Lucknow, Dec 14 (IANS): Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) have been able to make diagnostic kits by processing honey, molasses and fruit peels in a microwave.

Revealing this at SGPGI’s Research Showcase lecture, faculty at IIT-K’s department of biological sciences and bioengineering Prof Santosh K. Misra spoke at length about his research work on carbon-based nanomaterials.

“There is a huge possibility of using carbon-based materials as ‘bio-nano-medicine’. Economical preparation, modulation possibilities, intrinsic luminescence, bio-degradability and nano dimension of these carbon materials make them suitable for biological use as bio-nano-medicine,” he told students and faculty who attended the lecture on Wednesday.

He added that these materials can also be used as surface coating material for biosensing chips and dopant for biomedical devices.

Senior principal scientist from CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute Arun Kumar Trivedi delivered the second address in which he spoke about his work on mechanisms of C/EBPalpha (a kind of protein) inactivation in Acute Myeloid leukaemia (a type of blood cancer).