Leishmaniasis, a disease caused by a parasite called Leishmania, occurs in different forms, with the most severe being visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Mainly found in tropical and subtropical areas, VL primarily affects people living in poverty and spreads through the bite of infected female sandflies. Current treatments have been largely ineffective as they are often accompanied by side effects. Ahmedabad University Professor Souvik Sengupta's research aims to improve outcomes in this area by developing gold nanoparticles coated with citrate and combined with Amphotericin B. This new formulation works against the parasite by interfering with the enzyme that the parasite needs for its existence, thereby reducing its survival rate.

Animals form groups based on dynamic cost-to-benefit ratios influenced by varying environmental and ecological conditions. Ahmedabad University’s doctoral student, Chena Desai's study highlighted key findings on the social preferences of young green chromides, a cichlid species in Asia and understudied in the field. Conducted with an Ahmedabad University professor, the research reveals that chromides prefer associating with their own species of similar size and in larger groups and use visual cues to make social choices, offering new insights into their group behaviour.

The road system in India records high fatality rates, especially within highway ecosystems, necessitating intervention in transportation systems. Globally, experts agree that the solution lies in implementing the cellular vehicular-to-everything, or C-V2X technology, that can make cars intelligent by providing informative messages. Ahmedabad University Professor Dhaval Patel's research project, "Deployment of 6G Accelerated Smart Transportation with C-V2X on Ahmedabad-Rajkot Highway (NH47) Corridor," aims to design and deliver high-reliability, low-latency V2I communication, essential for ushering in intelligent transportation in India.

The problem of detecting leaks in pipelines transporting liquid and gas resources, such as water, oil, and natural gas, has perplexed engineers worldwide. This problem is complicated further as each fluid behaves differently, making it impossible to apply a universal solution. To address this, an Ahmedabad University Professor is experimenting with acoustic emission (AE) sensors to detect pipeline leaks, fusing engineering and emerging technologies for signal processing and data analysis, providing more accurate and faster identification of leaks and faults.

Over the years, airfares have reduced significantly, making air travel accessible to all. While the fuel and other operational costs remain high, airfares remain affordable for the masses. This transition can be attributed to material shifts from metals to composites. Over 55% of commercial airplanes are made from composites, reducing weight drastically and costs, thus allowing planes to carry more passengers and cargo. The benefits of composites are also visible in other sectors, including defence, structural engineering, automotive, sports, et al.

Rapid urbanisation and climate change will significantly impact urban populations, necessitating novel adaptation strategies to improve wellbeing. Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Surat have recorded a 69% rise in population between 2001 and 2011—additionally, the hot and humid climate results in considerable heat stress. Shomen Mukherjee, an Ahmedabad University professor, will use the land cover and temperature data for Ahmedabad to assess the influences of urban land cover and microclimate on biodiversity and human heat exposure under the NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science grant.

Li-ion batteries have emerged as an efficient energy storage device due to their applications in electric vehicles and portable electronic devices. This led to the study of increasing the Li-storage capacity and outperforming the traditional material by replacing graphite with silicon anode. Waste glass, often discarded in landfills, can be recycled into silicon nanomaterials, promoting efficient energy storage and reducing landfill waste. Ahmedabad University Professors Sridhar Dalai and Snigdha Khuntia and research candidate Moulie Ghosh designed a laboratory instrument to synthesise silicon nanomaterial from laboratory waste glass for which the team received a patent from the Government of India's Patent Office.

The treatment of patients with a severe brain tumour called glioma, which is characterised by poor prognosis and low survival rates, can be better planned through the prediction of survival days (SDs) for the patients. A team of professors at Ahmedabad University has made strides in this direction by studying the development of a robust feature set (data points) to accurately predict SDs for glioma patients.

Gravitational collapse gives rise to primordial naked singularities that may have implications for the present universe, including those on dark matter, vis-à-vis primordial black holes, indicates research conducted by an Ahmedabad University Professor. This research has drawn the attention of renowned German theoretical physicist and author Sabine Hossenfelder, who has featured it on her eponymous YouTube channel.

MicroRNAs play a crucial role in regulating resistance to a specific drug, a novel approach beneficial for breast cancer patients with a high mortality rate. Nanomedicine also contributes to advancements in nanoparticle-mediated disease treatment. It explores the possibility of co-delivering microRNAs and chemotherapy drugs through the use of an immunoliposome-based delivery system to treat HER2-positive breast cancer. This research, conducted by Ashutosh Kumar, Associate Professor at Ahmedabad University, has also attracted attention from the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Blue carbon ecosystems supporting climate change mitigation are seen as important nature-based solutions that can support coastal adaptation and offer a range of benefits. To identify key evidence gaps and support India's mangrove and blue carbon policies and ambitions, the University's Global Centre for Environment and Energy (GCEE) mobilised the scientific community, policymakers, industry, and civil society through a workshop on blue carbon ecosystems.

Ahmedabad Professor Subhash Rajpurohit, along with a global team of scientists, developed a new pedagogic module for in-classroom DNA extraction using commonly available materials.

Adarsh Ganesan, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science, collaborated with researchers at TU Delft on building a miniature microchip that is of significant importance in monitoring Earth’s climate, for medical imaging, and for applications in quantum technologies.

We spend a staggering 70-80 per cent of our time indoors, be it at the workplace or at home. Yet the study of indoor air quality has received far less attention than the study of ambient air quality. Researchers at Ahmedabad University’s Air and Climate Research Laboratory conducted a month-long indoor air quality measurement campaign on Campus and here’s what they found.

Krishna Swamy, Assistant Professor at the Biological and Life Sciences division, School of Arts and Sciences, was part of a collaborative international study that has discovered the role of impaired protein complexes in alleviating or aggravating hybrid birth defects. This defect can arise at an early stage of speciation and continuously build up to achieve complete reproductive isolation.

Coastal wetlands such as mangroves and salt marshes are increasingly recognised for their tremendous ‘blue carbon’ potential. PhD student Shrutika Parihar and Minal Pathak, Associate Professor at Ahmedabad University's Global Centre for Environment and Energy, in collaboration with the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK, are using satellite imagery to model coastal wetland trends in the Gujarat region of India. This initiative, along with predictive modelling, will be used to formulate future climate scenarios.

For PhD students at Ratna Ghosal’s Ecology and Environment Lab, research life is all about travelling to zero-network remote destinations where they get on their fours to go through barbed wire, spend hours with muggers, cichlids, and catfish, and return with inexplicable bites and rashes all over.

Researchers of the Oral Cancer Cluster at the Biological and Life Sciences division of the School of Arts and Sciences and oncologists from Ahmedabad’s HCG Cancer Centre led by Vivek Tanavde have made a breakthrough discovery promising to alter invasive biopsies in oral cancer patients.

Faculty at Ahmedabad University, a liberal education-driven research University, work on some very challenging questions of our times. Here’s what research in the labs of our professors recognised in the World's Top 2% Scientists list by Stanford University looks like.

Groundbreaking research carried out by evolutionary biologists from three eminent global universities - Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Ahmedabad University, proves that contrary to traditional belief, evolution is a rapid process.

Minal Pathak, Associate Professor at the Amrut Mody School of Management and the Global Centre for Environment and Energy, and drafting author on the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was in the UK when the heatwaves disrupted normal life in the region. In a Q&A with The Stepwell, she outlines how India's initiatives to manage heat could help other global cities tackle extreme heat events.

Increasingly dissatisfied with the RT-PCR method of confirming Covid, this computer engineering duo studied biology to propose how Molecular Communication can use multiple cytokines to detect not just Covid but other life-threatening diseases

This month’s breakthrough news in cosmology gave us more than one reason for cheer. Sagittarius A* captured by researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration coincided with the launch of our International Centre for Space and Cosmology anchored at the School of Arts and Sciences. Notably, the Centre’s Director Professor Pankaj Joshi’s JMN (Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan) naked singularity model, proposed and published in 2011 by him and his colleagues, contributed to the modelling of the observations.

An alternative to costly and bulky front-line research equipment used for measuring atmospheric trace species is proposed through the use of many lightweight, new-generation sensors. The research around these low-cost substitutes is driven by Assistant Professor Aditya Vaishya who is currently using the rooftop of our School of Arts and Sciences building as an effective research ground, having installed sensors all around.

Millions of women’s lives could be saved thanks to government funding received by biotech startup Pragmatech Healthcare for a standalone, cost-efficient immunoassay kit that allows detection of cervical cancer in the privacy of your home with minimal technical expertise. CERVICHECK was nurtured at Ahmedabad University's VentureStudio.