Name of the speaker: Dr. Gangadhar Eluru
Date/time: 9th July 2025,3:00 PM
Venue: SV Narasaiah Auditorium, IAP Department
Abstract: Microfluidics is a powerful and versatile platform that operates at the intersection of basic and applied research, with broad applications across environmental science, chemistry, biology, and healthcare. Its unique ability to precisely manipulate fluids at the micron scale enables the development of compact, efficient, and high-resolution analytical systems.
In this talk, I will first highlight the use of microfluidics in developing micro-flow cytometry–based point-of-care diagnostic platforms. I will also discuss how these techniques have been adapted for cell identification, enumeration, and the study of mechanical properties, including the determination of cellular elastic moduli.
In the second part of the talk, I will present a microfluidic strategy for purifying proteins directly from single E. coli colonies, enabling structural studies via cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). I will describe the experimental setup and demonstrate how this approach allows for the purification of mammalian membrane proteins at the microscale, producing cryo-EM–ready samples using several hundred times less biological material compared to conventional workflows. These results underscore the transformative potential of microfluidics in streamlining protein purification and structure determination, with significant implications for accelerating the drug discovery pipeline.
About the Speaker: Dr. Gangadhar Eluru is an applied physicist and technologist with a strong commitment to translating cutting-edge research into impactful real-world applications. He holds an M.Sc. (Integrated) in Physics from IIT Kanpur and a Ph.D. in Instrumentation and Applied Physics from IISc Bangalore. His doctoral research, under the guidance of Prof. Sai Siva Gorthi, focused on the development of novel microfluidic platforms for point-of-care diagnostics. This work led to multiple peer-reviewed publications and several patents—one of which was granted in the U.S., Australia, and India, and subsequently licensed by a start-up company.
Following his Ph.D., Dr. Eluru pursued postdoctoral research with Prof. Rouslan Efremov at VIB in Belgium, where he developed advanced microfluidic tools for protein purification and cryo-EM sample preparation. These innovations addressed key bottlenecks in structural biology and have attracted wide interest from academic and industrial partners for their potential to accelerate drug discovery.
Dr. Eluru’s core expertise lies at the intersection of microfluidics, instrumentation, artificial intelligence, and translational science, with a focus on med-tech and high-tech innovation. Passionate about bridging engineering precision with scientific discovery, he is dedicated to developing scalable technologies that address critical challenges in science, healthcare, and society.