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The Summer's club of Biochemistry organized a Guest Lecture Program on "Antioxidative and Antiproliferative Potential of Astaxanthin from Unicellular Green Algae Hematococcuslacustris" on 12/07/2022. Dr.S.Nagaraj, Assistant Professor, Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Chennai, was the chief guest.

The invited talk started at 11.00 am. Dr. S.Nagaraj explained about Astaxanthin, a Xanthophyll carotenoid, which has strong antioxidant properties and the effectiveness of this compound on the prevention and treatment of cancer. Astaxanthin, belonging to the family of carotenoids, has a very strong antioxidant activity, often called the "king of carotenoids", due to its significant impact on human health, by strengthening the immune system, preventing and treating various types of cancers and ageing process and including the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The students become aware of the methodologies to be adopted to learn how to grow and extract Astaxanthin and purify the antioxidant compound from HematococcusLacustrisknown to be the main source of natural astaxanthin. Alga, Haematococcuslacustris inhibited the cell growth and triggerthe apoptosis in A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cancer andMDA-MB-231 human metastatic breast cancer cell lines in a dose and timedependent manner.

Each and every student learnt about the importance of astaxanthin and its medicinal importance. Dr. Nagaraj answered the queries raised by the students. The session ended with the vote of thanks delivered by Ms. Bharathi,Department of Biochemistry.