The Department of Bioinformatics of Central University of South Bihar (CUSB) organised a two-days national workshop on Drug Discovery through Bioinformatics during November 02-03, 2023. The Department of Bioinformatics, which recently has earned DST-FIST support, is a leading hub in the bioinformatics field within Bihar and many eastern states. The workshop was organized under the mentorship of CUSB Vice-Chancellor Prof. Kameshwar Nath Singh, to impart essential skills and training to students and young researchers in the frontier areas of molecular drug discovery.
The computer-aided drug design (CADD) is an emerging and most sought-after area in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The aim of the CADD methods is to exploit subtle knowledge of molecular structures and forces to develop candidate drug molecules for the treatment of a disease. With more and more pharmaceutical companies in India, investing chunk of their revenue in R & D activities for discovering new drugs, the job requirement for students skilled in this area is expected to grow rapidly. Several experts delivered lectures and conducted hand-on sessions so that participants can quickly absorb these skills and get familiarize with latest tools and software.
Prof. Asheesh Shanker, the convener of the event presented inaugural note. Prof. RS Rathore delivered lectures and conducted hands-on sessions on the latest techniques employed in the industry for virtual screening of molecules and to identify suitable lead molecule in drug design. While delivering the lecture, he highlighted the enormous importance of this skill. An estimated 10,000 disease exists in the world, and in a staggering contrast we have discovered just 3000 drugs using these modern techniques (collectively referred to as rational drug design techniques).
Dr Ajay Kumar Singh and Dr. Durg Vijay Singh introduced many state-of-art tools and softwares such as Dassault Systemes BIOVIA Discovery Studio. In the afternoon sessions, experts from MolSoft LLC, Pune and Scube Scientific Software Solutions, New Delhi presented software demo on their most recent software and technologies for drug discoveries. The workshop was made successful by collective efforts of faculties Dr. KK Ojha, Dr. Anil Kumar, Dr. VK Singh, staff Mr. Priyatam and several PhD students including Gyan Prakash Rai, Mayank Kumar, Krishnendu Bera, and Niharika. The Dean of School of Earth Biological and Environmental Science, Prof. Pradhan Parth Sarthi congratulated the team to organize the workshop related to healthcare.