AMRF, October 12

Mr. K. Thirumalairaj, AMRF defended his thesis titled Characterization of genetic and transcriptional alterations in retinoblastomavia online. The viva-voce was convened by Dr. A. Vanniarajan, Supervisor and Scientist- Molecular Genetics, AMRF, Madurai along with external examiner Dr. K. Satyamoorthy, Director, School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. Faculty members of AMRF and senior leaders of the Aravind Eye Care System attended the event. 76 persons joined the programme virtually. The thesis addressed the mutational and inheritance pattern of RB1 gene for early detection of retinoblastoma. It also highlighted the importance of studying the transcript of RB1 and other tumor-related genes for understanding the tumorigenesis and variability in the disease phenotype in the Indian context. The viva-voce examiner commended the work done by the candidate and echoed the opinion of other reviewers of the thesis. He further recommended the award of Ph.D degree to the candidate to the Madurai Kamaraj University.