Workshop on ‘Molecular Techniques in Biochemistry’ 

Chandigarh, February 15, 2024: Department of Biochemistry organized a Two Day workshop on ‘Molecular Techniques in Biochemistry’ on Feb 14-15, 2024 Department of Biochemistry, PU organized a two day workshop on ‘Molecular Techniques in Biochemistry’ on February 14-15, 2024 in collaboration with Merck High End Skill Development Centre, CSIR, IMTECH Chandigarh. 

The workshop was designed with an aim to provide a hand on training to the MSc students for analysis of important biomolecules by giving them exposure to sophisticated molecular techniques such as Western blotting and Polymerase Chain reaction (PCR). 

The sophisticated equipments in this regard have recently been procured by the department under the DBT-BUILDER grant sanctioned to the Panjab University. During the welcome address the Chairperson of the department Prof. AS Naura gave an overview of the theme of the program and shared the several anecdotes highlighting the fascinating discoveries made in the field of biochemistry and underscored the key role of molecular techniques to unravel the various complex processes behind understanding the organization and functioning of biological systems. He further emphasized the importance of these tools in exploring the specific biomarker of various diseases by citing how PCR based analysis was proven to be quite effective in the diagnosis of COVID 19 that recently took the whole world by storm all of sudden. 

The team of Merck was led by Dr. Ankur Gautam and Dr. Rekha Jain who delivered expert lectures. The lectures was attend by around 80 students. The hand on training sessions were provided exclusively to MSc. students to hone their technical skills. Both the sessions spread over two days generated a lot of enthusiasm among students, who felt quite enriched through enhancement of their technical knowledge and skills to handle such important molecular techniques which have greater utility in all area of life sciences including health, nutrition, agriculture, forensics etc. The workshop ended with vote of thanks by the Dr. Nirmal Prabhakar who along with Prof. Archana Bhatnagar were coordinators for the event.