MCOPS celebrates Golden Jubilee year

Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS), as part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations, conducted a series of academic activities from April 19 to 26, 2012. On the first day of the event, a national seminar was held under the auspices of ISPOR. Dr GK Prabhu (Registrar, Manipal University) inaugurated the programme in the presence of Dr N Udupa (Principal, MCOPS), Dr Anantha Naik (Secretary, ISPOR Karnataka Chapter) and Dr Rajesh Balkrishnan (Associate Director for Research and Education, U-M Center for Global Health). Udupa delivered the welcome address.

Balkrishnan gave speeches on different modules on the first day of the event. He discussed on topics like, ‘Introduction to Pharmacoeconomics and outcome research’; ‘Introduction to basic epidemiology and Pharmacoe-pidemiology’; ‘Retrospective database’; ‘Issues in design and analysis of clinical studies’; ‘Measuring medication use behaviours and utilisation’; ‘Basic comparative effectiveness analysis.’ Others who spoke at the seminar were Pradeep Murugundi, Anil TM, Kanav Khera, Sr Daisy and Swapna S.

A one-day workshop on ‘Infectious Diseases’ sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research was held on April 21, 2012. This programme was held under the aegis of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, MCOPS. The co-ordinator of the workshop Dr MK Unnikrishnan explained the importance of the workshop. Dr K Ram Narayan, Vice Chancellor, Manipal University was the Chief Guest for the event and Dr Arunachalam Kumar, Dean, KS Hegde Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalore was the Guest of Honour.

Udupa delivered the welcome address, which was followed by a speech by Dr Ram Narayan, who exhorted the postgraduate students and research scholars to ask the right questions and seek answers. Dr Arunachalam Kumar said that many a time non-conventional ways of doing research bring out very significant findings. The co-ordinator of the workshop MK Unnikrishnan explained the importance of the workshop.

Dr Gopal Kundu, Scientist, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune delivered a speech on cancer research at the event. He spoke on the topic titled, ‘Application of Nanoparticle and Nanomedicine in the treatment of cancer.’ He spoke extensively on the work done in his lab. The week saw participation of ten experts from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India at MCOPS and engaging the faculty and PG students in a brainstorming session for an hour. Each experts aired their thoughts and ideas for research and for securing grants from funding agencies. MV Kamath (senior journalist and Honorary Director, Manipal Institute of Communications) spoke on April 25 on ‘Indian medicine from ancient to current times.’

On the last day of the week long event, Dr MS Valiathan spoke about ‘New Trends in Biological Research.’ He explained how the ancient Indian wisdom in health sciences is being revived through modern scientific research. He gave specific examples of medicines that delay the ageing process, which has been experimentally demonstrated in human beings and laboratory animals. Participants were exposed to the work and novel ideas of real experts in health sciences.

EP News Bureau — Mumbai