Prof. Nadimpalli Siva Kumar, Department of Bio-Chemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad(UoH) was invited by the University of Bremen with financial support from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, Bonn, Germany in the summer semester (Mid-March to end of July 2019) as a Visiting Professor to teach in their International Master’s Program Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Prof. Dr. Soerge Kelm Host).
Prof. Siva Kumar was actively involved in taking a 6 credit solo course on Glycobiochemistry that included both theory and practicals for the registered students and also shared the course on Selected Aspects in Biochemistry with Prof. Soerge Kelm and Prof. Rita Gross Hardt. He has also researched on lysosomal enzyme purification from starfish and identification of lysosomal enzyme activities from the astrocytes and neurons of rat brain. Additionally, a lysosomal alpha fucosidase enzyme was also affinity-purified from the starfish which can be scaled up in India to understand the structure and function of this enzyme.
He also delivered an invited talk in the Hamburg University Klinikum and also visited Vienna Bioscience Centre. He also visited the University of Muenster with which UoH has successfully collaborated in the First IRTG program in Molecular and Cellular Glycosciences. He was invited to University of Bordeaux to establish contacts and to review the planned workshop during November 2019 in Bordeaux for which 10 Faculty from UoH has been invited. An official visit was also planned to the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Sylt, Germany. The research station offers a modern laboratory complex with research opportunities for 30 scientific and technical staff. At the University of Bremen, based on the inputs received from faculties of Physics/Electronics from the UoH and the OIA, Prof. Siva Kumar had interactions with Prof. Annette involved in teaching programs being taught in English in Physics/Electronics and also with the Director of IMSAS, Prof. Dr. Walter Lang. Additionally, a successful meeting took place also with the Director of BIGSSS (Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences).
The University of Bremen is planning to have a MoU with the UoH that could facilitate the exchange of students and faculties in different disciplines. It has been a great experience teaching in a foreign University.