Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences conducts XI Summer Training Programme

Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS) recently played host to a summer training programme in biopharmaceuticals for post-graduate students. There were fifty participants, most of them postgraduate (M Pharm) students of MCOPS. This was the 11th summer training programme in all and the fifth to be conducted at MCOPS. Dr PD Gupta, an adjunct professor of MCOPS from Jaipur was the co-ordinator of the programme along with Dr N Udupa, Principal, MCOPS.

Dr HS Ballal (Pro Chancellor, Manipal University) inaugurated the programme in the presence of Prof P Gundu Rao and Prof N Krishnamurthy (a former principal and vice-principal, respectively), Dr N Udupa and Dr PD Gupta.

After the lecture, the trainees dispersed and worked either in the library for reference search or in the laboratory carrying out the assigned project works. Every trainee was assigned one minor project capable of being completed within the stipulated period of one month. To round up a day’s work, Dr Gupta engaged the candidates for a discussion.

Among the resource persons were three top officers of Manipal University, Pro-Chancellor, Pro-vice Chancellor and Registrar, viz., Dr HS Ballal, Dr H Vinod Bhat and Dr GK Prabhu, respectively. Dr Prabhu spoke of the ‘6Is’- idea, inspiration, innovation, influence, invention and incubation for success in professional life. Dr Vinod Bhat gave a talk on the relevance of publishing and printing. Dr Ballal discussed the role of drugs and radiology in his talk titled, ‘Pharmaco-radiology modality based uses of pharmacological agents.’

Besides lectures from Dr Gupta, other eminent persons too delivered effective presentations. These include Dr PM Gopinath, Dr KG Rajendran, Dr MD Burande, Dr Suman Kapur and Dr RN Saha (both from BITs, PIlani), Dr Akbar Shah, Dr S Badami (Tumkur), Dr Bharti Chogtu (KMC Manipal), Dr Shreemathi Mayya (Manipal University) and Vasudeva Shenoy (Ecron Acunova). A number of faculty members gave lectures. They are: Dr J Venkata Rao, Dr MK Unnikrishnan, Dr Rekha Arun, Dr D Sreedhar, Dr Yogendra Nayak and Anoop Kishore.

The participants were expected to work on a small research project and submit a written report in the end. Each one was also required to make a presentation of their project. These were evaluated and the prizes were given for best project, best participation and best presentation. Winners declared for this year were Sanam V Pavan Kumar (Best Project); Jessy John (Best Participation) and M Naga Laxmi Prasanna (Best Presentation). Certificates were issued at the valedictory function. Dr N Udupa and Dr PD Gupta summed up the gains of the XI Summer Training Programme.

EP News Bureau — Mumbai