By Ankur Vadhera CHANDIGARH- October 08, 2012: The Autumn School on the theme “Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery: Promises and Concerns” commenced today at UIPS, Panjab University Campus under UGC Networking programme for pharmacy teachers. Twenty mid-level faculty, from government and private pharmacy institutes and University departments, representing 9 different states of India holding a teaching experience of more than 5 years, have been selected on merit out of a total of 40 applicants.
Professor Indu Pal Kaur, Course Coordinator explained that with Nanotechnology emerging as an exciting arena of innovation in drug delivery systems, the school intends to deliberate on the critical concepts involved in the production of nanoparticles with special emphasis on newer approaches which can help in the better translation of these products to the market/shelf. The Programme was inaugurated by Dr Pradip K Bhatnagar, President, Daiichi Sankyo Life Science Research Centre who was also the Chief Guest for the occasion.
He delivered the inaugural address titled ‘Nano-Technology/Medicine: Why Pharma Industry is Sitting on Fence’. He highlighted the areas of concern and caution with regards to the nanotech products. Professor P. Pramanik, Nano-materials Lab, IIT Kharagpur gave an exhaustive talk on ‘Multifunctional nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery’ during the post tea session. In the afternoon session, a wet lab was conducted by Professor Indu Pal Kaur, Coordinator of the training course & Dr Vandita Kakkar, Assistant Professor, UIPS, demonstrating different methods of preparing nanoparticles at lab scale and using equipments such as High Pressure Homogenizer frequently used for scaling up batches to an industrial level. Prof. Harkishan Singh, Professor Emeritus, UIPS was the Guest of Honour, during the Inaugural session. Prof. Singh is amongst the foundation builders of UIPS and is not only a noted academician and researcher but also a historian on pharma background of India. Prof. V. R. Sinha, Chairperson, UIPS & Programme Coordinator gave the presidential remarks.