The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal will be the first IISER out of 7 sisters to formally establish a unique facility.
This will be called Medical Science and Engineering Research (MEDSER) Centre. This centre has been established at IISER Bhopal to nurture thetogetherness of join efforts of doctors and basic scientists.
The Director of IISER Bhopal, Prof Shiva Umapathy told that this centre aims to encourageinnovations done by its basic scientists that are applied to medical and healthcareneeds including the diseases diagnostics, drug targets, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The first medical doctor appointed by the IISR Bhopal to mentor this centre is Prof. Sarman Singh, former director of AIIMS, Bhopal.
Umapathy told that even though the centre was approved about 6 months ago, a formal inauguration is being done by Prof Upendra Kumar Singh, Director General – DRDO, New Delhi. During the inauguration Prof. Upendra Singh applauded the efforts of IISER Bhopal for its new initiative and wished that many innovations will be made by the faculty of IISER Bhopal, in collaboration with AIIMS Bhopal and other medical institutes.
He also emphasized that innovation in defence science should also be undertaken by this centre. Beside the chief guest Prof Upendra Singh, and Prof Umapathy, Dean Research Sanjeev Shukla and Prof Sarman Singh also addressed the gathering. Prof. Sarman Singh shared his success stories in the field of innovation while at AIIMS in the field of visceral leishmaniasis and tuberculosis and encouraged medical faculty of AIIMS and other medical institutions of the central India to join hands with MEDSER centre to serve the society. He appreciated presence of various faculty members of AIIMS Bhopal as speakers or chairpersons and extending support for this collaborative initiative between two institutes.
Upendra Singh, also inaugurated the state-of-the -art experimental animal facility at IISER, Bhopal.
Following the inauguration, the MEDSER centre will have a two days’ workshopon 01 and 02 July.
The workshop will have lectures as well as discussion sessions from the Directors of various DRDO laboratories, as well as experts from various institutions in communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, biomedical technologies, AI, and next-generation therapeutics. Various speakers in the workshop were: Manmohan Parida, DRDE, Gwalior; Jayanta Bhattacharya, Director International Vaccine Initiatives and THSTI, Faridabad; Anuj Sharma, world health Organization; Prof. Debasis Biswas, AIIMS Bhopal, Prof. Bhavana Sharma, AIIMS, Bhopal; Prof. RehanUl-Haq of AIIMS, Bhopal; Prof. VaishaliWaindeskar, SaurabhSaigal, Abhishek Goyal, Girish Bhatt and Neha Arya all from AIIMS, Bhopal; AjitChande, coordinator, MEDSER Centre, IISER, Bhopal; Prof. Chandra Verma, Singapore; Rati Sharma, Dr. TanmayBasu, and Vishal Rai, Dr. Shantanu Talukdar, Sweta Lal, Mitradeep Bhattacharjee all from IISER, Bhopal; Prof. Shantanu Sengupta of IGIB, New Delhi; Dr. Anil Kumar Mishra, Director INMAS, New Delhi; Prof. Sanjeev Galande, Shiv Nadar University; Prof. Kumar Somasundaram, IISC, Bangalore; Dr. Sharmila Bapat, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune; Prof. Jyotsna Shrivastav , Department of Paediatrics, GMC, Bhopal; Prof. Sankararamakrishnan, IIT, Kanpur; Dr.Debojyoti Chakraborty , IGIB, New Delhi; and Dr. AlbeenaNisar of Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. The scientists also had group discussions to develop collaborative research projects and how better this centre can cater to the needs of the society.