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Considering the importance of biotechnology in human and animal lives, the College of Animal Biotechnology (COABT), GADVASU organized a 12 days training course on ‘Biotechnological Approaches in Animal Research and Disease Diagnosis’. The training emphasis was to provide skill-based learning of biotechnological techniques to post-graduate students, young faculty and professionals of veterinary and animal sciences. During the course strategies of vaccine development and production of rapid diagnostic assays were discussed.
Dr Yashpal S Malik, Dean of the college and the course director, inaugurated the training and briefed the importance of this training course. Increase in demand for food production and fighting deadly diseases like COVID-19, are the need of the hour to have biotechnological interventions. He highlighted how investigators have developed a corona vaccine within record time of merely 11 months which generally requires a decade of time. In the inaugural lecture, Dr. Gaya Prasad, Ex-Vice Chancellor of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut presented on how biotechnology is impacting animal research. The training course consisted of expert lectures/presentations from International institutions like USDA, University of Vermont, University of Florida and reputed institutions like IITs, NITs, NIAB, IVRI and GADVASU. A total of 36 lectures were delivered, each day had three hours of talks. A total of 127 participants received online training for 12 days. Of these, 3 participants are from Bangladesh and 124 participants were from 16 different Indian states/UTs of India.
Burgeoning techniques of molecular biology that could make a significant contribution to the scientific communities and societies includes CRISPR-Cas, aptamer-based sensors, peptide-based diagnostics, rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for viral and bacterial diseases, and concept of viral vectored vaccine were also introduced to the participants by the experts. Dr. Malik expressed satisfaction over successful completion of the training during the concluding session. He emphasized that such trainings will be conducted more in futures for the students and young faculties to cater the needs of their biotechnological knowledge. Dr. Ratan K. Choudhary and Dr Niraj Singh, co-organizers of this training program summarized the report and feedback from the participants. Dr. Satparkash Singh proposed vote of thanks to all the participants, organizers and authorities.
