Events

10 Feb 2016-12 Feb 2016|Gwalior | Amity University Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior

Amity Institute of Biotechnology organizes International Conference on Recent Advances in Biotechnology & Nanobiotechnology (Int-BIONANO-2016)

International Conference on Recent Advances in Biotechnology & Nanobiotechnology (Int-BIONANO – 2016)

Day 1 (February 10, 2016):-

A three days International conference on Recent Advances in Biotechnology & Nanobiotechnology (Int-BIONANO-2016) was conducted from February 10-12, 2016 by Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Gwalior. The aim of the conference was to focus on new trends in research in these upcoming fields and encourage scholars and students to explore Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology as a field of study.

The inaugural session of the conference started with the lighting of the lamp and was presided over by the Honble VC Amity University Gwalior Lt. Gen V K Sharma AVSM (Retd.). Prof. (Dr.) Jurg Ott, Professor Emeritus, Rockefeller University, New York (USA) was the Chief Guest on the occasion.Padma Shri Prof. (Dr.) P. Pushpangadan, Director General, AIHBPD, Thiruvanantpuram, Kerala was also present as the Guest of Honour. Prof. (Dr.) M P Kaushik, Pro VC AUMP and Dr. Atsuko Imai, Department of Genome Informatics and Cardiovascular Medicine, Osaka University, Japan were also present. Gen. Sharma in his inaugural address spoke of the great relevance of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology in everyday life. He stressed upon the the need for active research in these two very vital fields. Padma Shri Prof. (Dr.) P. Pushpangadan spoke on the crucial role that nanobiotechnology is playing in the growth of science and bringing change in the human society.

The focus of the keynote address of Dr. Jurg Ott, was on Statistical Approaches to Gene Mapping. His topic focused on the development of statistical gene mapping beginning with Morgans’s fly lab at Columbia University. He explained the process by giving examples of likelihood calculations. He emphasised that the development of genetic markers is intimately connected with developments of statistical methods. His presentation concluded with some practical applications and technical comments on DNA sequence variants.

During inaugural session, the abstract book (having ISBN No.) for the conference was released by the dignitaries.

The first day of the conference saw six technical sessions and one poster session. The first technical session on Green Biotechnology was chaired by Padma Shree Awardee Dr. P. Pushpangadan addressed the audience and delivered a talk on the topic Biodiversity, Bio-prospecting and Nano-biotechnology for sustainable development. He discussed about nanotechnology and its heralds the emergence of a new dimension in biotechnology and herbal technology, agro technology and its application in health and medicine. The eminent speakers in this session were Prof. (Dr.) S. K. Billore from Vikram University, Ujjain and Prof. (Dr.) S. M. Paul Khurana from Amity University Gurgaon.

Prof. (Dr.) S. K. Billore from Vikram University, Ujjain given his talk on Green Roof and Reed bed technologies to cool home and waste water treatments: Micro-particles filtering benefits. In his presentation he described about the green roof technology and reed bed to get the specify objectives of cool home as well as biodiversity conservation in urban areas. During the next talk of the session, Prof. Khurana has given an invited talk on the post-transcriptional gene silencing or RNAi technology for combating plant viruses by Post-Transcriptional Gene Silencing technique. He also described the degradation of pathogenic viral RNA in which the RNA molecule of pathogen are recognised by cellular post-transcriptional silencing machinery and transgenic resistance against viruses based on this mechanism.

There were two parallel technical sessions on Microbial & Industrial Technology and one was chaired by Prof. (Dr.) GBKS Prasad from Jiwaji University, Gwalior and another by Prof. (Dr.) Vinod Singh from Barkatullah University, Bhopal. Chairpersons stressed upon the need for developing this technology to exploit microbes for improving the quality of life. Microbial technology is so far a virgin territory and requires extensive and exhaustive study. This session included oral presentations of Dr. Arpita Shrivastava, Ms. Ritika Chauhan, Dr. D S Rathore, Sapna Singh, Aditi Rathee, Charles David, Monideepa Das, Dr. Sarika Chaturvedi and Dr. Sanjeev Kumar.

The post lunch session was on Microbial & Industrial Technology and was chaired by      Prof. (Dr.) S. M. Paul Khurana from Amity University Gurgaon. The eminent speakers of this session were Dr. D T Selvam, Scientist DRDE Gwalior, Prof. (Dr.) Vinod Singh, Barkatullah University, Bhopal and Dr Kusum Singh. from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi. In his talk on Role of outer membrane protein in diagnosis of Brucellosis, Dr. Selvam talked about brucellosis which is an important zoonotic disease and is a major public health problem. The serodiagnosis mainly estimating the antibody concentrations against whole cell antigens and specific recombinant proteins remain the mainstay of disease diagnosis.

In the next invited talk, Dr. Vinod Singh, Barkatullah University, Bhopal talked on Probiotics: Potential Pharmaceutical Applications. He focused on the health enhancing role of Probiotics and mentioned that the probiotics should be reviewed regarding the reliability, utility and safety of these products.

Another invited talk was on IPR by Dr. Kusum Singh from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi delivered her talk on the topic–IPR: Today’s challenge and global impact’. She illustrated that how persons have generated money through IPR, how to go for national and US patent and how to tackle different challenges in patenting. She also enlightened that IPR enables the person to reap due rewards from the time/efforts/money they invest in creating them. This session also included oral presentations of Dr. Surendra Khatodia and MK Tripathi.

In the oral presentation session on Green Biotechnology, the chairperson Padma Shree Awardee Dr. P. Pushpangadan emphasized on the role of Green Biotechnology in human welfare and sustainable development of society. The session included oral presentation by Dr. Ranjana Singh, Madhulika Bhagat, Mufida Fayaz and It-Gontia Mishra.

The first day of the conference concluded with the Poster Presentation session which included 40 posters out of which 28 research papers on diverse fields of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology were presented. Dr. Atsuko Imai and Dr. D.T. Selvam were the honourable judges of this event.

Day 2 (February 11, 2016):-

On the second day also there was a conglomeration of scholars, scientists and intellectuals from across the globe. The second day of the conference saw six technical sessions and one poster session. The day began with a session on Bimolecular Engineering and Biosensor.    Dr. V K Rao, a Scientist of great repute and presently working for DRDE, Gwalior, chaired the session. Dr. Rao delivered a talk on the topic-Principles of Biosensors. During his lecture he described different types of biosensors, various types of transducers in the development of biosensors and methods for their development. He also emphasized on the application of biosensors in biotechnology, drug analysis, food industry, pollution monitoring, agriculture and military.

A parallel session on Pharmaceutical and Medical Biotechnology was chaired by Prof. (Dr.) GBKS Prasad, Jiwaji University Gwalior. He focused on Nanocurcumin in treatment of type II diabetes mellitus. He explained that the extensive research from preclinical and clinical studies have delineated the molecular basis for the pharmaceutical uses of curcumin against a number of chronic diseases including cancer. He has also discussed about the significant anti-diabetic properties of encapsulated nanocurcumin in his talk. During this session, Dr. Samta Sharma, Ankita Agarwal, Naureen Khan and Rohit Singh presented their research work.

In the next parallel session on Pharmaceutical and Medical Biotechnology, Dr. U D Gupta, Director In-charge, National JALMA Institute of Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra, gave his informative talk on Modeling of Cerebral Tuberculosis in BALB/c mice using clinical strain from patients with CNS-TB infection. He described the work of his research team in which they have developed a model which will help in understanding the pathogenesis of TBM disease for development of effective vaccines against TBM infection in near future. The session also saw oral presentations of Dr. Sadhna Shrivastava, Kusum Singh, Shivkumar Patel and Tarang Gaur.

In the post lunch session of Pharmaceutical and Medical Biotechnology, Prof. (Dr.) SS Lahiri, Professor Emeritus, Amity University Noida chaired the session and Dr. Atsuko Imai, Department of Genome Informatics and Cardiovascular Medicine, Osaka University, Japan co-chaired the session. In his talk, Prof. (Dr.) S.S. Lahiri delivered a talk on the topic Simplification of Molecular Method and Possibility of a DNA for field applications. He also described the method for DNA synthesis, labelling and sensitive detection of infective microorganism directly from clinical samples through rapid hybridization technique. He emphasized the fact that a stable and inexpensive, indigenous DNA diagnostic kit can be developed.

Dr. Atsuko Imai gave an invited talk on Application of Genetic Biotechnology to Clinical Practice from Clinicians’ Perspective. She assessed differences between arrays in two individuals by Hamming Distance Ratio (HDR) and developed a novel statistical method; family control analysis using HDR to prioritize SNVs (Single Nucleotide Variants) in small AR (Autosomal Recessive) families.

The last invited talk in this session was delivered by Dr. S.P. Singh from BHU, Varanasi who delivered talk on the topic Neuroprotection and alleviation of Parkinsonian phenotypes by inhibiting apoptotic pathways in dopaminergic neurons by ayuvedic herbs. He focused on the efficacy of Mucuna pruriens (Mp) and Withania somnifera (Ws), the two important Ayurvedic herbs, in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and other neuronal deficits.

The eleventh session of the conference was presided over by Prof. (Dr.) Sushil Kumar, INSA Honorary Scientist. The topic for this session was Omics Technology. Dr. Gitanjali Yadav, Scientist NIPGR, New Delhi delivered her talk on The Evolution of Flowers: Role of LEAFY in the Floral Transition Network using Computational Systems Biology. The session also saw two oral presentations by Ms. Deepika Majumder and Priyanka Nimavat.

The parallel session of Omics Technology was chaired by Dr. S P Singh of BHU, Varanasi. There were oral presentations given Seema Aswani, Lokesh Gour, Vidhi Modi and Neha Vishnoi.

The poster presentation session was organized in the post tea session. About 44 research papers on various fields of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology were received, out of which 20 were presented in the form of posters. Prof. (Dr.) Jurg Ott and Dr. Atsuko Imai were the honourable judges of this event. The day concluded with a cultural programme and dinner.

Day 3 (February 12, 2016):-

The third day of the conference started with the session on Nanobiotechnology, Nanomedicine and Nanotoxicology. The chairperson of this session was Prof. (Dr.) Sushil Kumar (INSA Honorary Scientist) and co-chaired by Prof. (Dr.) Kuldeep Singh from Amity University Noida. Prof. Singh has also delivered an invited talk on Improvements in Zinc Micronutrient Delivery for Cereal Crops. He emphasized on the importance of nanofertilizers compared to bulky fertilizers to improve their solubility, diffusion in soil and hence better availability to plants, cognizant of any potential risk to environment or to human health. The session also included oral presentatios by Dr. Siva Sai, Dr. V.S. Chauhan, Dr. Sunita Bansod, Upsana Yadav, Alfiya Bohra, Mohd. Salim Reshi and Bibhu Prasad Panda.

The conference concluded with the Valedictory Session. The chief guest on the occasion was Prof. (Dr.) Sushil Kumar and Honourable Vice Chancellor Amity University Madhya Pradesh   Lt. Gen VK Sharma presided over the function. He expressed his views about how the conference had achieved its aim and the papers exhibited a high quality of research work done by the authors. Prof. (Dr.) Sushil Kumar said that he was overwhelmed to see the dedication of scientists and researchers who presented the papers and appreciated the original work being done in these new and emerging fields of science.

Best oral and poster presentations were awarded to participants. In oral presentation, First prize was awarded to Dr. Samta Sharma, Jiwaji University, Gwalior and Second prize was awarded to Ms. Ritika Chauhan, DRDE, Gwalior. In Poster presentation, first prize was awarded to Dr. Jyoti Priyadarshini Shrivastava, G.R. Medical College, Gwalior and second prize was awarded to Ms. Rini Singh, University of Lucknow, Lucknow. Each award carried a citation, a memento and cash prize.