidation, cholesterol biosynthesis and beta-oxidation cycle along with arachidonic acid metabolism to be most affected which was confirmed with clinical metabolomics studies.

The research was published in the international journal PLOS Computational Biology

Cite paper: Article Source: Genome Scale-Differential Flux Analysis reveals deregulation of lung cell metabolism on SARS-CoV-2 infection Nanda P, Ghosh A (2021) Genome Scale-Differential Flux Analysis reveals deregulation of lung cell metabolism on SARS-CoV-2 infection. PLOS Computational Biology 17(4): e1008860. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008860

For more information contact:

Dr. Amit Ghosh, Assistant Professor, School of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur,

E: amitghosh@iitkgp.ac.in; Mobile: +91-9635844538

Piyush Nanda, B.Tech.-M.Tech Dual Degree, 2020, Dept. of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur, Graduate Student, Harvard University,

E: piyush.wcame@gmail.com

Media Contact: media@iitkgp.ac.in

About IIT Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is a higher educational institute known globally for its graduate output and affordable technology innovations. Set up in 1951 in a detention camp as an Institute of National Importance, the Institute is ranked among the top five in India and has been awarded Institute of Eminence by the Govt. of India in 2019. The key areas of research of IIT Kharagpur are Affordable Healthcare Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Transportation, Precision Agriculture and Food Technology, Cyberphysical Systems, Ecology & Environment, Mining, Water Resources and Architecture. The Institute is engaged in several international and national mission projects and ranks significantly in research output including 50-100 IPR filed annually and about 2000 research publications in top journals and conferences. At present, the Institute has about 750 full-time equivalent faculty members, more than 14000 students and over 70000 Alumni. For more information visit: www.iitkgp.ac.in

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IIT Kharagpur Start-up Launches Low-cost Surgical Face Masks

IIT Kharagpur incubated start-up has developed P3 layered surgical face masks. Anigiene Technical Textiles, led by a group of researchers at the Institute’s Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, has developed the product keeping in mind the affordability by India’s low income groups as well as the quality requirement by those working in the healthcare sector.

The company has completed the field testing using local volunteers with encouraging feedback. The target for a full commercial production is expected to be one lakh units per month and to be priced at ₹10/-.

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“We have kept in mind typically the needs of the people who are economically challenged while strictly avoiding any compromise on the part of health protection. Our product also caters to the health workers,” said Dr. Satyabrata Ghosh, Research Associate at the Department of Biotechnology at IIT Kharagpur and Director of Anigiene Technical Textiles.

Recently WHO has confirmed that eliminating COVID-19 pandemic would be a long haul. Thus with the health mandate to wear facial masks, it is expected that over the next several months its demand would remain exceptionally high. Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur has been emphasising on the role of technical institutions like IIT Kharagpur in addressing the health and hygiene, and other technological needs to combat COVID-19.

“Addressing basic needs of the public and making them available at affordable prices is critical. Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur is catering to this need by incubating and facilitating start-ups. I congratulate the researchers who have come forward with this product and contributed to keeping the country safe,” he said.

The startup is conducting end-to-end business operations at the facility allotted to them at STEP, the incubation hub of IIT Kharagpur. The infrastructure support is from faculty mentors at IIT Kharagpur and Focus Incubation Centre sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, located in STEP IIT Kharagpur.

“We are conducting further experiments on using natural fibres such as fruit peels for fully biodegradable masks,” remarked Anigiene Director Dr. Ghosh.

Contacts:

Project Information: Dr. Satyabrata Ghosh, satyabrataghosh23@gmail.com

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in;

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in;

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/;

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IIT Kharagpur develops COVID-19 Predictive Model for Decision-making

The study also predicts that new cases of the disease will continue until at least the end of September 2020.

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IIT Kharagpur has developed a prediction system to help predict the future spread of COVID-19 and help decision making in health-care, industry, economy, and even academics. Prof. Abhijit Das from the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering has developed a logistic model which can be used to fit the available daily counts of infection cases.

The data used for the predictions pertain to the entire country, and for the eight most affected states in the country including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.

Talking about the model development Prof. Das said, “The model uses only the daily infection counts available in the public domain without accessing sensitive information pertaining to medical records or contact-tracing data for a large fraction of the population. Despite that, the prediction curves show remarkably good fitting with the past data, and can be used for future planning.”

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director IIT Kharagpur said, “People have been living in an uncertain black box without the knowledge about which way life is going to turn and how to plan their activities. A study like this based on a clear statistical model will enable them to understand and plan their wayforward. The model though experimental could prove to be helpful in planning our academic semester and policy matters related to the Institute and the campus under the current circumstances.”

However, the predictions for the future change quite rapidly with time. There are several potential factors for this such as different mobility patterns of Indian people in different phases of lockdown, large-scale migration of laborers, change in diagnostic facilities, evolution of the coronavirus, and so on. These are well beyond the control of the logistic model or any other currently known prediction model for that matter.

Although the implementation fails to generate stable and reliable predictions at the moment, the trend clearly reveals that the disease is going to stay in the country for many more months.

“Our study indicates that India is yet to achieve a steady pattern in the spread of the disease. It is unlikely to get rid of COVID-19 before the end of September 2020,” remarked Prof. Das.

He further added, “This does not leave us in a region of comfort, but the reality has to be accepted, and appropriate plans must be chalked out to address all the issues associated with the outbreak of the pandemic.”

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Contacts:

Project Information: abhij@cse.iitkgp.ac.in; Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

You’re Home: IIT Kharagpur tells international students

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An early morning tweet on Earth Day woke up a few students at IIT Kharagpur. A fellow Kgpian student, pursuing internship at Georgia, Atlanta, USA, had tweeted seeking help from the Indian authorities in the lockdown situation. Her friends from IIT Kharagpur got in action and shared her message on IIT Kharagpur’s social media handle. Finally the stranded student was connected with IITKGP Foundation, the alumni body of the Institute in USA, who are now trying to help her reach out to the alumni in the region.

Few days prior to this incident, another such call was made for some IIT students stranded in Germany and Sweden. The IITs are reaching out to the alumni in the respective region to connect with these students under distress. International students across the globe are sharing their concerns regarding their fellowships/grants, visa status, residency protocols as the world has come to a standstill with COVID-19 Lockdown. But what is happening at the home front? The Kgp Chronicle presents an account of the international students outreach at IIT Kharagpur.

IIT Kharagpur at present is hosting students and researchers from 12 countries – Afghanistan, Bhutan, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The Institute is assuring its international students making them feel home away from home while facilitating their academics, stay, residency and other protocols.

The Office of International Relations (OIR) has created an online forum to reach out to the students on a daily basis. The Office shares relevant Institute notices on this forum. The foreign scholars are encouraged to share their concerns and these are addressed as much as possible under these difficult times.

OIR also extended assistance towards extension of visa and processing of scholarship to avoid any disruption of stay and other facilities availed by these students. Some students who have gone home after the mid semester examination are being assisted by the Office and their respective embassies to network with the Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India to arrange for their return when the semester resumes.

“Several international students are receiving financial aid under international programs run by us and outreach bodies of the Govt. of India. We have ensured that they receive their scholarships on time. We are constantly in touch with the students and are committed towards their wellbeing. With every passing day we assure them there is nothing to worry, like every other student, IIT Kharagpur campus is their home away from home,” Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean, International Relations.

Dr. Than Htike Win from Myanmar who is pursuing research work at the Dept. of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering shared his experience during the lockdown period. As his fellowship period gets over at the end of June 2020, he is trying to progress during this phase, in particular the analysis of his research completed till now and planning to finalize the remaining research work and write the reports.

Solomon Demiss, visiting research scholar from Ethiopia at the Institute’s Dept. of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering has been pursuing his research work through interactions with his guide and fellow team members, reading and writing reports. Solomon was delighted with the gesture of his fellow students to assist him with procuring necessary supplies from the market while he is managing his condition of physical challenge and social distancing.

The students are using this isolation period to extensively improve their knowledge base through optimal use of eLearning platforms. Tamim Boubou, who is pursuing MTech in Control System Engineering at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, was planning to go home to Syria during the summer recess. But now he is utilising the summer-time by attending online video lectures and taking part in summer projects.

“I actually enjoyed the online video classes, they are more comfortable and in my view are quite interactive, you can record the session and go back to a certain point whenever needed, in short, it is a good experience,” he said. The summer project he has currently undertaken is related to his Masters Thesis Project which is scheduled in the next semester.

Tamim is excited about the online group created by the Office of International Relations for international students where they are being updated frequently with all new announcements.

“Almost everyday we are being checked upon, if there is anything missing that we need, same for all mess and hostel facilities, everyone is so cooperative,” he remarked.

Similar thought is echoed by Charles Munyaradzi from Zimbabwe who is pursuing postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical research. Though he has going through acclimatization with the Indian summers and sceptical about his scholarship as his banking formalities got delayed due to lockdown, he appreciates the regular flow of communication which gives him an assurance in the current circumstances while being in a foreign land.

Several students also plans to seek assistance from the office for renewal of their passport and residence permit, after the lockdown is relaxed and the embassies resume regular operations.

The students are interacting with their classmates online for joint study, research ideas, games. Some of them are putting their extra time to use by testing their cooking talents. The Office has also provided them with home and kitchen appliances which are useful now during the social distancing period.

Contemplating on the impact of the pandemic situation on the internationalization efforts of IIT Kharagpur, Dean International Relations Baidurya Bhattacharya opined,

“At IIT Kharagpur, we understand internationalization to mean presenting our best to the service of humanity, and in turn, to bring what is best in the world into our campus. Just as this exchange includes the movement of people, it equally well involves the give and take of ideas, free thought and knowledge. As we come out of this pandemic, we will see some short term changes. A lot of national resources will be devoted by every country in rebuilding their economies. Movement of people will probably reduce somewhat, and that will include faculty and students. But the free flow of knowledge and goodwill between the home and the world will continue.”

The Dean is planning to strengthen and expand the joint academic programs of the Institute with its international partners, conducting more joint research, proposing for more multi-agency grant applications.

An optimistic Prof. Bhattacharya said, “We will have more online interactions, and we will learn more from each other in how to make the world a safer, kinder and more equitable place – because in the end, we are all in it together.”

Reaching Out to the Extended Family

IIT Kharagpur and its Alumni to Support COVID Lockdown Affected Poor People Around the Campus

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IIT Kharagpur has come forward to support the needy people in and around its campus for a period of 6 months. It has set up a temporary fund for those who have been severely affected economically due to COVID-19. The short duration fund is exclusively meant for about 10500 poor workers on-campus and people coming from villages near the campus who are dependent on IIT Kharagpur for livelihood and are now out of job / no work due to lockdown. The beneficiaries include daily wagers working in different eateries, halls as ward boys, dhobi, small culvert tea shops, rickshaw pullers, maid servants, workers in construction projects etc. Watch Video

Taking stock of the situation and that of the people at the lower strata of the society around the world, eminent alumnus of IIT Kharagpur from the batch of 1967, Vinod Gupta, decided to come forward to help such people associated with his alma mater. Vinod is a US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist who apart from seed funding the management and law schools of IIT Kharagpur has supported many students, staff and faculty and community members on various occasions.

Director Prof. Virendra K Tewari said, “I thank Vinod Gupta from the core of my heart to have taken the lead and created this fund to help people who are facing dire times. I have known Vinod for 22 years and always observed him to be forthcoming when it comes to helping the needy recalling his humble roots.”

The IITKGP Foundation in USA under the leadership of President Ranbir Gupta is running this campaign. The Foundation has already raised an amount of USD 2,42,000 (Rs. 1,85,13,242 @ Rs. 76.50) including a pledge of $1,00,000 from Vinod Gupta. Among the other alumni donors are Ranbir Gupta, Arjun Malhotra, R N Mukhija, Rakesh Gupta along with more than 100 donors from 1959 to 2017 batches.

The Institute celebrated this noble initiative on the evening of April 20, by distributing personal protective equipment, ration and toiletries to a small group of beneficiaries to start with, while maintaining social distancing and hygiene protocols. Donate Now

“I salute our alumni, who have always guided us, supported us and above all, remained connected to us. The Alumni Covid-19 Social Welfare Programme funded by our alumni started on the 20th April. We handed over ration and essential toiletries to some of very needy people connected to our campus. Proud to be a part of this mission,” said Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean Alumni Affairs.

The alumni community in the USA aims to raise about Rs. 8 crore to help the unsung heroes of IIT Kharagpur campus, confirmed Vinod Gupta. Donate Now.

He further stated, “In 1962, in my first year at IIT, it was a surreal experience for a 16-year-old kid from a village in U.P. When I got sick, the guy who took care of me was the Ward Boy in Patel Hall and his name was Papaya. I still remember him. I remember former US President Bill Clinton, who shared such a nostalgic experience of inviting a porter who took care of him during his university days, to the Presidential swearing-in ceremony. It just shows how important they have been in our lives.”

Director Prof. Virendra K Tewari has urged every Kgpian to support this noble cause.

He further added, “This is time to reminisce your days at the halls of residence and the mess dada’s smile, your adda at the night canteens and the faces who served you that cup of tea and paratha.”

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Pandemic Healthcare Technologies Underway @IITKGP

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IIT Kharagpur has set up research funding for R&D work related to COVID-19. The Institute submitted a list of projects to the IIT Council last week of which 8 projects have been selected.

Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India appreciated and acknowledged the initiative by the Institute on his social media handle congratulating the Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari and his team of researchers.

Talking about the initiative Director Tewari said “It is our responsibility to improve the quality of life of the last person in the society. While we built some quick technologies to cater to the immediate needs of the essential service providers at the campus, we were simultaneously preparing project proposals and evaluating them keeping in mind the immediate need of the country, cost and product delivery period.”

The researchers would be working on several technologies including design and development of rapid diagnostic kit, real-time PCR machine, body suit for COVID-19 patients, personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and portable shredder integrated with sterilizer, Hazmat Suit with forced purified and cooled air circulation for medical professionals, bootstrapping ambu-bag as automated ventilator, telemedicine for fighting viral pandemic, large scale production of recombinant proteins for vaccine and testing.

An amount of Rs. 50 Lakh has been allotted for phase I of 8 projects towards development of prototypes. For most of these projects, the prototypes are expected to be ready within a duration of 3 – 4 weeks, while a couple of them would take about 6 months to deliver the results. The phase I is expected to start immediately after the lockdown is relaxed and the research staff are able to attend the laboratories. Meanwhile software related work would progress as usual.

“IIT Kharagpur has a proven track record towards development of indigenous health and hygiene technologies which are affordable, high-quality at par with globally accepted standards, and commercially viable. Our researchers are committed to deliver the prototypes within a constrained timeline considering the healthcare needs in the current situation,” added Prof. Tewari.

1	Development of smartphone-integrated paper-strip kit for rapid low-cost diagnostics of COVID-19 infection	Prof. Arindam Mondal and Prof. Suman Chakraborty
2	Design and Development of an indigenous Real Time PCR Machine	Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Prof. Prasanta K. Das, Prof. Suman Chakraborty (ME Dept), with inputs from Dept. of Biotechnology and Physics
3	Towards large scale Production of Recombinant Proteins for Vaccine and Testing of Novel COVID-19	Prof. Sudip K. Ghosh, Prof. Ananta K. Ghosh and Prof. Ramkrishna Sen
4	Bootstrapping the ambu-bag as automated ventilator	Prof. Aditya Bandopadhyay + Faculty and Students from ME Dept
5	Design and Development of a Bodysuit for COVID-19 Patients to Prevent the Spread of Infection	Prof. Nishant Chakravorty
6	Telemedicine for fighting viral pandemic such as COVID-19	Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay
7	A Hazmat Suit with Forced Purified and Cooled Air Circulation for Medical Professionals	Prof. Manoj Kumar Mondal
8	Personal Protective Equipment for Health Care Workers	Prof. Santanu Dhara and Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya
8.a.	Portable shredder integrated with sterilizer	Prof. Santanu Dhara and Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya

Novel coronavirus – Insights by Prof. Arindam Mondal

COVID-19 infections in India are nearing 15000 cases while claiming more than 100000 lives globally. Coronaviruses are a virus family causing various diseases, ranging from common cold to those like SARS and MERS which can have a high fatality rate. The novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic is a new strain and has been named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 abbreviated as 19-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2.

Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur’s School of Bioscience speaks with The Kgp Chronicle regarding frequently asked questions about novel coronavirus. Dr. Mondal leads the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the School of Bioscience where they study human RNA virus replication and host pathogen interaction on molecular detail to develop novel strategies for therapeutic or prophylactic measures. Currently, his lab focuses upon influenza viruses as a model that causes mild to severe respiratory illness.

1) What is novel coronavirus?

Corona viruses are relatively large viruses ranging from 80-200nm in diameter and having RNA as their genetic material. The outer surface of these viruses contain three surface proteins, namely spike protein (S), membrane protein (M) and Envelope protein (E), while the inner core is constituted of the long genomic RNA enwrapped with multiple copies of viral Nucleoprotein (N). Under the electron microscope, virus particles with spike proteins projecting outwards form a crown-like appearance, leading to its name Corona (corona in Latin is crown). Recently, during December 2019 several cases of pneumonia like illness with unknown cause was reported from the Wuhan province of China. Later it was found that the disease is caused by a virus belonging to the coronavirus family (Coronaviridae). As this specific type of coronavirus has never been found to infect humans, named as novel coronavirus.

2) How common are coronaviruses in causing epidemic in the human history?

Human infecting coronaviruses have been known since the 1960s. Coronaviruses like HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1 cause common cold, mild respiratory infections and flu-like illness. First epidemic outbreak of coronavirus was reported during 2002-2003 caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The epidemic originated from the Guangdong Province of China and speeded across 26 countries causing approximately 8000 infections. Subsequently another Coronavirus was reported causing severe respiratory infections in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle east during 2012, named as Middle eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus or MERS-CoV. For COVID-19, initial cases of “pneumonia of unknown cause” were reported to WHO on December 31st , 2019, from Wuhan in the central Hubei province of China. On January 30th , 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak to be a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and recognized it as a pandemic on March 11th , 2020.

3) How is 19-nCoV different from SARS, Ebola, bird and swine flu etc.?

All of these viruses have drawn public attention due to pandemic or epidemics caused in the recent past, such as the 1918 Spanish flu, the 2009 Swine Flu, the 2014 West African Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic and the 2003 SARS epidemic. While bird and swine flu were caused by different subtypes of influenza viruses, Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever. The novel coronavirus, recently identified to have been originated from Wuhan province of China, is closely related to the SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) that caused the 2002-2003 epidemic, and has thus been alternatively designated as SARS-CoV2. Like the SARS-CoV that originated from bats and got transmitted to humans via an intermediate mammalian host (civets), the SARS-CoV2 seems to have jumped host species from bats to humans, although the existence or identity of the intermediate host is yet to be elucidated. Recent reports have identified pangolins as the possible intermediate host.

The SARS-CoV-2 strain is similar to the 2009 Swine Flu virus (Influenza A- H1N1) or the seasonal flu virus only in a few aspects, such as transmission via close contact, bodily secretions, respiratory droplets during coughing, sneezing or talking, and fomites and the general symptoms similar to common cold like fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, sore throat, runny nose, a typical dry cough. Early evidence shows that although it is more contagious than the seasonal flu or the Ebola Virus or SARS-CoV that caused epidemics, it is less deadly. While SARS-CoV-2 has a variable case fatality rate of 2% depending on age, geographic location, extent and criteria for testing, the Ebola virus and the SARS-CoV has case fatality rates of 40% and 10% respectively. Several infected individuals developing only mild symptoms or even being asymptomatic at times. Also, the major target age groups for the 2009 swine flu were children between 5 and 20 years of age, for the COVID-19 it is mostly older individuals above 60 years of age and immunocompromised people or people with other complications such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension or diabetes, much like the SARS-CoV.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-deadly-is-the-coronavirus-compared-to-past-outbreaks

4) What is the activity cycle of the novel coronavirus?

Coronavirus life cycle initiates with the interaction of surface spike proteins with the receptors on host cells. The spike protein of novel SARS-Coronavirus-2 recognizes host ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2). The spike protein of this virus has significant similarity with two coronavirus strains that infects bats. Hence, it is assumed that the current strain of the novel coronavirus got adapted to infect humans through adaptation in its spike protein. Usually, these kind of novel viral strains, as they are unknown to the humans immune system, may cause severe infection, as happening currently.

Interaction of viral spike protein with the host cell receptors leads to entry of the novel coronavirus into the host cell, followed by uncoating of the outer envelope to release of viral genomic RNA. The viral RNA then utilizes host machinery to synthesize viral proteins. Some of these newly synthesized viral proteins (RNA polymerase/ replicase) then carry out genome replication to produce more copies of progeny viral genomes. Another set of viral proteins then assembles with these progeny viral genomes to generate a large number of progeny virion particles.

5) For how long can this virus remain active on an inorganic surface?

According to recent reports, the new COVID-19 coronavirus can remain stable in aerosols and on various surfaces for several hours, indicating plausibility of aerosol and fomite-borne transmissions. The SARS-CoV2 can remain viable in aerosols for up to 3 hours, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and for the longest duration of up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, although its infectivity reduces with time. This further highlights the importance of frequent hand sanitization and not touching the face or mouth after touching surfaces.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2004973?articleTools=true

6) Social media is buzzing with the news that the virus would weaken with rise in temperature? Is there any scientific truth in this statement?

In 2002-03 during the SARS epidemic, it was observed that rising temperature and relative humidity did affect the spread of the virus by rapidly declining its viability. In case of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been observed that the virus spread is more rampant in regions of lower temperature (5-11°C) and moderate humidity (50-70%). Experts also noted that the duration of sunlight, which determines the duration of UV exposure to the virus, could be a determining factor as it is UV-sensitive. Some studies under review also suggest, laboratory grown strains of 19-nCoV could be sensitive to extreme heat, but that will not suffice to explain its expected behavior in a pandemic setting, influenced by unpredictable human factors. However the jury is still out on whether the temperature rise and monsoon will be able to significantly subdue the outbreak.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/higher-temperatures-affect-survival-of-new-coronavirus-pathologist-says/700800

7) Recently India has been getting orders for hydroxychloroquine by countries severely affected by the virus. Is it the ultimate antiviral remedy for novel coronavirus?

Several antivirals have been identified that could combat the virus by interfering with different stages of the viral life cycle, for example, uncoating inhibitors chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, replication inhibitor Remdesvir, RNA polymerase inhibitor Favipiravir and so on. Although, specific mechanisms of these antiviral drugs are still under investigation.

Dr Arindam Mondal’s group in collaboration with Prof. Suman Chakraborty’s laboratory at the Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT KGP, is currently trying to develop of a paper-strip kit for rapid low-cost diagnostics of COVID-19 infection. This is a portable rapid diagnostic kit, which in combination with a smartphone app, can be deployed at community level in order to carry out extensive detections for the SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID19.

Prof. Arindam Mondal can be reached at arindam.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in.

e-Learning at IIT Kharagpur

Summer recess has set in at IIT Kharagpur on April 1, preponed by 4 weeks and a revised academic calendar being circulated amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic. Classes at the Institute have gone digital since March 17 in the process of following social distancing.

Online Classes

The first year classes with their larger size were the first to be facilitated on YouTube Live using the National Knowledge Network. The lectures were also video recorded and made available online for future reference. Following the lockdown announcement on March 24, all classes were moved to web-conferencing mode, video lectures of NPTEL, or through email.

Till March 31, 2020, total number of courses offered stood at 388 with registrations from 8025 students to participate in the online classes.

“We procured 200 user licenses of WebEx which allowed us to conduct 100+ lectures at a given point of time. This could practically allow us to conduct all classes as per our academic schedule,” said Prof. Debasis Deb, Dean, Undergraduate Studies.

The Institute has also been conducting online classes using Zoom, G-Suite, Skype, DEEKSHAK (an IITKGP web-conferencing platform). Institute is in the process of procuring 20 user licenses of Zoom for conducting classes uninterruptedly, Teachers are using these online platforms to interact with students for lectures, doubt clearing sessions, tutorials and assignments while emailing and uploading video lectures. The NPTEL platform of the Ministry of Human Resources Development is being widely used for the purpose which has a rich repository of video lectures by various IITs. Students are also being recommended to use the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) platform to access vast digital resources.

Atul Jain, Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering who has been teaching a course ‘Mechanics of Composites’ shared his experience on his online teaching and students response tracking. He has been using Microsoft Office extensively to create lectures and share exclusively with students enrolled for the course as unlisted videos on YouTube. He further uses Google Analytics to derive useful insights about student participation and attention span etc.

“From my statistics reveal that the average number of students viewing the lectures within three days of delivery is almost the same as the average attendance in a contact classroom. There is no specific time preferred by the students with the viewing time spread over almost 24 hours. Students have a definite tendency of watching the videos in a smaller time span of less than 10 minutes with about 2.5 views per user on average. This is quite a contrast to the usual 55-60 minutes lecture usually delivered in regular classrooms. This freedom is a major positive in online learning,” said Prof. Jain.

Assignments

Talking about assignments, Prof. Deb informed that the inhouse Moodle facility of IIT Kharagpur has been made available for access from outside the campus LAN.

“The assignments have been emailed while Moodle is being used primarily for computer programming related assignments. BTech and MTech projects related to design and software applications too are being carried out while those requiring laboratory access have been postponed until the reprise of the academic session on June 1,” he said.

Internships

Student internship which is critical at IITs is being considered for the period from April to July session having a break in June for regular classes and exams. The Institute is advising students to opt for online mode for company internships and also to apply to faculty members at the Institute for inhouse internship opportunities.

“We are in the process of allocating students to work as interns at the Institute on various on-going projects, term papers, product development and others. Departments are actively involved with the students to give them the best internship experience in house ” remarked Prof. Deb.

Placement

In a recent development, the Institute has set up a taskforce to monitor placement situation. In the academic year 2019-20, 1306 placement offers were received. Due to the ongoing 19-nCoV pandemic, there has been speculations regarding offers being cancelled by the recruiters at various institutions. The taskforce will liaise with the recruiters and work towards ensuring that the number of offers at Iit Kharagpur remain consistent with those of the past years.

VGSOM Assigns COVID Case Study

IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management assigns Pandemic Case Study for Organizational Leadership education

It has been almost 2 weeks since the teaching and learning at IIT Kharagpur has gone virtual. The Center for Educational Technology at the Institute has been using the online interface Webex for conducting classes across all levels of study. Shorter sessions are also being conducted through Zoom.

Several research groups are also conducting studies on people’s perception and behaviour towards COVID-19 through progression of time. In one such initiative, the Vinod Gupta School of Management, business school in India of IIT Kharagpur ranked among the top ten in India, has launched a project based on COVID-19 pandemic. The project titled “Invisible Leadership and the CoronaVirus Pandemic” is being assigned 126 students in the second year MBA class at the School as part of the Organisational Leadership course.

Speaking about the project Prof. Susmita Mukhopadhyay said, “Pandemic or any other wide spread disease such as COVID-19 demand exemplary leadership and decision-making capabilities to manage finances, human resources, supply chain and overall business operations. Managers if prepared for desperate times may even plan and improvise the desperate measures. The project aims to teach the students to see the power of invisible leadership in the fight against a pandemic.”

“Leadership is more about taking tough decisions now while keeping the greater good in mind than appeasing your countrymen with misleading information. Covid-19 has turned every one of us into soldiers fighting for the very survival of our species and the real leader here is invisible. So when we miss the leader micromanaging things, we look inward for leadership,” said Pinak Samui, student at VGSOM.

The students will be studying the facts from diverse shades of leadership and understand the ethical issues connected to such situations as COVID-19 pandemic. They will also explore whether the Pandemic itself has acted as an invisible leader in enhancing work-life balance of people, cohabitation of species and environmental sustainability.

“We have given the topic to the students to have a free flow of thought and explore the topic from various perspectives, frame the case based on archival news and keep track of day to day developments and strategies undertaken by governments and other related stakeholders. We plan to develop business case studies based on the project output,” remarked Prof Biplab Datta.

Student Feedback:

“This assignment has helped us to keep track of the COVID-19 situation and all related happenings as they are happening around the world. It also helped us to dive deep into the invisible leadership principle and apply the same, in order to add a new perspective to the current situation, just like looking through a different lens,” said a student Pritam Sharma.

Sharing about his learning, another student Aniket Sanyal said, “Leaders, who can take quick actions, who are flexible in adapting their bold decisions to suit the needs of a situation, will have more success in a crisis environment.”