International Virtual Conference on 'Evolving Paradigms in Biotechnology: Combating Contemporary Challenges
Date: 1st and 2nd April 2022

The world is going through a phase of turbulence due to the covid-19 pandemic. Biotechnology is perhaps the most important tool that humanity relied on, to fight the pandemic. An early understanding of the biology of the virus, development of diagnostics, and eventually of prophylactics and therapeutics were possible due to Biotechnology-based interventions. This has once again reinforced the potential of Biotechnology in offering solutions to seemingly intractable contemporary challenges.

It is in this context that the Department of Life Sciences, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous), and Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (KSCSTE-JNTBGRI) organised the two-day International Virtual Conference on 'Evolving Paradigms in Biotechnology: Combating Contemporary Challenges' on 1st and 2nd April 2022. The conference brought together scientists, academicians, research scholars, and graduates in the field of Life Sciences and witnessed in-depth deliberations on the emerging trends, and latest innovations in Biotechnology that helps tackle contemporary issues in the domains of healthcare, medicine, agriculture, food, environmental sustainability, and remediation, amongst others. The conference featured 5 plenary sessions handled by internationally renowned scientists and three parallel paper presentation sessions. The conference, due to the uniqueness in the scientific themes it focuses on has been well received by the scientific community. ICEPB’22 received 50 research papers for presentation from across the country. The conference was inaugurated by the renowned neurobiologist Dr. K. P Mohanakumar, Director, Inter University Centre for Biomedical Research & Super Speciality Hospital, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. He also delivered the keynote address on the topic ‘What Biotechnology Drives & What Drives Biotechnology’. Fr. Dr. Augustine George, Principal, Kristu Jayanti College presided over the inaugural ceremony. While delivering the presidential address he congratulated the organisers for choosing a unique topic with contemporary relevance as the focal theme of the conference. Dr. KB Ramesh Kumar, Principal Scientist, Phytochemistry & Phytopharmacology Division, KSCSTE- JNTBGRI delivered the felicitation address.

International Virtual Conference on Sustainable Biotechnology
The Department of Life Sciences, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous), Bangalore conducted an International Virtual Conference on Sustainable Biotechnology during 18th and 19th of March 2021.

This conference explored the avenues of sustainable development through Biotechnology. The two day programme included six technical sessions delivered by international experts and three panels for research paper presentations mainly focused on Green Energy, Biotechnology & Health, Sustainable Crop Production, Environmental monitoring, Biofertilizers & Biopesticides, Environmental Biotechnology and Drug Discovery. Also the conference had witnessed participation of academicians and scholars from different universities across the globe.

Sustainable development has become indispensable in the current world, as it constitutes a strong support factor for the process of facing crises and the need for conserving the available natural resources from being over-exploited. The transformations that happened during the last few decades due to significant evolution of research in biotechnology has now reached a stage of explaining living processes in molecular level.

Prof.M.Krishnan, Honourable Vice Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu, during his inaugural address insisted on practical approach in the field of Biotechnology and the application of microbial products to bring about sustainability in health and agriculture. Rev. Dr. Augustine George, Principal, Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous) Bangalore, stated that the focus should be on finding new strategies towards the use of natural resources and to maintain a sustainable ecosystem through biotechnological approach.

During the conference, the technical sessions were on the topics “Bacterial Honeycomb” by Dr.Thamarai Kannan, University of Bedforshire, UK, “Microalgae based biorefineries” by Dr.Nidia Caeteno, University of Porto, Portugal, “Pathogenesis mechanism and Emerging Therapeutic options for Covid 19” by Dr.Saravanan, Mekelle University, Ethiopia, “Physics-Based and AI-Based Computational Strategies for Drug Discovery: in silico Screening and Multi-parametric Compound Optimization” by Dr.Anil Nair, Icagen Ligand Company, US, “Microbial Conversion of greenhouse gases into value added Products” by Dr. Lisa Stein, University of Alberta, Canada, “Sustainable manufacturing of Biosurfactants Challenges and possibilities of Research and Industry” was delivered by Dr. Rahman, Tara Biologicals, UK.

The deliberations made during this conference provided major insights to promote sustainability in the society and environment through Biotechnology.

National Conference on Inclusive Development Through Biotechnology
Earth is our common home where survival and development are possible. But the environmental resources are limited and have certain technological discoveries, but human needs are always growing. The earth cannot be made bigger and richer to supply our growing needs. On the other hand, our development activities should be enabled to continue in the long term and our future generations must get what we have got. So we must use the resource wisely, carefully and responsibly to let our coming generation live the comfort we lived, that is we should aim towards sustainable development. Sustainable development has become a priority for the world’s policy makers. Among the broad range of technologies with the potential to reach the goal of sustainability, the field of Biotechnology takes an important place.

In this contextual, the Department of Life Sciences, KristuJayanti College organized a two day National Conference on “Inclusive Development through Biotechnology” on 17th and 18th January 2020.

The two day conference sheltered topics ranging from conservation of biodiversity, bioremediation, nutraceuticals, biofuels, entrepreneurship and progress in health sector.

The inaugural ceremony of the conference was presided by Fr. Josekutty P.D, Principal, KJC and the guest of honour was Dr. T. V. Ramachandra, Co-ordinator, Energy & Wetlands Research Group, CES, Indian Institute of Science. In his presidential address, father enlightened about the importance of Biotechnology in conservation of resources. Dr. T. V. Ramachandra spoke on the need to save mother Nature- Earth in the inaugural speech. Proceedings of the conference were released in the form of abstract book. The guests honored the winners of 7th National Level Green India EssayCompetition and felicitated Green campus Technical Staff Mr. Binu.

After inaugural function, the conference had Scientific Session I by Dr. T. V. Ramachandra, Co-ordinator, Energy & Wetlands Research Group, CES, Indian Institute of Science. The session was on “Optimal Treatment of Domestic Waste Water throughconstructing Wetlands and Bioremediation. The lecture gave insights on diversity in species in and around Western Ghats and their benefits to Mother Earth and hediscussed on Topography in Bangalore from past few decades.

Post lunch, in the Scientific Session II, Dr. ArvindSaklani, Vice President, Sami Labs Private Limited spoke on nutrceuticals as food supplements, their statistics, developing process and enlightened on medicinal herbal plants and its benefits.

The resource person for the scientific session III was Dr. P. E. Rajasekharan, Principal Scientist, Division of Plant Genetic Resources, ICAR-IIHR. Sir briefed about biotechnological interventions for the conservation of biodiversity. He emphasized on the fact for long-term conservation, cryopreservation (-196°C) is presently the only technique available.

Day 1 of the conference ended with oral and poster presentation sessions. The second day of the conferencebegan with yet another session of oral presentation and moved on to the scientific session IV. The speaker for the session was Mr. BhimasenVadavi,Head Projects,Sartorius Private Limited. His lecture was on Upstream processing technology in Microbial & Mammalian Culture. Sir discussed on the use of mammalian and microbial cells in the production of biologics and vaccines and what are the parameters need for the design of a bioreactor.

Dr. Harinikumar K. M, Professor and Co-ordinator,Department of Plant Biotechnology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Campus in the scientific session V spoke on Advances in Biofuel technology – A scope for Entrepreneurship in Agriculture. Sir elaborated on the “present-day” photosynthetic conversion of solar energy to chemical energy, which sets them apart from fossil fuels that are based on ancient photosynthesis. He conveyed that the line between renewable biofuels and non-renewable fossil fuels is sometimes vague and only complete life-cycle analyses in the future will reveal which feed stocks are truly renewable to be used in biofuel production.

RNA is a fascinating biomolecule. We know that the messenger RNA can be translated in the cytoplasm. However not all the mRNAs get translated all the time in the cytoplasm. Some mRNAs are stored in the cytoplasm and some are degraded. Aberrant changes in the functional status of mRNA can lead to disease conditions such as Cancer and Neuro-degenerative disorders was the basis of the talk in the scientific session VI delivered by Dr. Purusharth I. Rajyaguru, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

In conclusion, the two day conference had 6 scientific sessions, 3 oral presentation sessions and 1 poster presentation session. Delegates for the conference were from colleges in and around Bengaluruand the total number accounted to 44. Full length paper articles are published in UGC CARE online journal: International Journal of Life Science and Pharma research (ISSN: 2250:0840).

Thus the two day conference “INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH BIOTECHNOLOGY” was an enriched one and knowledge rewarding experience.

The National conference on Biochemistry-Transcending and integrating Life Sciences (NCBTIL) was organized by the Department of Life Sciences, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore on 17th and 18th January 2019.The two-day conference was inaugurated by Dr. S. Ravichandra Reddy, Former Acting Director, NAAC on 17th January. The presidential address was delivered by Fr. Josekutty P D, Principal of Kristu Jayanti College where he emphasized the need to transcend and integrate, research and academia among different Life Science streams through Biochemistry. The prelude to the conference was presented by Prof. Priya Josson, co-convener of the conference and vote of thanks was delivered by the convener of the conference, Dr.Vijayanand. There were 80 participants representing 20 different colleges from 4 different states. 26 research papers were published in The International Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences, UGC indexed journal. There were 40 oral and poster presentations pertaining to the theme of the conference. The conference enabled the participants to receive intelligent insights from some of the leading academicians and professionals form reputed Universities, institutes and industries to be abreast with the latest advances in Biochemistry and Biological Sciences.