The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Designer drugs are now the stuff of reality

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Designer drugs are now the stuff of reality

Staff Reporter

Workshop on immuno-informatics begins

CHENNAI: The first national workshop on immunology and immuno-informatics, inaugurated at the Sri Ramachandra medical College in Porur on Tuesday, will provide hands-on experience on using information technology to study immuno informatics.

Immuno-informatics, a division of bio-informatics, is the study of immune components using information technology.

D. Viswanathan, Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, who inaugurated the workshop, said technological advances in nano science and nano biology had made possible drugs targeting specific areas. Nanotechnology could be used for sophisticated diagnostic tests while immuno informatics would be highly useful for designing tests through nanotechnology. He said the college and Anna University could join hands for furthering research. The two-day workshop is sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research and would have lectures and training sessions on the recent advances in immunology and immuno-informatics.

P.K. Raghunath, workshop convener, said the college proposes to start a course in Medical Informatics and the first batch of M.Sc. students will graduate in May. "Normally, it takes 12 years and $750 million to design a drug or a vaccine. But now it is possible to design a drug or vaccine in 5-7 years at a fraction of the cost," he said.

Professors from Madurai Kamaraj University, Im-tech - Chandigarh and scientists from multinational companies such as Accelrys, Avesthagen and Ocimum, will present papers and train delegates on using their proprietary software in immuno-informatics. He said: "Each software costs several lakh [rupees] and many institutions cannot afford them. This workshop will showcase to the world the giant strides India has made in the field of information technology."

Delegates include representatives from engineering colleges, IITs, Anna University, National Institute of Immunology, Vellore Institute of Technology and Bharat Institute of Technology.

S.S.K. Marthandam, Vice-Chancellor of SRMC also spoke.

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