NRI
Scientist, Kalidas Shetty awarded
prestigious US fellows
(Jefferson Science Fellowship)
New York, Professor Kalidas Shetty
New York, May 28, 2004
New York, Professor Kalidas Shetty of the University of Massachusetts, a scientist of Indian origin, is among five recipients of the first Jefferson Science Fellowship announced by Secretary of State Colin Powell.Kalidas Shetty, associate professor of food science at Umass, Amherst, Dr. Julian Adams from the University of Michigan, Bruce Averill from the University of Toledo, Dr. Melba Crawford from the University of Texas at Austin, and David Easton from the University of California at Riverside were feted by the State Department.
"The dynamic spirit of science and its search for new ideas has animated America since its earliest days," Powell said in his speech, adding, "The US itself was an experiment in political science, an unprecedented experiment in liberty and in self-government."He noted how Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were both scientists as well as diplomats and that America needs a strong partnership between the two disciplines so that diseases, weapons of mass destruction and alleviating poverty could be dealt with and overcome
Title: Professor
Specialty: Food BiotechnologyUnderstanding the synthesis and regulation of phenolic metabolites in plants is important for use of natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents for food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications. Current research has focused on screening superior phenolics-producing clonal lines using tissue culture techniques and development of non-GMO clonal systems that produce higher levels of specific phenolic compounds for health and food pathogen targets.
Functional phenolic metabolites also can be enzymatically released and mobilized during solid state fermentation of grain legumes and fruit products. This has immediate implications for developing functional foods and food-based nutraceuticals.
On the environmental side, development of solid-state fermentation technology is providing the means to produce value-added products from fruit, vegetable and fishery processing wastes.
Research Interests
Natural food preservative production by elite plant clonal systems using tissue culture and molecular techniques Solid-state fermentation of legumes and fruit systems for nutraceuticalsDevelopment of novel glycosidases using solid-state fermentation to produce functional phenolic ingredients for functional foods
Antimicrobial effects and mechanisms linked to phenolic phytochemicals
Yeast and mammalian culture systems to screen anti-cancer and immune-modulating phytochemicals
Potential Applications
Health-functional ingredients from fermented legumes and fruitsNovel and elite nutraceutical and phyto-pharmaceutical-producing plant cloning using tissue culture and molecular techniques
Food-grade phenolic ingredients as food preservatives, nutraceuticals and animal feed supplements
Antimicrobials against food-borne bacterial pathogens
Value-added products for organic agriculture from fruit and fishery processing wastes
