Aravind Medical Research Foundation, December 20-21, 2021

Dr. A. Vanniarajan, Scientist, Molecular Genetics Department welcomed the gathering and Prof. K. Dharmalingam set the context of the workshop. The workshop had 70 participants attending in person. Guest lectures and a few sessions were conducted online. Since one of the objectives of the workshop was to inculcate research aptitude among the young scholars, a special session was organised for their interaction with the experts. The session on “Single Cell-Omics and spatial transcriptome profiling” conducted by Premas Life Sciences introduced the new field of Visium technology for transcriptome studies using archival samples.  Another session on “Nanostring technology” by TheraCues team covered the different aspects of gene expression studies from sample preparation to data generation along with its utility in disease biology.

Invited talks:

• Dr. Kumaramanickavel. G, Narayana Nethralaya, Bengaluru – DNA data science in clinical application
• Prof. Karuthapandian. S, Alagappa University, Karaikudi – Piperine : the spicy molecule for the oral care
• Dr. Thiyagarajan. S, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bengaluru – Applications of data Science in drug discovery
• Dr. Balasubramanyam. M, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai – Data Science, new biology insights & precision medicine with special reference to diabetes and its complications
• Dr. Bethany Mills, University of Edinburgh, UK – Reimagining diagnosis of infection: utilising optical molecular smartprobes from the lung to the cornea
• Prof. Rachel Williams, University of Liverpool, UK – The role of biomaterials in the eye
• Prof. Kumaravel Somasundaram, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru – Cancer stem-like cells: understanding tumor cellular hierarchy and plasticity
• Dr. Anilkumar. P, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Kerala – Advanced Biofabrication of Functional Tissues by 3D Bioprinting
• Dr.Chitraa Tangavel, Ganga Orthopaedic Research & Education Foundation, Coimbatore – Untargeted Metabolome (LC-MS/MS ) profiling of avascular host tissue – insights on bacterial metabolites
• Dr. Bharanidharan. D, Aravind Medical Research Foundation, Madurai – Genomic data analysis of ocular bacterial pathogens
• Prof. Colin Willoughby, Ulster University, UK – Characterising the TGFβ-induced microRNAome of the trabecular meshwork