Day 3 :
- Environmental Biotechnology│Industrial Biotechnology │Biotechnology Applications│ Genetic Engineering │ Waste water treatment using Bio Techniques
Chair
Sarabjeet Singh Ahluwalia
General Shivdev Singh Dewan Gurbachan Singh Khalsa College, India
Co-Chair
Zurina Zainal Abidin
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Session Introduction
Zhanying Zhang
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Title: Morphology control of filamentous fungus Mucor plumbeus for improved microbial oil production
Time : 08:30-08:50
Biography:
Zhanying Zhang has obtained his PhD in 2008 from the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is currently a Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is an experienced Researcher in fermentation technology, bioprocess optimization and scale-up, biomass pretreatment and biorefinery. He has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 4 book chapters. He also has 3 patent applications in processing lignocellulosic biomass for the production of fermentable sugars.
Abstract:
Microbial oils have important applications in producing high value fuels and nutraceutical products. In recent years, microbial oil production by oleaginous filamentous fungi has attracted increasing interest because fungi have relatively high growth rates are able to use a variety of carbon sources and have relatively low harvesting cost compared to heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae. Many studies on microbial oil production by filamentous fungi have been focused on low-cost substrates such as lignocellulosic biomass. However, research on morphology control is limited, which is challenging in cultivation of filamentous fungi and critical towards process scale-up and commercialization. We have previously identified an oleaginous filamentous fungus Mucor plumbeus for microbial lipid production. Cultivations of this fungus at different conditions and scales have shown the variation in fungal morphological forms. Different inoculation and process control strategies have been proposed and preliminary tested in order to control the morphological forms of this fungus suitable for reactor cultivation and process scale-up.
Sarabjeet Singh Ahluwalia
General Shivdev Singh Dewan Gurbachan Singh Khalsa College, India
Title: Decolorization of textile dyes Basic Red 46 and Reactive Black 5 by Staphylococcus epidermidis MTCC 10623
Time : 08:50-09:10
Biography:
Sarabjeet Singh Ahluwalia has completed his PhD from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, (Presently Thapar University), Patiala. He is the Assistant Professor in Biotechnology at General Shivdev Singh Dewan Gurbachan Singh Khalsa College, Patiala, Punjab, India. He has published more than 21 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute. He has three patents to his credit. He has reviewed a number of research papers/manuscripts.
Abstract:
A critical situation has aroused due to increased discharge of wastewater containing considerable extent of azo dyes from textile dyeing and manufacturing industries, which requires prior treatment, before being released in order to prevent contamination of natural water courses and ground water. In the present study, Staphylococcus epidermidis MTCC 10623 isolated from contaminated site was explored for the decolorization and degradation of two different types of azo dyes such as Basic Red 46 (BR 46) and Reactive Black 5 (RB 5), extensively used in textile processing industries. S. epidermidis has shown remarkable decolorization potential (99.6 and 97%) for the selected dyes at the concentration of 100 mg/L under optimized conditions (pH: 9.0; temp: 40 and 35 °C) after 6 and 24 hours incubation respectively. Moreover, addition of carbon (glucose: 0.3%) and nitrogen (ammonium sulfate: 0.1%) source as co-substrates enhanced the decolorization potential of S. epidermidis. Further, decolorization of BR 46 and RB 5, was achieved 99.7 and 97.2% decolorization within 6 and 24 hours respectively with immobilized S. epidermidis over polyurethane foam. Biodegradation analysis of metabolites formed after bacterial treatment by UV-Vis and FTIR spectrophotometer confirms the degradation of these dyes. Phytotoxicity assay of extracted metabolites on Triticum aestivum and Vigna radiata showed good germination rate and growth of radical and plumule demonstrating the non-toxic nature of treated dye solution and suggest that this bacterium is the efficient azo dye degrading bacteria and has practical application in biological treatment of dye-polluted wastewater streams.
Zurina Zainal Abidin
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Title: Pathogen detection by fiber optic microfluidic biosensor
Biography:
Zurina Zainal Abidin has received her BEng in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK in 1997, Masters in Biotechnology at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK and PhD in 2006 from University of Manchester, UK in Biochemical Engineering. Earlier, she developed her career as a Process Engineer in Elektrisola (M) Sdn Bhd in 1998. Later in 1999, she joined Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and currently working as an Associate Professor at Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Her research areas focus on biochemical engineering application on bioseparation using electrokinetics/microarray technology, extraction of bioproducts membrane filtration, biosensor and also wastewater treatment. She has successfully supervised many postgraduate in similar disciplines and also published more than 30 articles in relation to biochemical engineering area.
Abstract:
Pathogens that usually associated with pathogenesis affect human health with massive diseases including chronic infections or immune system disorders. Although numerous vaccinations have been introduced to protect against diseases, some pathogens continues to threaten living life. The current pathogen detection method which based on molecular culture and PCR techniques are essentially slow and time consuming. In recent time, several researchers have attempted to develop rapid detecting tool. Despite advanced engineering, there is still need for an accurate and rapid pathogen detection tool. Thus, this research was carried out to highlight on detection of pathogens using optical biosensor. An optical biosensor (microchannel) is relatively an accurate method of early detection of pathogen. Optical microchannel was fabricated with fiber optics by using photolithography method. Fiber optic biosensor is light scattering, absorption and optical properties of the microorganisms. The chemical composition, energy, the total nucleotides and photo pigments will define the absorption properties of each microorganism. E. coli was detected at region of 280 nm to 285 nm by using the microchannel while, S. cerevisiae identified at visible region of 570 nm to 580 nm. The entire detection can be done in less than 10 minutes with minimum required cells of 1×102 cells per mL with total volume of 6 µl. These detection regions for each sample were compared with spectrophotometer measurement plus theoretical calculations by using Beer Lambert law of absorption.
Syarul Nataqain Binti Baharum
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Title: Metabolomics approach for biomarker discovery of Epinephelus fuscoguttatus infected with vibriosis
Time : 09:10-09:30
Biography:
Syarul Nataqain Binti Baharum has received intensive training in the field of Metabolomics at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom under supervision of Professor Dr. Michael Burrell and Professor Dr. William Paul Quick. Her research is focused on the new insight of analytical and biological perspectives of the metabolomics in the field of systems biology. Her work has been awarded prestigious awards including BioInnovation Awards, 2011 and Selangor My Innovation Award, 2014.
Abstract:
Epinephelus fuscoguttatus or tiger grouper has excellent biological characteristics, fast growing and suitable for aquaculture. This posed a promising industry but is unfortunately hindered by a host of diseases, which often associated with feeding leading to great economic loss. Our goal is to study the metabolite responses to vibrosis in grouper and identify unique metabolites as biomarker to help future remediation/prevention of vibriosis. In this work, larvae of grouper were infected with vibriosis, under fed and non-feed conditions. Metabolites were then extracted from infected (challenged) and non-infected (control) larvae, which died and compared with that of survived. Metabolites profiled were obtained using GC-MS based metabolome analysis. The differences between the challenged and control samples were significantly influenced by the production of fatty acids. A total of 11 fatty acids under challenged feeding and 13 fatty acids under challenged starvation of ï·-9 were detected. However, in the control feeding and control starvation conditions, only four fatty acids of ï·-9 were detected namely, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid and trans-9-palmitoleic acid. The detected compounds were quantified based on three different extraction techniques with the highest at 34 mg/ml and the lowest at 17 mg/ml and mapped in the major fatty acids pathway. There were significant differences (P≤0.001) of ï·-9 production between the challenged and control samples. These changes demonstrate that vibriosis in the fish will induce a biochemical response, especially ï·-9 that can be used as biomarker to determine the survival rate of E. fuscoguttatus.
Xiaoying Helen Lu
Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Title: Exploring active microbial community of anaerobic digestion systems by 454 pyrosequencing
Time : 09:30-09:50
Biography:
Dr. Lu obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Hong Kong. She is currently Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi). She is specialised in environmental microbiology, bioenergy production from solid waste and advanced materials development in energy and environment.
Abstract:
Biotransforming organic wastes into energy has been regarded as one of the promising technologies to combat energy crisis in the future. In this study, we queried the highly active functional population in the anaerobic digestion system with various potential substrates (food waste, cellulose, xylan) by integrating the sludge DNA and RNA of subculture from the substrates. Using barcoded 454-pyrosequencing, we analyzed and compared the bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes of one digester sludge (DNA) sample and three subcultures (cDNA) by giving three individual substrates to the digester sludge in order to identify the active members in digesting organic wastes to biomethane. A total of 19K bacterial and 13K archaeal effective sequences were assigned to taxonomy from phylum to genera levels, providing insights into the microbial community structure and further correlating the community members to the performance of the subculture. The principal coordinates analyses on the basis of UniFrac of OTUs revealed that there are significant differences among the digester sludge and digestion culture samples. Cellulose and xylan culture community are more closer to each compared to food waste culture, even though it still has a slight difference between cellulose and xylan culture. Overall, the phylogenetic information based on DNA and RNA provides a comprehensive and systematic view of the anaerobic microbial community within the digestion systems.
Hoda M Elzeini
Cairo University, Egypt
Title: Morphological identification of rod lactic acid bacteria using scanning electron microscope and image analysis
Time : 09:50-10:10
Biography:
Hoda M Elzeini has completed her PhD from Michigan State University, USA. She is a Professor in Cairo University, Dairy Science Department of Faculty of Agriculture in Egypt. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a Reviewer for some journals. She is teaching dairy technology and food rheology courses. She was trained in England and India to use advance rheological apparatuses.
Abstract:
Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) widely distributed in nature and play an important role in much food fermentations. Bacterial cell morphology is useful and valuable characteristics used in the identification of any organism in order to classify. Therefore, cell morphological shape and size of four strains of rod LAB grown in two different media (MRS and RSM) were studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and image analysis technique. Topographical images reveal rectangular shapes with smooth corners and height profiles and variation in size which occurred singly or in pairs or chains. Rod cells had a wide range of breadth (0.40-1.07 μm) with cells' perimeters of 4.64 up to 11.7 μm and the elongation varies between 0.572 and 0.790 µm. Both areas of Lb. helveticus 764N and Lb. casei 761N were reduced when grown in RSM than in broth medium. On the contrary, cells' areas of Lb. acidophilus 791N and Lb. paracasei 72MP increased when grown in RSM than in broth medium. RSM lowered the compression on cells walls either by the adsorbed water to the surface of the cells or by extra nutrients provides. All the aseptic ratios measured were higher than 1. Rod cells had a different orientation angles and surfaces seem to have heights or extrudes with external boundary was either a sharp outline or a rough surface. Cells hardness and wall thickness affected negatively or positively depending on the strain and growing medium. In conclusion, image analysis of SEM could be a good and accurate tool for measuring many morphology, shape and size parameters for the viable bacterial cells which can be used for identification and classification of rod LAB with determination of defined standard conditions for optimum growth
Dora Garcia Delgado
Heber Biotec, South Africa
Title: Methodology for the valuation and negotiation of the biotechnology products with intangibles
Time : 10:10-10:30
Biography:
Dora Garcia Delgado is graduated in Foreign Trade Economy, Diplomat in Foreign Trade and Masters in Science and PhD in Economic Science from Havana University. She was trained at Business Support Centers Japan 2001 and Seoul 2003. She has participated in several negotiations of Cuban biotechnology products. She has publications in Journal Applied Biotechnology of Cuba: About negotiation of Biotechnology products with intangibles, the evolution of negotiation of biotechnology products further than the intellectual property protection and methodology for the valuation and negotiation of biotechnology products with intangibles.
Abstract:
Heber Biotec S A, a Commercialized Company from the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of Cuba. The High Tech Enterprise is playing an important role in the economy among other aspects as a source of high aggregated value products and intangible assets. The biotechnology enterprise is an exponent of this enterprise. Upon the basis of a document analysis and experts interchange applying Delphis method, a diagnostic is done concerning the treatment given to the biotechnology products with intangibles during negotiations. From such diagnostic the lack of a standard calculation method and the lack of a guide for preparing negotiations were identified as well as the lack of commercial culture concerning the biotechnology products with intangibles negotiation. The general objective of this work is to design a methodology for the valuation and deal making of biotechnology products. For the fulfillment of this objective a deep bibliography was reviewed granting the required concepts to design the methodology which establishes a sequence for the negotiation, recommends a calculation method and some accurate data like the range of payments, royalties percentages, coefficients to separate the intangibles form the total value of the biotechnology project or product. In the whole bibliography reviewed no other guide was found with the integration of calculation method and negotiation methodology in a sequence that become this methodology in a practical tool that allow to entrepreneur who start in biotechnology to evaluate and prepare a biotechnology product negotiation.
Ponniah Anusha
Periyar University, India
Title: Heavy metal resistant bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis isolated from Bauxite mine soil, Kolli hills, Eastern Ghats, Tamilnadu, India
Time : 10:50-11:10
Biography:
D. Natarajan is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamilnadu since October, 2008. He obtained his post-graduation and Doctoral degree (Botany) from Bharathidasan University,Trichy, Tamilnadu in 2003. His research interest includes Herbal and Microbial Biotechnology, Plant tissue culture, Bio/phytoremediation and Bio-nanomedicine. He has published more than 100 research articles both National and International journals and 63 conference attended/presented papers and 4 book chapters for his research credentials. He has operated four major projects funded by Indian Government agencies like UGC, DST, ICMR & TNSCST (worth of Rs. 45 lakhs) during his career at Periyar University. He was the recipient of the Young Scientist award for 2013 by SERB, New Delhi and he has awarded at the prestigious author award by OMICS International 2011. So far, he has guided 10 Ph.D and 20 M. Phil scholars.
Abstract:
Heavy metal pollution spreading to the environment due to human activities such as mining, smelting, e-waste dumping etc. Kolli hills are part of the Eastern Ghats of Tamilnadu harbour rich in biodiversity. Mining activities in study area being created heavy metal contamination in surrounding areas which can affect the microbial, flora and fauna biodiversity and soil fertility. Remediation of heavy metal contaminated sites necessary to turn the beneficial. The indigenous bacteria are evolving as resistant to the heavy metal to some extent such microbes can be used for the metal removal and metal recovery from the polluted sites. This study was aimed to screen the metal resistant bacteria from the heavy metal contaminated soil samples. The efficient two bacterial isolates (A1-2 and A1-3) were isolated and identified as Bacillus spp., through conventional staining and biochemical tests. The bacterial strains were further confirmed by 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic tree which reveals that, the isolates 100 % similarity with the Bacillus thuringiensis and the sequences were submitted to the GenBank. The multi metal resistant of isolates was assessed through the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. The bacterial strains were studied for tolerance to heavy metals such as Copper, Chromium, Lead and Zinc in different concentrations ranging from 10, 20, 40 to 640µg/ml. At the concentration of 10µg/ml, B.thuringiensis A1-2 showed resistant of about 98.94 %, 77.91 %, 76.23 % and 60.41 %, whereas, B.thuringiensis A1-3 found 99.66 %, 87.68 % and 98.87 % resistant to Cu, Cr, Pb and Zn respectively. At the concentration of lead (640µg/ml), the isolates A1-2 and A1-3 showed resistant effect of about 44.5 % and 33.39 % and the outcome of this study found that the strains are having the viability to withstand in high lead stress condition. These results confirmed that the both strains were highly tolerant to lead when compared with Cu, Cr and Zn. Further, the antibiotic profiles of these two bacterial strains were investigated by disc diffusion method and show sensitive to tested antibiotics. Thus, the present study suggested that the bacterial isolates explore potential adaptation to the selected heavy metals which can be applicable for the alternative remediation agent to reduce the heavy metals contamination in the hilly environment. This work was funded by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, India (SB/YS/LS-25/2013) under Start up grant for young scientists.
- Waste water treatment using Bio Techniques
Session Introduction
Yiu Fai Tsang
The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong
Title: Odour Treatment in Potable Water using Biofiltration with Ozone Addition
Biography:
Dr. Yiu Fai (Chris) Tsang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES) at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). He received his PhD from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He further worked as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to joining HKIEd, he was a Programme Coordinator of BSc (Hons) in Applied Science (Energy and Environment) at Vocational Training Council and a Research Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at PolyU. He is currently an Associate Editor for RSC Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry) and serves as Advisory Committee Member/Honorary Advisor in several non-governmental organizations and green groups. He has been also appointed as Adjunct Professor in Guizhou Academy of Sciences, China.
Abstract:
Traditional water treatment processes cannot provide an effective removal of geosmin and MIB (Bruce et al., 2002). The application of activated carbon is one of the most commonly used treatment processes, however, the presence of natural organic materials can result in competition for adsorption sites, leading to decreases in geosmin and MIB removal (Ho et al., 2002). Larger dose of activated carbon is required for effective removal. A cost effective and practical method for the treatment of MIB and geosmin is therefore required. One of the effective processes is ozone-enhanced biofiltration (Bridget et al., 2009). Locating biofilters downstream of ozonation improves dissolved organic carbon removal and can aid in producing biologically stable water such that the potential for biofilm regrowth in water distribution systems is minimised. Field operational data suggests that ozone can oxide 10% to more than 90% of the Geosmin and MIB, and typical biofiltration can reach 50% removal only (Metz et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2007). Several factors may significantly influence geosmin and MIB removal in biofilters, including such as seasonal water temperature variations, filter media (GAC, EC, or sand), empty bed contact time (Liu et al., 2001). Some investigations demonstrated that temperature and media are the most important factors affecting drinking water biofiltration processes (Urfer, 1998) and may influence the removal of compounds such as geosmin and MIB. In this study, the major factors affecting the biological degradation of geosmin and MIB removal in biofilters, including (i) initial concentration, (ii) empty bed contact time, (iii) ozone dosage, and (iv) media, were examined.
Mohamed Said Mahmoud
Housing and Building National Research Center, Egypt
Title: Studies on dye removal by Aspergillus niger strain
Biography:
Mohamed Said Mahmoud has completed his PhD and gained experience from several projects in field of water and wastewater analysis and water quality assessment. He has Membership of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the International Association of Engineers, the New York Academy of Sciences, International Society for Environmental Information Sciences, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Africa and Editorial Review Board Member at the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology. His research interests cover treatment of water and wastewater using different eco-friendly and law cost environmental materials including biological, chemical, physical and mathematical modeling
Abstract:
For color removal from wastewater containing organic contaminants, biological treatment systems have been widely used such as physical and chemical methods of flocculation, coagulation. Fungal decolorization of dye containing wastewater is one of important goal in industrial wastewater treatment. This work was aimed to characterize Aspergillus niger strain for dye removal from aqueous solution and from raw textile wastewater. Batch experiments were studied for removal of color using fungal isolate biomass under different conditions. Environmental conditions like pH, contact time, adsorbent dose and initial dye concentration were studied. Influence of the pH on the removal of azo dye by Aspergillus niger was carried out between pH 1.0 and pH 11.0. The optimum pH for red dye decolonization was 9.0. Results showed the decolorization of dye was decreased with the increase of its initial dye concentration. The adsorption data was analyzed based on the models of equilibrium isotherm (Freundlich model and Langmuir model). During the adsorption isotherm studies; dye removal was better fitted to Freundlich model. The isolated fungal biomass was characterized according to its surface area both pre and post the decolorization process by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis. Results indicate that the isolated fungal biomass showed higher affinity for dye in decolorization process.
- Genetic Engineering
Session Introduction
Yen-Nien Liu
Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
Title: Loss of ETV6 expression results in aggressive prostate cancer progression: Modeling through prostate cancer cell lines
Biography:
Yen-Nien Liu has completed his PhD from Tzu Chi University, Taiwan and Postdoctoral studies from National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA. He is an Assistant Professor of Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. He has published more than 19 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.
Abstract:
Loss of heterozygosity of ETV6, an ETS-family transcription factor in cancer suggests it acts as a tumor suppressor. However, its cellular functions and regulating signaling remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that ETV6 represses prostate cancer metastasis. We identified miR-96, a potential oncomiR, as a novel target of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling in prostate cancer cells. We further identified ETV6 as a downstream target of miR-96 and found that EGFR-mediated activation of miR-96 leads to decreased expression of ETV6. Activated-EGFR signaling mediated increases in miR-96 expression directly inhibited ETV6 expression. ETV6 knockdown promotes prostate cancer cells migration and invasion. Moreover, ectopic ETV6 expression was found associated with reduced metastasis of prostate cancer cells to both bone and brain and increased overall survival in a xenograft model. Importantly, we found EGFR serves as a transcriptioanl activator for miR-96 expression through nuclear EGFR binds to the primary miR-96 regulatory region. This mechanism is supported by results in clinical samples: Low ETV6 levels are correlated with high miR-96 and nuclear EGFR levels in tissue from prostate cancer patients. These studies suggest that prostatic metastasis involves EGFR-mediated miR-96 induction and ETV6 inactivation, resulting in metastatic phenotypes.
Muhamad Afiq Faisal Yahaya
Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Title: Awareness of genetically modified organism (GMO) products among Malaysian consumers
Biography:
Muhamad Afiq Faisal Yahaya has completed his MSc in Medical Virology in 2014 from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He has then appointed as Biotechnology Lecturer in the Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His interest in Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Natural products has led him to conduct a number of amazing studies.
Abstract:
Genetic modification (GM) technology allows scientists to alter the genetic information of a particular organism. The technology allows the production of genetically modified organism (GMO) that has the enhanced property compared to the unmodified organism. The application of GM technology is not only in biopharmaceutical field, it is now has been applied extensively in agriculture such as corn, rice and tomato. In Malaysia, Biosafety Act 2007 has been enacted in which all GMO based products must be labeled with adequate information before being marketed. This paper aims to determine the awareness level amongst Malaysian consumers on the GMO products available in the market and the efficiency of information supplied in the GMO product labeling. The result of the survey will serve as a guideline for Malaysia Government agency bodies to provide comprehensive yet efficient information to consumers for the purpose of GMO product labeling in the near future. In conclusion, the efficiency of information delivery plays a vital role in ensuring that the information is being conveyed clearly to Malaysian consumers during the selection process of GMO products available in the market.
- Marine and Ocean Biotechnology
Session Introduction
K Pani Prasad
ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, India
Title: Biotechnological tools in aquatic animal health management
Biography:
K Pani Prasad has completed his PhD in Applied Aquaculture and Postdoctoral studies from University of Hawaii, USA. He is a Principal Scientist in Aquatic Animal Health Management, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, a premier university for fisheries and aquaculture. He has published more than 60 papers in reputed peer reviewed international and national journals and guided more than 10 doctoral and 50 masters students. He has developed immunodiagnostic kits for detection of virus and bacteria of shrimps and fish.
Abstract:
Managing the health of aquatic organisms has proven to be one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for expansion of sustainable aquaculture. Effective disease control is paramount within aquatic farming systems to stop the spread of infectious pathogens. Implementation of an effective health management program consisting of well organized management and husbandry practices, efficient biosecurity and hygiene measures and improved resistance to disease through vaccination can all help to reduce and control disease at farm sites. The rapid detection of pathogens in infected fish, both clinically and sub-clinically, is desirable for effective health management in aquaculture. The methods available for the diagnosticians include, analysis of the history of disease, gross and clinical signs; direct microscopy; histopathology; routine culture and isolation of bacterial isolates on artificial media and identification using biochemical reactions on unique substrates; serological methods, hematology and clinical toxicology analysis, PCR and tissue culture; Real Time PCR, Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), Lateral flow, LAMP with lateral flow, are more advanced among the molecular techniques. Egg yolk antibodies (IgY) for developing immunodiagnostic kits or use in passive immunotherapy are in vogue. Advances in micro-technologies led to the development of new miniaturized supports for the analysis of nucleic acids and proteins. Chips or microarrays offer the advantage of being able to detect in parallel multiple targets. Among the micro/nanotechnologies one of the most promising techniques is the bio-barcode assay which ensures the ultrasensitive amplification and detection of nucleic acids and proteins. The article explains the above mentioned emerging techniques in the field of fish health management and diagnosis. With the ever increasing pathogens and diseases, there is always a requirement of more sensitive and rapid tests for disease diagnosis.