The School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad organized a DST-STUTI sponsored hands-on workshop on “Advanced techniques in Biomedical Research from 16th to 22nd January 2023 with support from the Society of Neurochemistry, India (SNCI) and Jamia Hamdard University as Nodal Project Management Unit from DST. All the DST-FIST sponsored departments of the school namely the Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Department of Animal Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, and the Department of Biochemistry opened their doors for the attendees. The DST-STUTI scheme aims to develop human resources through open access S&T infrastructure across the nation. The aim of the current workshop was to reach out to rural areas therefore 50 participants were invited from various rural areas from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. The workshop boasted a 3:1 female/male ratio and the participants belonged to varied backgrounds including Microbiology, Biotechnology, Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacy. Most of the participants were degree lecturers or Assistant Professors in accordance with the motto of the workshop to ‘train the trainees’.
The workshop was inaugurated by the honourable Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad, Prof. Jagadeeshwar Rao with a welcome address by Prof. N. Siva Kumar, Dean, School of Life Sciences. Following the welcome address, Prof. P. Prakash Babu (Convener, Secretary General, SNCI, India) gave an overview of the program. This was followed by the inaugural talk by the guest of honour Prof. Thangaraj, Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad. Prof. Murlidhar, a distinguished biologist and Honorary Professor, Department of Systems and Computational Biology also delivered a talk on ‘Science and Measurements- Experimental Design’. With this began the seven-day long workshop designed to help the participants understand advanced techniques in the field of Biomedical research.
During the following days, the participants were exposed to various advanced techniques which included High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), CD Spectroscopy, Fluorescence activated cell sorting, Real-time PCR, Next Generation sequencing, techniques in proteomics, Fluorescence spectrometry etc. The workshop also included 34 lectures delivered by various faculties from the School of Life Sciences (SLS), School of Chemistry and the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Hyderabad including invited lectures from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Dr. Reddy’s Institute of Life Sciences, National Institute of Animal Biotechnology and National Institute of Nutrition. During the course of the workshop the participants visited 10 laboratories including the National Institute of Nutrition’s Food Chemistry lab and their animal house facility and various labs at the School of Life Sciences where the techniques were expertly demonstrated by trained scholars.
The workshop culminated with a valedictory program held on 21st January, 2023. The participants provided their feedback on their experience of the workshop where they expressed their gratitude towards the organisers and University of Hyderabad for the hospitality and knowledge that they gained from the workshop. Later, the participants were awarded certificates of participation by Prof. N. Siva Kumar and Prof. P. Prakash Babu followed by a farewell dinner. On the last day, 22nd January, 2023, the participants visited the labs in SLS. Overall, the workshop was a grand success.