Pathfinder Research and Training Foundation organises summer training on drug discovery

Pathfinder Research and Training Foundation (PRTF), in collaboration with Sharda University, recently conducted a month-long summer training which aimed at imparting basic skills to college students on the workflow and standard pipeline of drug discovery using in silico tools. The programme comprised lectures and practical sessions, besides routine assessment and hypothesis building.

The lectures were given by in-house faculty and guest lecturers like Dr GPS Raghava, Professor and Head, Computational Biology; IIITD. Students from Department of Biotechnology — Sharda University, GLA University, Amity University and J P Institute, participated in this training programme.

Prof (Dr) Parma Nand, Dean, School of Engineering and Technology (SET), Sharda University who was the invited guest in the valedictory function, enlightened the students with his motivating words, and inspired them to focus on skill building. He said, “This programme imparts research skills in students and makes them industry-ready. We at Sharda University aim to bridge the gap between industry and academia through such training programmes, lectures and practical sessions. In today’s competitive scenario, the focus of students should be on skill development and strength building rather than merely collecting diploma and degrees.”

The address was followed by certificate distribution in the august presence of Pranav Kumar (Founder and Chairman, PRTF) and Dr Saurabh Kumar Jha (Assistant Professor), Sharda University. In addition to this, four students were awarded shields of appreciation from the host institute for participating in an inter-group competition on drug discovery.

Students have been trained enough to retrieve biological data from various repositories, perform molecular docking of proteins with small molecules and understand the basic pipeline of in silico drug discovery.