MADURAI: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) here was selected by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) Teaching and Learning (ATAL) to organize a Faculty Development Program (FDP) on ‘Synthetic Biology’ from 30th November to 4th December 2020.
The FDP to train working professionals, scientists, faculty members in colleges, universities and research institutes who are working or studying in different areas of biological, biotechnology and biomedical sciences. This program was a part of the objective of AICTE in imparting quality
technical education in the country., a press release from MKU on 12th December 2020 informed.
The AICTE has chosen 117 thrust areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Robotics, Climate Sciences, Smart Cities, Telemedicine, Molecular
Manufacturing, Synthetic Biology, Cloned Technology, Technology Management, Metal Craft, Animation, Apparel Design, Film and Video Communication, Stress Management and Leadership & Excellence to name a few. Following the AICTE norms, 200 participants from 24 different States in the country comprising 94 higher educational institutions had registered
through the ATAL online portal and the program was organized by online mode.
INAUGURATION AND EXPERTS:
An inaugural function was organized by video conferencing mode on 30th November 2020 in the MKU campus in Madurai, Prof. K. Balakrishnan, Co-ordinator, ATAL-FDP programme had welcomed the participants and experts, MKU Vice-chancellor Prof. M. Krishnan delivered presidential address while Dr. V. S. Vasantha Registrar (in-charge) delivered keynote address and highlighted different research areas in Synthetic Biology. Dr. R. Ranjith Kumar, Deputy coordinator, and others spoke.
A total of 13 different lectures were delivered by eminent resource persons
comprising professors and scientists from State/ Centre / Universities / IITs and research institutes. Prof. Wilson Arunai, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology-Chennai, (Synthetic Microbiome) Prof. S. Karutha Pandian, Alagappa University, Karikudi (Synthetic Biology in Functional Genomics for Discovery of Novel
Bio-activities), Prof. M. G. Sethuraman, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigul, (Biological Instagram), Pawan Dhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,(Synthetic Biology: Fundamental Concepts to Applications) wherein he highlighted the historical perspectives of developments of Synthetic Biology.
SHARING AND LEARNING:
Dr. Karunakaran, VHNSN College, Virudhunagar has delivered a talk on (Immunobiosensor for point-of-care Medical Applications), Prof. N. Jeyakumar, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore has delivered a talk on
(Genomic Data Mining) Prof. K. Chandresekaran, Madurai Kamaraj University(Yoga for Healthy Life), Prof. Joseph Selvin, Pondicherry University, (Applications of Synthetic Biology in the Creation of Synthetic Life and Bioprospecting), Prof. Kalpana Luthra, AIIMS, New
Delhi (Engineered Antibodies as a Therapeutic Tool – Synthetic Biology Perspective), Dr. Sanjay Ghosh, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore (The Synthetic Biology Revolution: Past, present and Future). Prof. Sudipto Saha, Bose Institute, Kolkata, delivered a talk on “Systems and Synthetic Biology”and Dr. Swathi Alagesan, Institute of
Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore, (Synthetic Biology Tools for Prokaryotic Systems), Dr. Kapila Kumar, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad (Synthetic Biology-How it started and where lies the future) andProf. Guhan
Jeyaraman, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Synthetic Biology Tools for Metabolic Engineering).
