The MHRD–Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN) sponsored seven-day Workshop on “Cancer Drug Discovery & Development” was inaugurated by Prof. P. Appa Rao, Vice-Chancellor, UoH on June 22, 2016 at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad. The workshop was organised by the Department of Biochemistry and Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, UoH with Science Gurus, Fremont, California, USA.
Prof. P. Appa Rao who was the chief guest congratulated the organisers of the workshop. He said that, opportunities for students to make presentations and discuss case studies to give this holistic aspect of Drug Discovery & Development, Science Gurus has assembled a team of domain experts with relevant hands on experience. During the course students will have the access to these experts to discuss their ideas, questions or other brainstorming aspects, said Prof. Appa Rao. The workshop is planned to fulfil the needs of the Animal Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Systems biology and other courses offered by the School of Life Sciences, he added.
Prof. P. Reddanna, Dean, School of Life Sciences, UoH said that the objective of the workshop is to educate next generation scientists about rational drug design, discovery & development in biotechnology.
Dr. Jagath Reddy Junutula, Vice President, Antibody Discovery & Development, Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc. said that the main focus of the curriculum is to provide an opportunity for students to learn broad aspects of Drug Discovery & Development process with a special emphasis on Cancer Biology. The workshop will help the students, participants in their research and access their ideas into drugs and develop the same, he added.
The seven-day workshop has resource persons like Sri Chakk Ramesha COO/CTO, Medhus Bio, CA, USA who will talk on Introduction to Drug Discovery; Sri Surya Sankuratri Executive Director, Merck Pharmaceuiticals, NJ, USA who will talk on Target Identification–Pharmaceuticals; Sri Jagath Junutula Vice President, Antibody Discovery & Development, Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc. who will talk on Signalling Pathways in Cancer; Sri Ajith Kamath Former Head, External R&D Innovation, India who will talk on Gene Family Approach for Drug Discovery; and Sri Bhujanga Rao, President, NATCO Pharma who will talk on the Journey of Natco Pharma in cancer Therapy.
Dr. M. Bramanandam, coordinator for the workshop said, “this programe is being sponsored and supported by Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India-GIAN program, Aurobindo Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb India, Aurigene, GVK Biosciences”. We have 25-guest speakers with working experience from world-renowned pharma/biotech industries such as Genentech/Roche, Merck, Pfizer and BMS participating in this workshop in training over 50 students from 15 major academic and industrial institutions across India, he added.