Three-Day Workshop on “Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neurobiology” Concludes at PU
Chandigarh, September 25, 2024
The three-day prestigious workshop on ‘Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neurobiology’ concluded today at Panjab University, Chandigarh.
The workshop was participated by researchers, scholars, and young faculty from across India and the world. Hosted by the Department of Biochemistry, the event offered a unique platform to explore cutting-edge methods used in neuroscience research.
The workshop provided exposure to the participants on emerging techniques and methods employed for understanding the neurobiology and neurological disorders.
Prof. Harsh Nayyar, Director, Research and Development Cell, Panjab University was the Chief Guest at the inauguration. He stressed on the vital role of neuroscience and emphasized about the increasing number of mental health disorders and the urgent need to come up with inter-disciplinary research to address the global challenge from brain disorders. The Guest of Honour, Dr. Dapinder Bakshi, Joint Director, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology brought attention about the role of enetrepreneurs in developing neurotherapeutics and motivated the participants to come up with research start-ups so that India can be a global player as burden of neurological disorders is rising in the last decade.
The workshop was attended by more than 30 research scholars and young faculty from various states of the India including, Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab. A few international participants were also part of the three day training.
The participants benefitted with a series of lectures and demonstrations on models used in neuroscience research, including yeast, zebrafish, worms, cell culture (primary, 2 D and 3D) rodent models, and advanced neurobiology techniques, like electrophysiology, optogenetics, in vivo imaging, omics methods, etc. The workshop had live demonstrations at Department of Biochemistry, Panjab University, NABI, Mohali and PGIMER, Chandigarh.
The faculty of the workshop was from National Brain Research Centre, JNU, PGIMER, NABI, CSIR-IMTECH, CSIR-CSIO, AIIMS and PU. The workshop’s agenda was packed with insightful lectures, hands-on demonstrations, and discussions on some of the most advanced techniques such as primary culture assays, genotoxicity assays, electrophysiology, in vivo imaging, atomic force microscopy, TEM, SEM, FESEM, LC-MS, GC-MS. The participants were also provided understanding of machine modeling methods to unravel complex neuronal systems like olfaction.
Prof. Rajat Sandhir expressed his gratitude to the Society of Neurochemistry India for giving the opportunity to Panjab University to host this event for the first time in Chandigarh. Prof. Renu Vig, Vice Chancellor expressed her happiness that Panjab University is taking lead in training budding neuroscientis for their quest in understanding the final frontier in biology, the human brain.
