Third Day of Workshop organised at Amity University Gwalior  

Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Gwalior organised the third day of DBT supported National Workshop cum Hands-on-Training on Latest Techniques in Molecular Biology, Genetic Engineering and Computational Biology. Day started with the floral welcome of Prof. (Dr.) Surya Pratap Singh, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U. P.) by Prof. (Dr.) Rajesh Singh Tomar, Head, Biotechnology Department and Dean (Academics) Amity University, Gwalior.
Prof. (Dr.) S. P. Singh delivered his talk on “Importance of Transgenic Animals and Plants”. His talk was focused on the use of recent techniques of Biotechnology in the production of transgenic animals and plants beneficial to the society. From crops that are genetically modified to pigs that become organ donors, the applications of biotechnology seem to be limitless. Perhaps one of the easiest places to find biotechnology is on our dinner plate. U.S. farmers grew more than half of these crops, followed by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, and China. Most transgenic plants have been engineered for a single trait designed to make production easier, perhaps to tolerate an herbicide or to resist insects. Some researchers are now developing transgenic varieties that might improve human health. Examples include boosting nutritional content in “golden rice,” which has a golden tint because it contains beta carotene, need to produce vitamin A. Other projects reduce undesirable compounds such as Trans-fats in soybean and canola oils. Scientists are also using genetic technology to turn plants directly into drug production factories. Numerous edible plants have been engineered, including potatoes, tomatoes, corn, soybeans, and lettuce, to express a variety of vaccines, including vaccines for hepatitis B, cholera, Norwalk virus, and the toxins produced by E. coli. Edible vaccines show much promise in addressing the problems of traditional vaccines: they can be readily consumed with limited or no processing and they avoid cold-storage problems.
The number of laboratory animals used for scientific purposes has been steadily rising during recent years. This increase is also attributable to the growing use of transgenic animals. Transgenic animals are genetically modified organisms in which genes have been knocked-out or knocked-down or where xenogenous genetic material has been incorporated into their genotype. Animal biotechnology typically takes two forms: animals for more nutritious meat or milk, and those that produce medically useful proteins in their blood or milk. Genetically modified animals have opened up new areas of research in diseases by facilitating the elucidation of their molecular mechanisms. Participants including research scholars, and students of different universities/institutes actively participated in the lecture.
The lecture ended with the concluding remarks by Prof. (Dr.) Tomar, organising secretary of the National workshop. Prof. Tomar said that most people know DNA as the hereditary material of organisms while the lecture of (Prof.) Dr. Singh highlighted the recent advances in the manipulation of DNA, such as recombinant DNA technology which has led to a range of applications of biotechnology, particularly in agriculture, environment conservation and health areas which benefit the mankind. He emphasized that research should be proved and evidenced at various levels and hence basic conceptual knowledge need to be learned before going to perform advance techniques. He motivated students to come up with new innovative ideas so as to implement them for welfare of nation and society. Prof. Tomar felicitated the guest speaker Prof. (Dr.) Surya Pratap Singh with a Memento.
Hands-on-Training session began with the demonstration of PCR, various types of PCR protocol development, transformation of ligated product in host cells and screening by blue and white selection. Participants also practiced on these techniques in the laboratory.

Prof.(Dr.) Rajesh Singh Tomar (Organising Secretary)
i/c Vice Chancellor
Dean (Academics)
Head, Amity Institute of Biotechnology,
Amity University Gwalior