SHILLONG, April 23: A one day workshop on “Introductory Biotechnology and Bioinformatics” jointly organized by the Department of Botany, Sankardev College, Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, North Eastern Hill University(NEHU), Shillong, and Department of Basic Sciences and Social Sciences, NEHU , Shillong was held on April 22.
The inaugural session was held in the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, NEHU.
Dr Hiranjit Choudhury, Associate Professor, Department of Basic Sciences, NEHU highlighted that the aim of the workshop was to sensitize the Under Graduate students pursuing higher studies in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics.
The first lecture was given by Dr Atanu Bhattacharjee, Head and Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, NEHU, who spoke on the topic Introduction to Bioinformatics.
He deliberated on data mining, application of Biotechnology in animals, genome/gene sequencing, molecular medicines, personalized medicine, gene therapy, Artificial intelligence, microbial genome application, evolutionary studies, and antibiotic resistance from the perspective of Bioinformatics.
The second lecture was given by Dr Hiranjit Choudhury, Associate Professor, Department of
Basic Sciences NEHU, who spoke on the topic Basics of Biotechnology.
He elaborated on the application of Biotechnology – red, green, blue, white/grey, environmental Biotechnology, transgenic plants like Bt cotton, Golden rice, Flavr savr tomato, mass production of rare and economically important plants through tissue culture and Bio refineries.
There were two hands-on training sessions for the students. The first session was on Bioinformatics – PDB data banking, assisted by the respective faculty and research scholars of the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, NEHU. This was followed by a second hands-on training on Plant tissue culture and Molecular Biology assisted by the Faculty and Research Scholars of the Department of Basic Sciences and Social Sciences, NEHU. (NNN)
