S Subbiah, Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University, said the University proposed to establish Indian Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery Society (IBDDS) for dissemination of scientific knowledge and provide advanced bioinformatics training.
“The society will serve as a platform for dissemination of scientific knowledge and function as a central hub between bioinformatics, biological sciences and other allied life sciences,” he said, while inaugurating the 9th National symposium-cum-workshop on ‘Recent trends in structural bioinformatics and computer aided drug design’ here on Tuesday.
Congratulating the Department of bioinformatics, headed by J. Jayakanthan, for its exemplary research activities, he said computer-aided drug discovery would help reduce the constraints caused by time and cost. Citing a WHO report, he said 50% of global health care expenditure was spent on three life threatening diseases - cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases.
As incidences of diabetes was likely to rise from the current 415 million to 642 million by 2040 and dementia to reach 74.7 million by 2030, he said scientists have great responsibility to help in the design of new drugs using advanced computer- aided technology.
Addressing the workshop, T P Singh from AIIMS, New Delhi, emphasised the need for computational sources along with experimental evidences to validate and deduce mechanistic insights of protein molecules in the biological system.
“India is in need of manpower for scientific explorations and discoveries for which youngsters should be motivated to undertake research,” he said adding India was the second largest macromolecule depositor in protein data bank as well as utilising the same for rapid development in the sector of biological interventions.
Veejendra K Yadav of IIT-Kanpur, in his thematic address, said a deep knowledge of chemistry was required for the development of drug design by using several combinations via biological interactions.
D. Velmurugan, former head of crystallography and biophysics, University of Madras, said the IBDDS would be a medium to connect all the bioinformaticians and scientists all over the country to gather and work for scientific advancement.
Thirteen scientists from various prestigious institutions in the country were giving give lectures about the computational methods in the four-day workshop. They would also throw light on the importance of using bioinformatics tools in human healthcare system.
