Research Areas

Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies
Community Research
Community mobilization and participatory research
Research and community based-rehabilitation of differently-abled persons
Community research among tribal groups on Antenatal care and post partum care using qualitative methods
Qualitative research in chronic morbidity with special reference to Diabetes Mellitus
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Epidemiology of chronic diseases and their risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity
Epidemiology of diabetes
Quality of life in diabetes
Measurement issues in health
Validation of measurement tools in health research
Sampling for statistical inference
Advanced statistical analysis of bio-medical and public health data
Secondary data analysis
Epidemiology and surveillance of infectious diseases
Infectious disease epidemiology - Tuberculosis control
Environmental epidemiology
Survival analysis
Analysis of randomized control trial -Cervical cancer research
Ethics
Bioethics in health research
Gender and Health
Gender and health
Sexual and reproductive health and rights
Gender issues related to diabetes
Gender and Maternal Mortality
Health Policy and Management
Health Policy with special reference to underdevelopment
Health Policy and Advocacy
Policy research on intervention among children
Health Planning and Management- Healthcare administration, Human Resource Management, workload research
Project Management- Situational analysis, scheduling, project appraisal, programming, monitoring and evaluation
Strategic Management- Strategic analysis
Health systems and health financing
Economics of Health- Economic appraisal, project planning
Development Studies- Rural Development
Demographic research in Public Health
Technology
Geo-spatial analysis in public health
Public health informatics
Public Health and socio-cultural ramifications of technology adoption
Biomedical Technology Wing (BMT Wing)

The Biomedical Technology Wing (BMT Wing) consists of an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers with wide ranging research interests around the broad area of biomaterials, biomedical engineering and medical devices technology. The faculty, staff and students publish their work in refereed journals of national or international standing and actively pursue professional development through participating and organizing national and international conferences. Research faculties actively pursue research projects by seeking external funding from national funding agencies and also undertake collaborative projects with other institutions and industry.

In BIOMATERIALS RESEARCH the current strength is in Polymers and Ceramic materials. The areas of research focus include the following:
Synthesis and characterizations of novel biocompatible polymers
Polymers and polymer composites with tailor made properties and structure
Polymers for drug delivery applications, sensor applications, coatings on medical devices
Quantum dots for medical applications, Molecular imprinting techniques for sensor applications
Ceramic nano particles development for drug delivery such as insulin/ heparin, gold nanoparticles for sensing of biomolecules and other applications in biomedical area
Bioceramics based on hydroxyapatite and bioactive ceramic-glass composite platforms, Polymer ceramic composites
Dental materials- synthesis and characterization of novel dental materials
Chitosan research for applications in wound healing, drug delivery etc
Reduction of latex allergy, coatings on latex products
In Biological research area, some of the areas of research focus includes,
Tissue Engineering Research-corneal TE, hepatocytes and endothelial cells for bioartificial liver, scaffolds for cartilage, pancreas,
Stem cell research-cell encapsulation,
Tissue material interaction, developing an atlas of tissue response, study of retrieved human implants
Blood Material interactions, Thrombosis research
Decellularisation of animal tissues
Developing alternate and new test systems for animal testing
Development of growth factors such as Transformation growth factors (TGF-alpha) and Vascular Endothelial growth factor (VEGF)- D
In the Biomedical engineering domain, the areas of research interest includes,
Designing, modeling, prototyping and testing of cardiovascular devices and implants
Finite element modeling and analysis of medical devices, Blood flow studies, Computational Fluid dynamic studies
Development of test systems such as accelerated wear tester, pulse duplicator, pressure calibrator etc for device evaluation
Surface modification and applications of PET fabrics
advanced coatings for improving biocompatibility and surface property in medical devices such as Diamond Like Coatings (DLC) and Titanium Nitride Coatings
Laser deposition of ceramics on devices
Electrical Impedance based pneumography
Bioreactor development and Electro spinning stations for Tissue engineering
The broad areas of interest in product development include,
Cardio-vascular Devices and Implants such as mechanical heart valves, tissue based valves, coronary stents, blood pumps, LVADs, blood oxygenators, vascular grafts, ECG electrodes, tissue based cardiac patch
Neurological devices such as EMG electrodes, DBS implants
Neurosurgical implants such as Hydrocephalus shunt, aneurysm clips/ coils
Blood transfusion products such as blood bags, leukocyte filters etc
Dental materials- composite based materials, titanium based dental implants
Bioceramic materials and polymer ceramic composites for dental and orthopedic applications
Hormone releasing Intrauterine devices
Kits such as Urinary tract infection identification, Elisa based Pyrogen test kit
Biologicals such as Fibrin glue, Anti-viper venom, fetal calf serum
Chitosan based wound dressings
Eco friendly animal bedding for laboratory animals

In medical device technology management, the interest is in medical device regulations, quality management, clinical engineering, IPR issues and industry issues related to medical devices technology in India

Detailed information and status of work undertaken, results and findings can be looked up at the annual report of the Institute

Areas of research in Hospital Wing
Department of Anesthesiology
Intraoperative hemodynamic performance and echocardiographic characteristics
Evaluation of Chitra heart valve prosthesis in the aortic and the mitral positions
Comparison of effect of isoflurane and sevoflurane on left ventricular diastolic function in patients with ischemic heart disease undergoing CABG
Intraoperative changes in pulmonary venous Doppler flow profile before and after surgical closure of atrial and ventricular septal defects.
Division of Biochemistry

Biochemical basis of diseases such as

Identification of lipoprotein binding serum antibodies and characterization of polysaccharide antibody recognition.
Studies on dysfunctional high density lipoprotein (HDL)
Developing of a database of young CAD patients in Kerala

Experimental and clinical oncology research involving,

Insidious role of nitric oxide in tumor cell aggressiveness
Studies on characterizing gliomasphere forming cells
Mechanisms of natural and synthetic chemical moieties as tentative antitumor agents
Department of Cardiology
Cardiac electrophysiology in inherited and acquired forms of cardiac dysarrhythmias
Functional assessment of coronary lesion in deciding intervention and long term follow up of device closure for cardio defects
Community interventions for health: emphasis on calf length and circumference as a marker for adult onset risk factors and diseases
Quit Tobacco India Indonesia project: training on behavioral methods at tobacco cessation
Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
Animal experiments [in pig] with Hydrogel coated large diameter Chitra Vascular graft
Implantation of small diameter tissue engineered graft [in sheep].
Studies on developing indigenous left ventricular assist device for endstage heart failure
Stem cell treatment for patients with ischemic heart disease,
Preclinical animal trial for stem cell therapy,
Preclinical animal trial for modified Chitra heart valve prosthesis
Mitochondrial metabolism and function in Type 2 diabetic heart
Division of Cellular and Molecular Cardiology
Spontaneously hypertensive rat as an experimental model to identify metabolic modulators that prevent and/or regress cardiac hypertrophy.
Molecular mechanisms involved in apoptosis resistance, cell cycle progression and collagen expression in cardiac fibroblasts under conditions of ambient stress
Effect of oxidative stress and hypertrophy on cardiac stem cells
Identification of allelic variants associated with coronary artery disease, hypertension and hypertrophy.
Department of Imaging Sciences and Interventional Radiology
Development of realtime functional MRI based Brain computer interface for stroke rehabilitation
Functional MRI of decision making, multimodality neuroimaging & advanced neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI, EEG correlated fMRI, SWI and perfusion imaging) for better patient management in epilepsy, brain tumors, movement disorders, stroke & dementia.
Cerebral vaso-reactivity studies
Multimodality evaluation of vulnerability of carotid plaques
Cardiac MRI features in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Development of indigenous stent graft for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair
Division of Microbiology
Antibiotic resistance mechanisms
Surveillance on hospital acquired infections
Screening of herbal extracts for Anti bacterial and Anti viral activity
Studying possible role of microbial pathogens in causation of non-infectious disorders.
Homograft Valve Bank.
Department of Neurology
Deep Brain Stimulation surgery for Parkinson's disease (PD)
Non-motor aspects of Parkinson's disease
Motor physiology of Dystonia
Pathophysiology and treatment of dyskinesia in PD
Role of Alpha-Synuclein and genetics of movement disorders
Studies on estimation of serum levels of amyloid-b in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD)
Tau and progranulin levels in patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
long-term longitudinal study of Cognition in Older Adults in Trivandrum (COAT).
Prevalence of sleep disorders in the general population
Epworth sleepiness score standardization in Indian population
Formulation of new sleep apnea clinical score
Contribution of sleep apnea in the progression of CHF, systemic hypertension, isolated pulmonary hypertension, COPD and Type 2 DM
Prediabetes and insulin resistance in patients with ischemic stroke and TIA, etiology, risk factors and long term outcome in young stroke patients
Natural history of medically treated symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease, prevalence of microbleeds and correlation with stroke subtypes and quality of life of stroke survivors
Utilizing DTI with post-ictal diffusivity indices and fractional anisotropy values and DTI tractography to reduce perioperative neurological deficits
Development of arterial spin-labeling technique (ASL) and standardize its use in patients with epilepsy to detect the flow changes post ictally,
EEG-fMRI studies for identifying the epileptogenic zone in cryptogenic MRI negative focal epilepsies
Epilepsy surgery outcome studies.
Standard versus selective resective temporal lobe epilepsy surgeries
Mortality on long-term following epilepsy surgery
Why epilepsy surgery fails?
Development of standard scores and percentile cut-offs for the scores in relation to verbal and non verbal memory performances in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE)
Allelic, genotypic and haplotypic association in a cohort of pharmacoresistant and pharmacoresponsive patients and normal healthy controls
Creation of a database for the pharmacogenomic profile of epilepsy patients from Kerala
Studies on stigma, infertility and oxidative stress in women with epilepsy
Sero-prevalence of Neurocysticercosis
Estimation of autoantibodies to Voltage gated K+ channel in persons with epilepsy
Pharmacogenetic study for evaluating the teratogenic effects of anti epileptic drugs
The effects of maternal sleep deprivation (restriction) on cognition in the offspring in an animal model.
To investigate the role of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep during development in regulation of sexual arousal and erectile events in adult rats.
To investigate the effects of acute sleep restriction on sleep and body temperature interactions in different age groups of healthy subjects.
To investigate the effects of short- and long-term administration of alpha-asarone on oxidative stress and anxiety alleviation in insomnia model in rats.
Scientific evaluation of the sleep-wake altering property of a-asarone, an active principle of Acorus Calamus
Department of Neurosurgery
Multicentric, multinational, randomized, controlled clinical/surgical trials
Preclinical animal evaluation of decellularised bovine pericardium as Dura substitute
Department of Pathology
Infectious diseases of the central nervous system
Tumors of the central nervous system
Muscular and neuromuscular diseases
Demyelinating diseases, epilepsy and vascular diseases of the central nervous system.
Nutritional Cardiovascular Diseases
Mucoid Vasculopathy, Atherosclerosis, Metabolic Syndrome, associated Endocrinopathies Diabetes Mellitus, Goitre
Low HDL-Cholesterol Dyslipidemia: Human & Primate model
Endomyocardial Fibrosis: Human & Primate Model
Rheumatic Heart Disease: Pathology and Etiopathogenesis revisited
Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemorrhage and non-classical Hermansky Pudlak Syndrome
Tumours of the Mediastinum, Chest and Lungs
Food & Environmental Toxins, Food & Milk Dysbiosis and Human Health
Department of Transfusion Medicine
Demographic risk factors associated with undetected hypertension among blood donors of Kerala
Patient response to platelet transfusion
Red cell antibody screening as a part of research.