‘Maintain balance between environment and human life’

TIRUPATI :The influence of environmental factors on human health emerged as the central theme of discussions at the inaugural session of the three-day ‘International conference on environmental conservation and human health - Challenges and Strategies,’ organised by Sri Venkateswara University’s (SVU) Department of Zoology, here on Wednesday.

SVU Vice Chancellor A. Damodaram, who inaugurated the event, emphasised on the need for maintaining the balance of the natural cycle that exists between the environment and lives of human beings. “Life depends on the quality of the environment surrounding us. Of late, environment-related hazards have been on the rise and are creating severe health issues among the people. More emphasis should be laid on plantations, recycling methods and sustainable development linked with environmental protection and conservation,” he said.

Rakesh K. Mishra, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) – Hyderabad, elucidated on ‘Genomics and future medical implications’. He also spoke on other topics such as personalised medicine and pharmacogenomics. “The latter is one of the most exciting areas in personalised medicine. It uses genetic information such as DNA sequence, gene expression, and copy number, for explaining inter-individual differences in drug metabolism (pharmacokinetics) and physiological drug response (pharmacodynamics), thereby identifying responders and non-responders to a drug and predicting the efficacy or toxicity of a drug,” he added.

Drug discovery and development

Dr. Mishra also said that these advances had opened up new possibilities in drug discovery and development, allowing more tailored treatment of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.

SVU Registrar M. Devarajulu, Rector M. Bhaskar, former SVU VCs Rallapalli Ramamurthi and W. Rajendra, Tiruvallor University VC K. Murugan, former VC of Vikramasimhapuri University G. Rajarami Reddy, professors from the U.S. Urmila Kodavanti and Jagadeeswaran, programme convener P. Sreenivasula Reddy, organising secretaries M. Srinivasulu Reddy and Y. Suneetha took part.