REPORT ON THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 

BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN WELFARE 

          The Two-Day Conference on Biotechnology for Human Welfare was inaugurated on 20^th July,2007 at 9.30 am by the Chief Guest  Dr. I. S. Dua, Professor and Chairman, Department of Botany and Plant Molecular Biology, Punjab University, Chandigarh. Dr. S. R. K. Prasad, Director, Coimbatore Institute of Technology presided over the function. Dr. R. Prabhakar, Principal, Coimbatore Institute of Technology delivered the welcome address. Prof. E. Ramasamy, Organising Secretary of the conference presented the overview about the two-day conference. Dr. P. Balasubramanian, Director, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University delivered the special address.

            Dr. I. S. Dua delivered the plenary lecture on topic: Biotechnology – a Boon or a Bane for Human Welfare.

            In the afternoon session, invited talk was delivered by Dr. Sunil Lal, Senior Research Scientist, International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology on topic: The molecular biology of Avian Influenza (bird-flu); recent advances in biotechnology to circumvent the problem. After this talk, Technical Session I was held.

            On 21^st July,2007 morning session, the first invited talk was on topic: Applications of Support Vector Machines in Bioinformatics by Dr. V. K. Jayaraman, Scientist, NCL, Pune. The third invited talk was on topic: Transgenic Crops in Human Welfare by Dr. P. Balasubramanian, Director, CPMB, TNAU followed by Technical Session II.

            In the afternoon session, Dr. H. Devaraj,  Director & Prof. in Biotechnology, Guindy Campus, University of Madras delivered the fourth invited talk of the conference on topic: Stem Cell Therapy followed by a Technical Session III.

            About 150 papers were received for this conference and 75 papers were selected for presentation in Technical Sessions which were conducted in A/c Conference Hall and in Seminar Halls I & II on 20^th and 21^st in parallel sessions.

            The Valedictory function  was held at 4.30 pm on 21^st July,2007 at the A/c Conference  Hall, CIT. Dr. S.R K. Prasad, Director, CIT presided over this function.The welcome address was delivered by Dr. R. Prabhakar, Principal, CIT. The valedictory address was given by the chief guest Dr. K. Lakshminarayana, Director, Indur Institute of Engineering and Technology, Siddipet, Hyderabad.

            About 150 delegates from various places across the country participated in the Two-day conference.

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