Browsing by Author "Mohammad Hasan Dad Ansari"

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Recent advances in plant nanobionics and nanobiosensors for toxicology applications
(Bentham Science Publishers, 2020) Mohammad Hasan Dad Ansari; Santosh Lavhale; Raviraj M. Kalunke; Prabhakar L. Srivastava; Vaibhav Pandit; Subodh Gade; Sanjay Yadav; Peter Laux; Andreas Luch; Donato Gemmati; Paolo Zamboni; Ajay Vikram Singh
Emerging applications in the field of nanotechnology are able to solve a gamut of problems surrounding the applications of agroecosystems and food technology. Nano Engineered Material (NEM) based nanosensors are important tools for monitoring plant signaling pathways and metabolism that are nondestructive, minimally invasive, and can provide real-time analysis of biotic and abiotic threats for better plant health. These sensors can measure chemical flux even at the single-molecule level. Therefore, plant health could be monitored through nutrient management, disease assessment, plant hormones level, environmental pollution, etc. This review provides a comprehensive account of the current trends and practices for the proposed NEM related research and its (i) structural aspect, (ii) experimental design and performance as well as (iii) mechanisms of field application in agriculture and food system. This review also discusses the possibility of integration of data from NEM based nanosensors in current and emerging trends of precision agriculture, urban farming, and plant nanobionics to adopt a sustainable approach in agriculture. © 2020 Bentham Science Publishers.
Sperm cell driven microrobots-Emerging opportunities and challenges for biologically inspired robotic design
(MDPI AG, 2020) Ajay Vikram Singh; Mohammad Hasan Dad Ansari; Mihir Mahajan; Shubhangi Srivastava; Shubham Kashyap; Prajjwal Dwivedi; Vaibhav Pandit; Uma Katha
With the advent of small-scale robotics, several exciting new applications like Targeted Drug Delivery, single cell manipulation and so forth, are being discussed. However, some challenges remain to be overcome before any such technology becomes medically usable; among which propulsion and biocompatibility are the main challenges. Propulsion at micro-scale where the Reynolds number is very low is difficult. To overcome this, nature has developed flagella which have evolved over millions of years to work as a micromotor. Among the microscopic cells that exhibit this mode of propulsion, sperm cells are considered to be fast paced. Here, we give a brief review of the state-of-the-art of Spermbots-a new class of microrobots created by coupling sperm cells to mechanical loads. Spermbots utilize the flagellar movement of the sperm cells for propulsion and as such do not require any toxic fuel in their environment. They are also naturally biocompatible and show considerable speed of motion thereby giving us an option to overcome the two challenges of propulsion and biocompatibility. The coupling mechanisms of physical load to the sperm cells are discussed along with the advantages and challenges associated with the spermbot. A few most promising applications of spermbots are also discussed in detail. A brief discussion of the future outlook of this extremely promising category of microrobots is given at the end. © 2020 by the authors.