A Three-Day International Conference on “Recent Trends in Structural Bioinformatics and Computer Aided Drug Design” (ICSBCADD – 2019) and the 3rd Annual Meeting of Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery Society [BIDDS] were inaugurated by the Department of Bioinformatics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi. 

Eleven international and twenty two Indian scholars of this field had gathered to give thirty three plenary lectures.

The National-level Symposium-cum-Workshop has been conducted for eleven successive years and this was the first time an international conference has been organized.

Prof N Rajendran, Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University, gave the inaugural speech. He enumerated the feats and milestones achieved by the University and also spoke about its achievements that raised its  status to become one among the top ten State Universities in India.

He further stated that a grant was sanctioned of Rupees hundred crore by MHRD-RUSA for expansive infrastructure development and enhancing the quality of teaching and research activities.

He also enlightened the gathering on the importance of cross and inter-disciplinary research.

Dr Gulshan Wadhwa, the Director of DBT, presented the first copy of his book titled “Current Trends in Bioinformatics: An insight” to Prof N Rajendran.

Prof M Krishnan, the Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai, in his inaugural address, praised the rapid progress achieved over the last ten years by the Department of Bioinformatics. He enlightened the audience on the traditional knowledge that has been available in our culture for ages to cure life threatening diseases.

Prof T P Singh, SERB Distinguished Fellow, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in his thematic address, stressed on the future of Scientific Research on Bioinformatics. He also lauded the University for concentrating on science and research.

Dr Glushan Wadhwa, the Director of the Department of Biotechnology in New Delhi delivered a speech on Innovative Research. He also said that Tamil Nadu is the only State with deep traditional knowledge and it needs to be explored. He also enlightened the gathering on the availability of the rural knowledge stored in the form of digital laboratory by the DST.

Prof Gerhard Grüber, Deputy Head bat the Division of Structural and Computational Biology, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, delivered the keynote address. He stressed on the importance of research networking and building research collaboration.

Prof Chun-Jung Chen, the Deputy Director at National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre in Taiwan, in his special address, highlighted the need for proper environment to carry out high level research and appreciated the development of the Department which has progressed to a great extent in short period of time

 At present three students from Prof J Jeyakanthan’s lab are pursuing their research work in the area of Structural Biology and Protein Crystallography in combating malarial parasites he added.

Prof Balazs Zoltan Gulyas, the Director at the Centre for Neuroimaging Research, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said, ”truth and morality should be part and  parcel of  good science research and all such qualities need to be embedded in research institutes and this conference will provide the right platform to learn of new trends.” in his speech.

Prof Seiki Kuramitsu, Honorary Emeritus Professor at Osaka University, Japan, delivered the felicitation address. He said that most of the biological problems can be solved through serious Bioinformatics approaches.

Prof D Velmurugan, Honorary Emeritus Professorm and Former Head at CAS in Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras, Chennai and Dr R Swaminathan, Member of the Syndicate at Alagappa University also delivered the felicitation address.

Thirty-two scientists from various prestigious institutions of international repute delivered lectures about the methodologies that play a major role in developing drugs and the importance of Bioinformatics tools in Health.  Three hundred participants from across the country had attended this three-day event.

Dr J Jeyakanthan, Professor and Head at the Department of Bioinformatics while welcoming the gathering, referred to several issues confronting India and the immediate need to find solutions using computational sources. He emphasized on the various research findings by the researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Finally, a vote of thanks was delivered by Prof Sanjeev Kumar Singh from the Department of Bioinformatics.