Bilateral SICI Golden Jubilee Lecture Series organized by UIPS

Chandigarh: Bilateral Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) Golden Jubilee Lecture Series 
organized by University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) on the theme "Ushering in an Era of New Age Technologies in Health".

University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) was awarded 'Lecture Grant' under Golden Jubilee Conference and Lecture Series Grant (GJCLSG) for the year 2020-21. This programme is supported by funds from the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. Under the grant, UIPS organized the bilateral Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Golden Jubilee Lecture Series between India and Canada on “Ushering in an Era of New Age Technologies in Health” today i.e. Tuesday, 23rd February 2021. The invited speakers were Dr Vikramaditya Yadav, Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of British Colombia, from the Canada side and Dr Rinti Banerjee, Madhuri Sinha Chair Professor, Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as the Indian speaker.

Professor Indu Pal Kaur, Chairperson, UIPS welcomed the audience and briefed them about the achievements of UIPS and expressed her heartfelt gratitude to SICI for the funding and Professor Rinti Banerjee and Professor Yadav, both accomplished academicians, entrepreneurs and well acclaimed researchers of high repute, to concede to the request of the Institute to be our speakers of this lecture series. 

Dr Prachi Kaul, Director, SICI in her opening remarks gave an overview of SICI and its active role in setting up collaborations across India and Canada. Dr Kaul also talked about all possible opportunities that can be availed at SICI for research grants and fellowships. 

Professor V R Sinha, Dean of University Instruction, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Coordinator of the ongoing 27th UGC-NRC Training School, delivered the presidential remarks and emphasized on how biotechnology and related applications are driving innovations of new age era.

Professor Kanwaljit Chopra, Head, Pharmacology and Former Chairperson, UIPS, introduced the speakers to the audience highlighting their vast repertoire of achievements.

Dr Vikramaditya Yadav, delivered a talk on ‘Making and breaking things using synthetic biology.’ In his talk, he touched upon different themes where synthetic biology was applied to improve the bioprocesses and bio manufacturing, He also briefly talked about research carried out in his lab at UBC, Canada on development of biogenic solar cells, development of biosensors for screening of mosquito repellents and development of smart contact lens for treatment of glaucoma.

Dr Rinti Banerjee, in her talk highlighted the Challenges and Opportunities of Biomaterial Technologies in Healthcare. She discussed several novel drug delivery technologies, point of care diagnostics and biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering in a simple manner to connect with the audience impactfully.

The speakers were honored with certificate of felicitation after their respective talks.

Dr Sandip V. Pawar, Assistant Professor, UIPS, took over the proceedings of the event and delivered the Vote of Thanks.