Student Fellowship Program

The ‘Student Fellowship Program’ is designed to encourage trans-disciplinary research in AYUSH systems and aims to encourage students from different backgrounds to undertake master dissertation projects on subjects related to AYUSH. Every year 10 fellowships are awarded to Master’s students from any discipline who are in the 2nd or 3rd Semester of their course.

Selected students are given a consolidated fellowship of INR.28,000/- and a certificate after successful completion of the approved research project. The selected fellows also get complimentary registration for the workshops and conferences organized by AYUSH CoE during the academic year.

PROJECTS SELECTED FOR FELLOWSHIP DURING 2018-2019

Sr. No	Name	Department/College/University	Project Title
1.	Chitra Patil	Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune	Extraction of Leaf Features for Plant Classification using Deep Learning Approach
2.	Gloriya Hancock	Tilak College of Education, Pune	Yoga and Pranayam For Stress Reduction of School Teachers
3.	Krishna Desai	Department of Chemistry, SPPU, Pune	Bioactivity Guided Fractionation of Wrightia tinctorial for Discovery of Novel Anti-sickling agent
4.	Manasi Jadhav	J.D.C Bytco Institute of Management Studies and Research, Nashik	The Study and Analysis of the effect of Yoga on Selective attention & Mental concentration in Today’s Youth
5.	Monika Harshwal	Fergusson College, Pune	Screening Antivenom Potential of Mimosaceae Plants For Snake Envenomation
6.	Priti Shenoy	Department of Microbiology, SPPU, Pune	Investigating combinatorial anticancer effect of the Ayurvedic principles and metal nanoparticles on model cancer cells
7.	Sadiya Shaikh	Department of Statistics, SPPU, Pune	Pattern Analysis of Ayurveda Data
8.	Shivani Sainani	Dr. D Y Patil Institute of Pharmaceutical Science & Research, Pune	Toxicological Evaluation Of Bhasmas : A Safety Concern
9.	Shubham Pandey	Department of Zoology, SPPU, Pune	Evaluation of possible protective effects of Ficus religiosa species leaf extract on doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in H9c2 cell lines
10.	Vishwadeep Mane	Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune	Preliminary investigation of biotransformation of phytochemicals in the Ayurvedic preparations of Withania somnifera

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRAM (2018-2019)

Sadiya Shaikh received the first prize in the Dr. V. P. Bhapkar Memorial State Level Project Competition under the Samarth Bharat Abhiyan for her project.
Vishwadeep Mane received a grant of £1000 for being selected for the talk by the British Ecological Society to present the research project of AYUSH CoE fellowship program.
Vishwadeep Mane won best oral presentation award for the project entitled ‘Reconnoitring the endophytic microbial community structure before and throughout the course of fermentation of in Asvagandharishta: An Ayurvedic preparation of Withania somnifera L. (Dunal)’ at the Annual Meeting of British Ecological Society in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

PROJECTS SELECTED FOR FELLOWSHIP DURING 2019-2020

Sr. No	Name	Department/College/University	Project Title
1.	Aishwarya Medhekar	Department of Health Sciences, SPPU, Pune	Assessing pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic herb-drug interaction in diabetic patients
2.	Anshita Dhiman	Department of Health Sciences, SPPU, Pune	Association between prakriti and outcome of chemotherapy – an exploratory study of breast cancer patients
3.	Kanchan Bajaj	Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune	Study of microflora of Asvagandharishta with respect to fermentation and aging
4.	Kiran Hendre	Department of Health Sciences, SPPU, Pune	Exploring the effects of Alternate nostril breathing on nasal cycle in healthy individuals
5.	Manali Bagade	Department of Zoology, SPPU, Pune	Screening the effect of Plumbagin on osteoblast calls
6.	Sakshi Patange	Bioinformatics Centre, SPPU, Pune	Computational Pipeline to enable Network Pharmacology for Ayurveda
7.	Pranav Shukla	Department of Technology, SPPU, Pune	Screening the effect of Plumbagin from Lal Chitrak on osteoblast cells
8.	Snigdha Nadagouda	Department of Microbiology, SPPU, Pune	Investigating effects of ECM stiffness on anticancer activities of Ayurvedic phytochemicals
9.	Tapadeep Chakraborty	Department of Technology, SPPU, Pune	To predict the efficacy of Methotrexate (MTX) in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in early stages using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms on available clinical data of Indian patients
10.	Viraj Bhagat	Department of Statistics, SPPU, Pune	Modelling of wellness of individuals using statistical data mining tools

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRAM (2019-2020)

Aishwarya Medhekar presented the poster “Potential Herb-drug interaction among ayurvedic medicine used in Type 2 Diabetes” at the International Conference on AYUSH for Future Health Challenges conducted by AYUSH CoE, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Kanchan Bajaj presented the poster “Exploration of the endophytic microbial community and microflora of Asvagandharishta with respect to fermentation and aging” at the International Conference on AYUSH for Future Health Challenges conducted by AYUSH CoE, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Kiran Hendre presented a poster “Development and validation of nasal cycle assessment tool” at YANTRA 2020 at NIMHANS Bengaluru.
Manali Bagade presented the poster “Screening the effect of Plumbagin from Lal Chitrak on osteoblast cells” at the International Conference on AYUSH for Future Health Challenges conducted by AYUSH CoE, Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Manali Bagade published an article entitled, “The phytochemical plumbagin reciprocally modulates osteoblasts and osteoclasts" in the journal of Biological Chemistry in 2022 https://doi.org/10.1515/hsz-2021-0290.
Pranav Shukla presented the poster “Efficient Information Retrieval and Knowledge Discovery for Ayurveda Texts” at the International Conference on AYUSH for Future Health Challenges by AYUSH CoE, Savitribai Phule Pune University. He also attended the 6th International Sanskrit Computational Linguistics Symposium at IIT Kharagpur.
The dissertation work of AYUSH CoE fellowship student, Mr Pranav Shukla has been awarded with Persistent best M. Tech (Computer and Information Technology) dissertation gold medal for his work on the topic 'Efficient Information Retrieval for Charaka Samhita. This medal is selected by independent evaluation by an expert panel of Persistent Systems.
Snigdha Nadagouda presented the poster “Integrating Ayurveda with modern medicine to combat cancer: Combinatorial effect of in situ synthesized phytonanoparticles using Tinospora cordifolia extract on cancer cells and understanding extracellular matrix stiffness response to Ayurvedic medicine” at the International Conference on AYUSH for Future Health Challenges conducted by AYUSH CoE, Savitribai Phule Pune University.

PROJECTS SELECTED FOR FELLOWSHIP DURING 2020-2021

Sr. No	Name	Department/College/University	Project Title
1.	Aswathy Y. S.	Amrita School of Ayurveda, Vallikavu	Effect of Niruha Vasthi (medicated enema) on Prevotella species of gut microbiota in rheumatoid arthritis patients
2.	Bony Dasari	Modern College of Arts Science and Commerce, Pune	Understanding interactions between physicochemical parameters, phytochemical biotransformations and microorganisms during Ashwagandharishta fermentation
3.	Gauri Ghodake	Bioinformatics Center, SPPU, Pune	In-silico predictions of herb-drug interactions for COVID-19
4.	Mahesh Bansod	Interdisciplinary School of Scientific Computing, SPPU, Pune	A model for predicting effectiveness of Methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis using ayurvedic parameters
5.	Mansi Rathod	Department of Microbiology, SPPU, Pune	Investigating the ECM stiffness-regulated effect of Tinospora cordifolia extract on proliferative and mitogenic signaling in cancer cells
6.	Nupur Agrawal	Fergusson College, Pune	त्रिनेत्र – Artificial Envisioning
7.	Shilpa S	Amrita School of Ayurveda, Vallikavu	A clinical study to evaluate the efficacy of Brahmi Ghritha Nasya on cognitive functions and its bioavailability
8.	Shreya Kalan	Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, SPPU, Pune	Effects of Hairy Roots induced by transgenic Rhizobium rhizogenes in Oroxylum indicum
9.	Swapnali Chaudhari	Department of Health Sciences, SPPU, Pune	Effectiveness of integrative therapeutic approach for treatment of arthritis: A multicentric, case-controlled, cross-sectional study
10.	Swati Sharma	Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi	To develop newer classification of Rasayana on the basis of their physiological and pharmacological actions

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRAM (2020-2021)

Dr. Aswathy Y.S., of AYUSH CoE Fellowship student, from Amritha School of Ayurveda, won Aryavaidyan P. Madhava Varier Memorial Gold Medal as a best performer presentation competition on the topic “Effect of Nirūha Vasti ( Medicated Enema) on Prevotella species of gut microbiota in Rheumatoid arthritis patients” She was selected for the medal amongst the post graduate Ayurveda Scholars of Kerala.