International Conference on Microbial Pathogenesis & New Frontiers was organised by the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTech), Chandigarh.
Despite availability of various generations of antimicrobials, infectious diseases are ranked among the top ten causes of deaths throughout the world due to the emergence of drug resistant pathogens. Mortality and morbidity due to Infectious diseases are of particular concern in developing countries like India. WHO has recently released a list of priority pathogens and India has also identified pathogens of national importance. Understanding the basic biology of these infections holds the key for development of novel diagnostic tools for improved surveillance, better vaccines and innovative therapeutics. The conference will bring together experts on infectious diseases to discuss recent developments in the field and will provide guidance for the way forward. The global experts will share their results and research experience describing new mechanisms, new pathways and novel insights into microbial pathogenesis.
The participants interacted with experts and learned about state-of-the-art methods which can contribute in shaping up future R&D endeavors on microbial pathogenesis. The complex nature of diverse pathogens and the multidisciplinary research on their pathobiology (involving chemistry, microbiology, structural biology, cell biology etcetera) demands concerted collaborative efforts with complementary expertise.
Main Topics discussed: [1]“Genomics, Structural Biology and Drug Discovery for Mycobacterial Infections: Combating the Emergence of Resistance in Tuberculosis and Leprosy ”
[2] “Challenges and disease models in the development of new treatments for visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis”
[3]“Potential role of the Entamoeba histolytica RNA surveillance machinery as a stress sensor”
[4] “Exploring Fe-S cluster assembly and ribosome biogenesis in malaria parasite organelles as putative targets”
[5]“Drugs, bugs and the tuberculosis granuloma”
[6]“ Toplogy perturbation: probing genome-wide topology - transcription nexus by topoisomerase Achilles’s heel ”
[7]“Cell-wall peptidoglycan metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Achilles’ heel for the TB-causing pathogen”
[8] “Cyclic AMP in Mycobacteria: the second messenger comes first”
[9]“Exploitation of host DNA damage response pathway by Mycobacterium tuberculosis for its survival ”
[10]“DNA replication in human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum: unique characteristics and possible interventions”
[11] “Coordination of self and community sensing: Interplay of quorum and environmental sensing in bacteria”
[12]“Tracking the unanticipated routes of Salmonella typhimurium infection”
Introduction to the Lab Established in 1984, the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTech) is one among the chain of 38 national laboratories, 6 units and 39 outreach centres of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research. Set-up to be a fore-runner in the niche domain of microbial biotechnology, the Institute in its initial years functioned from a start-up laboratory that provided a truly world-class R&D ambience in an area of over 10,000 sq. ft. to its researchers. In September, 1989, upon completion of the permanent campus, the Institute shifted to occupy an area of about 47 acres, of which the labs covered 22 acres and the residential campus 25 acres. The Institute covering a built up area of about 3.60 lakh sq. ft., is spread over four main buildings, namely, Main R&D block, Fermentation block, Animal House, Workshop, Stores and Services area, several service building including a guest house and Cafeteria. Recently another block of almost 50000 sq. ft. area (the G.N. Ramachandran Protein Centre) has been added, to cater to R&D in all aspects of Protein science and engineering. CSIR-IMTech's team of scientists having cutting edge R&D expertise in the areas of: Cloning & expression of recombinant / engineered proteins & their scale-up, Understanding / manipulating proteins and their engineering, Protein structure determination through X-ray crystallography, Molecular microbiology of pathogens especially with respect to drug resistance & vaccine development, Immunology of infectious diseases, Yeast Genetics, Screening of microorganisms for novel enzymatic activities and strain improvement, Bioinformatics & high end computational biology, Microbial taxonomy and metagenomics, and allied areas like technology and business management and intellectual property protection.
