The third edition of Indo-UK Joint workshop on Plant Molecular Farming-III, was hosted at Bharathiar University on July 27th and 28th 2016. The workshop is a part of UKIERI (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) sponsored collaborative research program that is in progress between the Department of Biotechnology, Bharathiar University, and St. George’s University of London. The partnership has succeeded in the production and purification of Chikungunya vaccine candidate, both antigen, and antibody using plant expression system, which has potential application in both diagnosis and therapy for the disease.
The workshop was inaugurated and presided over by the Registrar, Bharathiar University, Dr. P.S. Mohan who believes that 'Plants are tomorrow's Bio-Factories and research in Plant science is the need of the hour'. Prof. Julian Ma, Director, Institute of Infection and Immunity, a collaborator from St. George’s University of London delivered the inaugural address.
The workshop highlighted the latest developments in the area of Molecular Farming. The objective of the workshop was to demonstrate the importance of plant expression system as an alternative system for the production of very valuable and complex therapeutics.
Practical sessions were handled by Prof Julian Ma, and Ms. Gina Webster, St George’s University, London, Dr. Waranyoo, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and Mr. Gowtham, Bharathiar University. The same team and Dr. Sumathy, Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad delivered lectures and interacted with the participants.
24 participants were selected to attend the workshop at free of cost. Prof Julian Ma, distributed the participation certificates.
Indian collaborator, Dr. R. Sathishkumar, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Bharathiar University concluded the event.