Ms. Vidushi Abrol, Research Scholar, Department of Biotechnology, SMVDU has won laurels by bagging the First Prize in Oral Presentation for her paper titled "Improvement of Tolypocladium inflatum Through Chemical Mutagenesis for the High Yield of Cyclosporine" at the "National Conference on Fungal Biology: Recent Trends and Future Prospects & 44th Annual Meeting of The Mycological Society of India" held at Jammu University last week. The focal theme of the Conference was to view the metabolic and physiological versatility of Fungi along with their intrinsic resistance toward physical and chemical stresses since they hold great promises for biotechnology thereby making them unique among other biotechnologically relevant microorganisms.

Ms. Vidushi Abrol is presently pursuing her Ph. D. under the joint supervision of Dr. Sundeep Jaglan, Scientist, CSIR-IIIM Jammu and Dr. Sharada M. Potukuchi, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, SMVDU. Her research work has been highly appreciated and in the past couple of months she has achieved many awards including Second Prize in the Oral presentation at three-day National Conference on “Interdisciplinary Aspects of Plant Sciences” and 27th APSI Scientist Meet, which was organized by School of Biotechnology, SMVDU, Katra in collaboration with Academy of Plant Sciences, India during 2nd- 4th Nov., 2017. She also brought glory to the University by bagging the First Prize in Oral Presentation at the International Conference of Society for Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences (SBBS) organized by Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, R.S. Pura, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu at R.S. Pura Campus, Jammu, during October.

Dr. Anil , Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology attended the 2nd European Organic Chemistry Congress on “Enhancing the New Innovations and Challenges in Organic Chemistry” held during March 02-03, 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Anil delivered his talk entitled “Chiral Octahedral Complexes as Catalyst for enantioselective Organic Synthesis. In the present study unexplored family chiral hydrogen bond donor catalysts based on octahedral Cobalt (III) complexes have been synthesized and effectively applied for the enantioselective organic synthesis. The presented research work was conducted in Professor John A. Gladysz’s Lab, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, USA and funded by Welch Foundation, USA and University Grant Commission, Govt. of India, under Raman Post Doctoral Fellowship. The work has been published in high impact factor Journals-Organic Letters-Inorganic Chemistry-published by American Chemical Society, USA.

The conference was organized to attract leading experts from academia and industries across the globe. The conference was attended by eminent experts from different countries which include USA, India, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, Poland, Singapore, Mexico, Netherland, South Korea, Slovenia, Taiwan etc. Experts from industries such as Janssen Pharma R&D., USA, Merck and Co., USA, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., USA, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore, Sun Pharma, India were also participated. Latest developments in the field of synthetic organic chemistry and Pharmaceuticals were deliberated and discussed during the conference. The visit was fully supported by SMVD University.

G.R.Bhat & Itty Sethi Research Scholars from SMVDU brought laurels to the University by bagging Silver Medals in twin events of 2nd J&K Medical Science Congress-2017 and 1st MP-PCOS, organized by Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) held recently at SKICC, Srinagar. The Conference was inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister J&K Ms. Mehbooba Mufti. The theme of the Science Congress was “Non Communicable Diseases in Developing Countries” in which several international, national and local scientists deliberated on aspects like Diabetes, PCOS, Metabolic Syndrome, Cancers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Thyroid Dysfunction, Genetic Disorders etc. There were around 150 experts as well faculty members from different disciplines which included DG ICMR, Soumya Swaminathan, former DG ICMR Dr VM Katoch, former Director AIIMS, Dr MC Misra, present director AIIMS,New Delhi, Dr R Guleria, Director NIB Dr Surinder Singh, Director NIRRH Mumbai Smita Mahalle, Head of Orthopaedics, AIIMS, New Delhi, Prof Rajesh Malhotra, world renowned Psychiatrist, Prof Khandelwal, President ISSRF.

In this conference 350 papers presented were dealt with medical sciences in general, 100 others were focused upon the Metabolic Syndrome – Pre-Diabetes and PCOS (MP-PCOS). Eighty six young scientists were selected to present their oral or poster presentation. Out of these presentations 20 were selected for Young Scientist award. The awardees include Itty Sethi D/O B.N Sethi in Basic Young Scientist Oral category (Silver Medal). She is working under Supervision of Dr. Swarkar Sharma and Dr Ekta Rai, Assistant Professor DoBT, SMVDU & G.R. Bhat S/O Mohd. Maqbool Bhat in Basic Young Scientist Poster category (Silver Medal) working under the Supervision of Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Professor DoBT, SMVDU. Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, Prof. Sanjeev Jain congratulated both the Research Scholars for the bringing Silver medals as well as the faculty for guiding the students.

Dr.Shafaq Rasool, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University attended an International Conference “15th World Congress on Biotechnology and Biotech Industries Meet “ in Rome, Italy from 20th -21st March, 2017. The theme of the conference was Meeting the global Challenges through Biotechnology.

Dr.Shafaq presented a research paper on Functional Metagenomics entitled “Identification and Characterisation of a novel Thermostable and Oxidant stable Protease from “Chumathang’’ Hot spring using Functional Metagenomics “. The research paper discussed in detail the potential of using functional metagenomics for the discovery of novel genes/proteins useful for different biotechnological endeavours. The abstract of the paper has been published in reputed journal “Journal of Biotechnology and Biomaterials” as conference proceedings. The research paper is an outcome of sponsored research project on Metagenomics by CSIR.

The Conference was attended by renowned speakers and delegates from USA, Poland, Canada, Austria, UK, India, Italy, Greece and others. Dr.Shafaq got a unique opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas about various research findings and new advancements in the areas of Metagenomics and biotechnology with the eminent Scientists and academicians,researchers across the globe.

Dr.Shafaq Rasool is highly grateful to the SMVDU authorities for funding her visit to Rome, Italy under PDA grant for attending this international conference.