Presented by Urmi Bajpai at Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center at the Open Source Pharma Conference in July 2014. Conference Agenda (see Day 1, Session 4): http://www.opensourcepharma.net/agenda.html

1. “Crowdsourcing in wet labs
and with undergraduates”
Urmi Bajpai
Acharya Narendra Dev College
University of Delhi, India
Towards a New, Open Source Pharmaceutical Industry
Bellagio Center, July 2014
#opensourcepharma

3. About the research projects:
Building of repositories of genes (70 in
number, cloned in suitable plasmid
vector) and proteins (20) from Mbt and
of Mycobacteriophages
Students are trained in the similar set
of techniques to meet the project
objectives.
Infrastructure developed with the

4. Advantages of crowdsourcing
with the undergraduates.
1. To ‘catch them young’
In the beginner's mind there are
many possibilities, in the expert's
there are few." --- Shunryu Suzuki
2.Engaging students in developing
products which have downstream
users.

5. Crowdsourcing Project-I
A Virtual Centre of Excellence for
Coordinated Research on Tuberculosis:
Development of alternate strategies. A
multi-institutional project.(2006-2009)
Funded by Department of Biotechnology,
Government of India.
Cloning of 50 genes of Mtb

6. Crowdsourcing Project-II
Cloning and expression of genes of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis: An OSDD
project. (2010-2012)
Funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR)
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
1 2 3 4 5

7. Crowdsourcing Project-III
Phage discovery research program: A
pilot project. Mycobacteriophages are virus
that infect Mycobacterium and can serve as
source for anti-Mtb molecules. Funded by
the college

8. Techniques:
 Designing of gene-specific primers
 Agarose gel electrophoresis
 PCR (Polymerase chain reaction)
 Gel extraction of DNA
 Restriction digestion and ligation of DNA
 Isolation of plasmid DNA
 Bacterial transformation
 Screening of recombinants
 Expression by induction, sonication
 SDS-PAGE
 Western Blotting
 Affinity chromatography
 In-silico analysis

9. Project on Mobile healthcare funded
by University of Delhi
HOW MOBILE HEALTHCARE WORKS?

10. Open Medical Genetic
Diagnostics (OMG-D) June 2014
Aims to create a compendium of open-
access probes for diagnosis of rare
genetic disorders and genetic traits.
http://crowdomics.org/collab/groups/ope
n-medical-genetic-diagnostics/
Sridhar Sivabasu & Vinod Scaria (IGIB),
Urmi Bajpai

11. Wellness Genomics Project
http://is.gd/100years
To understand the genetic factors which
contribute to healthy living.

12. The OSDD project helped me to gain the real in-lab experience and
develop the wet lab skill and attitude to tackle problems with patience.-Vivek Bharadwaj
The project told me what research is all about and helped a lot in building
the confidence to work independently.
-Ahilesh
Kumar
This project evoked an interest for research by exposing me to many
new techniques that induced in me curiosity to learn more, think more
and apply more and further motivated me to pursue a future in biological
sciences. -Amrita Singh
It made me confident enough to work independently and in a team also
but not relying upon others for my work. It taught us how to work in a
group with discipline. -Beneeta Kalha
Watching things happen,and understanding the principle behind
techniques by performing them made concepts clear and gave a
rational basis to our analytical skills. -Sweety Raj

13. Summary:
Number of students who have
participated so far: 150
A large percentage of the students get
motivated to study Life Science in
higher degree and pursue research as
a career option.
These projects are an excellent way
to put training hours in building
repositories, generating data and
gaining personal skills!

14. OSDD project II: Mtb Mur pathway
enzymes as multi-target therapy
A one-pot assay for six Mur enzymes purified
from Mtb for screening of new inhibitory
molecules is developed.

15. Thank you! 