Construction of new college building with students hostels and a residential quarters will start soon at the Jipmer off-site campus in Karaikal, S.C. Parija, Jipmer Director said on Tuesday.
Inaugurating the first continuous medical education programme on the new campus on ‘Role of Micro-RNAs and stem cells in cardiac regeneration in diabetic heart disease’, Dr. Parija said the estimated cost of ₹497.1 crore had been approved by Standing Finance Committee of the institution on January 20 and was awaiting ratification by the Union Health Ministry.
Dr. Parija, who released a souvenir, said the 506-bed General Hospital of Karaikal was being used for clinical teaching for students.
“We have a plan to upgrade the facilities of Karaikal hospital at an expenditure of ₹30 crore to make the bed-side clinical teaching more advanced and effective,” he said.
Special courses
There is a proposal to launch special PG and Fellowships in disciplines such as family medicine, tropical medicine, trauma care and cancer management shortly on the Karaikal campus, which began functioning with the first batch of MBBS students in October.
Noting that nine first-year MBBS students had submitted ICMR studentship research proposals to the ICMR, Dr. Parija said the institution was establishing advanced student and research laboratories at Kalam building, which will be ready in March.
The Kalam building would house seven departments (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, pathology, microbiology and forensic medicine) with state-of-the-art student’s laboratories, smart lecture theatres, telemedicine system, audio-video networking system, central library, and research laboratory.
In his keynote address, Rajesh Katare, Director, Cardiovascular Research Division and Associate Professor of Physiology, University of Otago, New Zealand, spoke about the present status and future perspectives of stem cell therapy for diabetic hearts.
Dr. Katare presented the experimental and clinical evidence on expression of micro-RNAs in cardiac tissues and their role in cardiac regeneration.
G.K. Pal, Dean, Jipmer-Karaikal, J. Balachander, Medical Superintendent, Dr. Santhosh Satheesh, Additional Professor Cardiology, Dr. Hannah Rachel Vasanthi, Associate Professor of Biotechnology, Pondicherry University and Dr. Biswajit Dubashi, Head of Medical Oncology, participated.
The Karaikal chapter of the Association of Physiologists of India was launched during the CME.
