SPS, Apeejay Stya University organises third national seminar on Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology in Healthcare

The School of Pharmaceutical Science, Apeejay Stya University, organised the 3^rd national seminar titled “Nanotechnology and Medical Devices in Healthcare” on 11^th February, 2022 sponsored by DST-SERB. Walter Bushnell and ASG Biochem were the collaborators of the event.

The event started with the opening remarks on the theme by Professor R S Dhankar, Vice Chancellor, Apeejay Stya University. Followed by this, Dr Anupama Diwan, organising secretary, welcomed dignitaries and participants of the seminar. Distinguished scientists shared their life-long research experience with the audience. There were four scientific sessions which included eight plenary lectures chaired by chair/co-chair persons.

The first session was chaired by Professor (Dr) Roop K Khar, Director, BS Anangpuria Institute of Pharmacy, Faridabad.

The first plenary lecture of this session was given by Professor Alok R Ray, Consultant Professor, School of International Biodesign, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi, who spoke on the topic “New and Emerging Opportunities in the Medical Devices and Biomaterials sector in India.”

“Given the  favourable demographics, the rapidly expanding technology base, and increasing venture capital flow into India, it is anticipated that a major “medtech” industry will develop in India over the next few years if a suitable ecosystem is created. The main requirements of this ecosystem are trained manpower and new concepts in the area of medical devices and implants.

The keynote speaker of this session was Dr Vivekanandan Kalaiselvan, Senior Principal Scientific Officer, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ghaziabad, who delivered the talk on the topic “Materiovigilance Programme of India: Roles and responsibilities of pharmacy professionals” while elaborating on the role of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission that obtains scientific data and analyses, and communicates it to the regulating authority. Now, all medical devices are regulated by the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Under the Medical Devices Rule of 2017, all medical devices are approved as drugs, he said.

The second session was chaired by Professor (Dr) Harvinder Popli, Professor and Director, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU), New Delhi.

The scientists in the second session were Dr Manish Diwan (Head-Strategy Partnership and  Entrepreneurship Development, BIRAC, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India), and Dr Arvind Bansal, Professor of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, Mohali, Chandigarh.

Dr Manish Diwan delivered an insight on “Growing Startup Ecosystem and Allied Opportunities” session. Delving into the growing start-up ecosystem, he highlighted how his organisation is inculcating a “culture of biotech entrepreneurship” through flagship schemes and other funding provisions. BIRAC also promotes faculty entrepreneurship through Promoting Academic Research Conversion to Enterprise (PACE).

Dr Arvind Bansal spoke on nanocrystals—the approaches used for its generation and its various applications. His presentation focussed on NanoCrySP, a “novel “bottom-up” spray drying based method to generate solid particles containing API nanocrystals dispersed in non-polymeric excipients.

The next session was chaired by Dr Jitender Madan, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, Hyderabad.

Dr Dhiraj Kumar Chopra, Vice President and Head, Sterile R&D, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, spoke on the key factors considered in polymer selection for drug delivery system, the importance of managing the rate of polymer degradation, use of polymers for depot injections that are non-toxic, controlled erosion, biocompatible, etc, factors influencing degradation behaviour, and a market overview of depot injections. “We should not get baffled by the failures that we may face while working with complex delivery systems, but should work with perseverance and passion to provide the systems worldwide,” he said while concluding his presentation.

Professor Bansi D Malhotra, DST-SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board, Government of India) Distinguished Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Delhi Technological University (DTU), spoke on how nanomaterials-based conducting paper can be helpful in the development of biomolecular electronic devices like biosensors for cancer detection. A biosensor is an analytical device that converts a biological response into a measurable signal via a transducer.

The last session was chaired by Navita Srinet, Director, Soterius LifeSciences India, Delhi.

Indu Bhushan, Chief Executive Officer and Director, SteerLife India, Bengaluru, spoke on the topic “Hot Melt Extrusion- Pharmaceutical product development and manufacturing.” The final presentation was made by Dr Kanchan Kohli, Director (Research and Publication), Faculty of Pharmacy, Llyod Institute of Management and Technology, who spoke about the future of nanomedicine.

Many faculties, PhD research students, PG students and even UG students have showed their research/review through scientific poster presentations on various aspects related to the theme. The posters were evaluated via online and offline mode by the jury members Dr Gaurav Jain, Associate Professor, DPSRU, New Delhi and Dr Aparna Rana, Principal, Advanced Institute of Pharmacy, Palwal.

The conference proceedings were released in the form of a souvenir book. There were 75 abstracts received, out of that, 51 were screened by the scientific committee based on the latest advancement in technology. Various students from nook and corner of the county participated in the event via online and offline mode preferably from the states of Delhi NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc which include universities/colleges/research institutes such as DPSRU, Jamia Hamdard, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), GD Goenka, MVN, PDM, SGT, KR Mangalam, IFTM, Mewad University, Chitkara University, Advanced Institute of Pharmacy, Seth Vishambhar Nath Institute of Pharmacy, Lucknow and RMRI, ICMR, Patna.

The best posters were awarded with lucrative cash prize and certificate in two groups, Group I (Senior – M Pharm, PhD and Faculty) and Group II, (Junior – B Pharm and D Pharm). Awards were given to 1^st (Iqra Zai, Department of Pharmaceutics, Jamia Hamdard), 2nd (S M Kawisha, Department of Pharmaceutics, Jamia Hamdard) and 3^rd (Ruchika Kalra, Advanced Institute of Pharmacy, Palwal) position holders in Group I.

In Group II, awards were given to 1^st (Sneha Anand, PDM University), 2^nd (Yadav Kumar Prem, Seth Vishambhar Nath Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khazoor Gaon Barabanki) and 3^rd (Manpreet Singh Bedi, Apeejay Stya University). Committee members were also felicitated by Professor Anupama Diwan and Professor DK Majumdar.

The day concluded with a promise to meet soon next year with more scientific deliberation in the fourth national seminar.