MSc Biochemistry at St. Aloysius College

Sunday, 20 September 2015

Freshers day-2015-16 Batch

II year students of the department Conducted a Freshers day to welcome the new students to the department. Total 10 students were joined to Biochemistry family in 2015-16 academic year.

Ms.Lyned D Lasrado , New faculty of the department also welcomed by Ms.Bhavya D K, H.O.D of PG Biochemistry.

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Department of Post Graduation and Research in Biochemistry

Inauguration of Loyola Centre for Research and Innovation

The inaugural programme of the newly built Loyola Centre for Research and Innovation was held on Wednesday, July 15. The newbuilding equipped with state of art infrastructure for education through research was inaugurated by Rev. Dr Stanislaus D’Souza SJ, Provincial, Karnataka Jesuit Province and blessed by Rt Rev.Dr Francis Serrao SJ, Bishop of Shivamogga. Dr Harsh VardhanBatra, Director- Defence Food Research Laboratory, was the guest of honour. All the departments housed in building were inaugurated and blessed individually. The formal function began with an invocation hymn.

Rev Denzil Lobo SJ, Rector, St Aloysius College, welcomed the dignitaries and the gathering, which was followed by the lighting of the traditional lamp by the dignitaries.Addressing the gathering, guest of honourDr Harsh VardhanBatra, Scientist and Director, Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) Mysuruemphasized on the need to make research a passion and innovation a habit. In his inaugural address, Rt Rev.Dr Francis SerraoSJ spoke about the spirit of Jesuit Education and the need to bring innovation in research and teachingto face the challenges of the changing world, and thus contribute to the development of science. Rev.Dr Stanislaus D’Souza SJ, Provincial, Karnataka Jesuit Provincepresided over the function.

In his presidential address he congratulated the college and urged the teachers to pursue research to make teaching and learning a lively experience.On this occasion the college acknowledged the contributions of the people prominently involved in conceptualization and materialization of the building and felicitated them. The programmeconcluded with the vote of thanks by Rev SwebertD’Silva SJ, Principal, St Aloysius College.

To mark the occasion of the inauguration of Loyola Centre for Research and Innovation, an interactive session was organized in which Dr Harsh VardhanBatra, Director- Defence Food Research Laboratory, Mysore addressed the post graduate students and Staff of St. Aloysius College on opportunities for carrying out training and research at DFRL.Dr. Batra in his 30 minutestalk, briefed on the research work and state of the art food processing technologies developed at DFRL. He spoke about the rapid kits for the detection of pesticides and food pathogens like Escherichiacoli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureusdeveloped at DFRL to assess the microbiological quality of raw milk and fresh meat.

On DFRL-academia interaction, Dr. Batra expressed that, DFRL is keen to work with students and is open to collaborationwith St. Aloysius College in the areas of Food Processing and Biotechnological research.

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

Street Play-Post Graduation-Biochemistry-St.Aloysius College

With an objective of creating social awareness among the slum inhabitants of Meenakaliya Kurikkatte, Panambur, Bionex association of PG Biochemistry, had organized Beach cleaning activity; post which they had enacted a Street play on the theme ‘Towards Better Society’ on Februay 21, 2015. Meenakaliya Kurikkatte is a colony of migrant labourers from various parts of the country. The street play addressed and educated the people about various issues such as Child Marriage, dowry, women empowerment, alcoholism, cleanliness and communicable diseases. The 200 plus participating crowd was later entertained by different games and fun activities.

The programme was organized prior to the National Pulse Polio Day on February 22nd. Therefore the participants also used this program as a platform to encourage people to make the best use of the Pulse Polio day as well.

The programme was highly appreciated by the corporator of the ward Mr Raghuveer, the Chief Secretory Mr Manikanta, and the elders of the place including the temple head of the region.

Ms Divyalakshmi Kamath, student secretary, flagged off the program by welcoming the gathering and giving an introduction to the events to come. The play was impressively narrated by Ms Divya of 1st Year MSc. Students were guided and accompanied by HOD Ms Bhavya, the President of Bionex Association Ms Alveera D’souza and Mrs Swarnalatha and Dr Saritha of the department

Sunday, 7 December 2014

Natural vs Synthetic Drugs: A Medicinal Approach- 30th September 2014- Report

The PG Department of Biochemistry, St. Aloysius College (Autonomous) in association with Society of Biological Chemists organized a National Seminar on Natural vs. Synthetic Drugs, A Medicinal Approach, on 30^th September 2014, which was sponsored by UGC. Rev. Fr. SwebertD’silva SJ, Principal, St. Aloysius College was the patron; Ms. Bhavya DK, HOD was the organizing secretary and Mrs. Swarnalatha BN, Dr. Madhu LN, Mrs. Pearl Fernandez & Ms. Alveera D’Souza were the organizing committee members.

Around 230 delegates from various colleges were benefitted by this seminar. The Rector of St. Aloysius Institutions, Rev. Fr. Denzil Lobo SJ, presided over the inaugural ceremony.He was accompanied by the Principal, Rev. Fr. SwebertD’silva SJ; the Registrar, Dr. A M Narahari&the HOD, Ms. Bhavya DK. The book of abstracts was released by the dignitaries during the inaugural.The keynote address on ‘Preclinical studies with phytoceutical-adjuvants in tumor therapy’ was delivered by Dr. CKK Nair, Dean, Research, Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Kerala.

This was followed by 7 scientific sessions by eminent scientists.

Session I- Natural drugs and Alternate therapies: Are they effective and safe? byDr.CletusD’souza, Professor, Dept. of biochemistry, Mysore University

Session II- Developing Protein Biotherapeutics: An overview by Dr.M.N. Dixit, Senior Scientific Manager, Clinigene International Bangalore

Session III- Evaluation of bischalcone derivatives as curcumin analogs for antioxidant and antiangiogenic properties by Dr. B.K. Sarojini, Professor, Industrial Chemistry, Mangalore University

Session IV- Saponins: The Natural Products with Therapeutic Potential by Dr.Vadlapudi Kumar, Chairman, Department of Biochemistry, Shivagangotri, Davanagere

Session V- Radiation Biodosimetry Based on Cytogenetic Methods by Dr. Entissar S Alsuhaiban, Associate Professor of genetics, King Saud University

Session VI- Bioactive compounds from marine organisms & their biotechnological applications by Dr.SavitaKerkar, Professor, Dept. of Biotechnology, Goa University

Session VII- Rational drug development & usage byDr.GopalanKutty, Professor, Dept. of Pharmacology, MCOPS, Manipal

The morning sessions were chaired by Mr. M L Sureshnath, ex-HOD, Dept. of Botany, St. Aloysius College and the afternoon sessions were chaired by Dr. Chandrashekhar G. Joshi, Convenor, Society of Biological Chemists (India), Madikeri branch & Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry, Mangalore University. The oral presentations were chaired by Dr. SmithaHegde, Associate Professor, PG Dept. of Biotechnology, St. Aloysius College.

Among the various abstracts submitted by the delegates, four were selected for oral and thirty two for poster presentation, respectively. The best presentations among the post-graduate and the research scholar/faculty categories were awarded separately.

The valedictory function was presided over by Rev. Fr. Leo D’souza, Director, Laboratory of Applied Biology, St. Aloysius College andDr. Chandrashekhar G. Joshi, Convenor, Society of Biological Chemists (India), Madikeri branch & Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry, Mangalore University.