The Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat organized a National Symposium on “Facets of Biochemistry. Prof. (Dr.) Vijay Kumar Srivastava Vice-Chancellor, the M. S. University of Baroda, presided over the inaugural function and delivered presidential address.
Prof. (Dr.) Vijay Kumar Srivastava, encouraged, students to come up with innovative solutions. He also emphasized on reducing carbon emissions and making use of plastics in novel ways. Prof. Haribhai Kataria Dean, Faculty of Science, delivered welcome address. He apprised the audience about the contributions of the Faculty of Science to the overall performance of the University. Prof C. Ratna Prabha Coordinator and Head, Department of Biochemistry apprised the various pursuits of the department and spoke on the theme of the symposium and its objectives. She thanked Prof Ranjana Aggarwal, Director CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy research, (CSIR-NIScPR), New Delhi, for giving the opportunity for IJBB special issue. The conference has an admirable list of eminent Scientists and Professors from India. Introduction to Alumni Association of Biochemistry Department & CVR lecture series was done by Prof. Harish Padh, former Vice chancellor of Sardar Patel University, VV Nagar, Gujarat.
The inaugural session was followed by the various Plenary Sessions. Prof. Jayant B. Udgaonkar, a distinguished structural biologist and former Director of IISER, Pune. He is one of those pioneering researchers who used H-D exchange NMR technique to study protein folding. He delivered a lecture on the topic of “How does a prion protein misfold?”. Prof Harish Padh former Vice Chancellor of Sardar Patel University, Gujarat and Dr NK Prasanna from CSIR-NIScPR, New Delhi, chair and co-chair the session. In her address she provided an overview of NIScPR’s journals and stated that CSIR-NIScPR is the leading public funded institute in India publishing 16 research journals in various S &T disciplines and are free without any publication fee/accessing charges. She discussed about protein folding and structure function relationship of proteins and also stressed about diseases associated with mis-folding and refolding of proteins.
Prof. Nanda Kishore from IIT Bombay is an eminent biophysicist and structural biologist, known for his contributions to protein thermodynamics. He spoke on “Molecular functionalities in preventing protein fibrillation-quantitative biophysical approach”. Dr. Rajesh Patkar, from IIT Bombay a specialist in the area of host pathogen interactions, gave an interesting talk on “Small secretory proteins with big tailoring functions during fungal pathogenesis. Prof Krutika K Sawat, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy spoke on Lymphatic Delivery: A new paradigm for systemic and site specific drug delivery. Faculty members and Scientists from national institutes and universities were invited. In the valedictory session, Prof. C. Ratna Prabha, the Event Coordinator, delivered concluding remarks, summarizing the key takeaways and the overall significance of the symposium. The event culminated with a heartfelt Vote of Thanks extended by Prof. Prabha, Head, Department of Biochemistry, MS University of Baroda, Vadodara.
