21 day online workshop on Drug Discovery & Development organised at UoH

The workshop on “Drug Discovery & Development 2022”, was organized by FABA (Federation of Asian Biotech Associations) Academy (http://biofaba.org.in/) in collaboration with the Science Gurus (http://sciencegurus.org/), a US-based non profit organization and the University of Hyderabad (UoH) (https://uohyd.ac.in/) from 15 March – 4 April 2022, provided a comprehensive overview on all these aspects of the drug discovery and development processes including drug repurposing and intellectual property.

The 21-day intensive workshop covered 9 sessions and included 40+ national and international speakers, which was attended by nearly 80 participants not only from India but also from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Iran and Ethiopia. In addition, it presented the success stories of Biotech and Pharma startups. The workshop also provided hands-on training modules in computational structure-based drug design, machine learning for biomedical drug discovery, genomics, and transcriptomics.

“It is a 21 day festival of learning; you will learn not only about new things but also start thinking anew. Don’t be curious about the speakers, be curious about the ideas”, said Prof. B J Rao, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad while addressing the audience during the inauguration ceremony as Chief Guest of the “Drug Discovery and Development Workshop 2022”.

The organizers received overwhelming feedback from the participants who truly treasured the value that this workshop added to their lives. Throughout its course, the participants were also given an opportunity to present their work on any topic of their interest and five participants were awarded the best presentation awards. The awardees include Dr. Jyotsana Madan, Aurigene; Ms. Niveditha, Anna University Chennai; Ms. Mounipriya, exRNA Therapeutics, Aziz Mandsaurwala, Amity University, and Dr. Vidhula Ahire, J Michael BishopInstitute of Cancer Research. In the end, Dr. Ajith Kamath, Executive Council member of FABA made closing remarks and thanked everyone who participated in the 21 days of the learning festival.

The takeaways from the workshop were:

  • The Indian Pharma and Biopharma industries need to focus on an entrepreneurial, risk-taking and collaborative mindset towards path-breaking innovations.
  • Address the regulatory and clinical trial challenges, in order to speed up innovative drug discoveries and bring novel medicines to the Indian and global markets.
  • Young scientists need to explore scientific challenges as opportunities to build their careers as well as contribute to the Country’s progress in science and innovation.

Video Link of the Panel Discussion: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lU7NMXttjULpgEje4PgBaP6s2jGO2Y4d/view 

Feedback by Participants – DDD Workshop: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-aZeE-fg7vc47Ws2EMbRJwbjs9bfAEmI/view