A National level training course was conducted on “Immunodiagnostics for Infectious Diseases” during February 7-12, 2005. Lt. Gen. (Dr.) D. Raghunath, Chief Executive, Sir Dorabji Tata Centre for Research in Tropical Diseases Innovation Centre, Bangalore was the Chief Guest during the inaugural function. Ms. Suma Subbanna, Secretary, KHS presided over the function. Dr. (Mrs.) P. Narang, Dean, MGIMS welcomed the guests and participants. Dr. B. C. Harinath, Director, JBTDRC briefed the gathering on the importance of the course and on the ongoing research programmes at JBTDRC. Dr. M. V. R. Reddy, Course Organizer and Head, Department of Biochemistry presented the theme of workshop. Sixteen participants were selected for the course included the faculty members from Departments of Physiology, Microbiology, Biochemistry and Pathology of different Medical Institutes and Scientists from Research Labs and Universities representing the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Pondicherry. The participants are trained not only on the diagnostic tests developed for Filariasis & Tuberculosis, but also on the basic methods needed to develop such assays for other diseases. Apart from Laboratory training, lectures were arranged on the theme of the course from different experts Viz., Lt. Gen. (Dr.) D. Raghunath on “Relevance of Koch’s postulates in 21^st century”, Dr. B. C. Harinath on ‘ELISA based immunodiagnostics for detection and monitoring of filaria and tuberculosis from research laboratory to hospital settings’,Dr. M. V. R. Reddy on ‘Vaccine development in Filariasis’, Dr. V. M. Katoch (from Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy. Taj Ganj, Agra) on ‘Recent advances in molecular diagnostics’, Dr. Taranath Shetty (from NIMHANS, Bangalore) on ‘Ethical issues in biomedical research’ Dr. S. L. Hoti (from VCRC (ICMR), Pondicherry) on ‘Recent developments in molecular diagnostics for lymphatic filariasis and prospects’, Dr. Milind Gore (from National Institute of Virology, Pune) on ‘Immunodiagnostics of Arbovirus and problems faced in detection of viral antigens in Flavivirus infections of humans’ and Dr. S. C. Parija (from JIPMER, Pondicherry) on ‘Recent advances in diagnostics of parasitic infections’. The course was well received by the participants as per the feed back given by them on February 12^th, 2005 during the valedictory function which was presided over by Dr. A. P. Jain, Medical Superintendent of Kasturba Hospital.

Visitors to the Centre and the Medical Institute:

• Dr. K. B. Sainis & Dr. (Mrs.) Sainis, Scientists of BARC, Mumbai visited the Centre on 4th February 2005.

• Italian delegates (Medical students & faculty) from University of Sassai, Italy visited the centre and were shown the research facilities on 10th March 2005.

• Team of Maharashtra University of Health and Sciences inspected the Department of Biochemistry and was shown the various research facilities at JBTDRC on 19th March 2005.

• Ms. P. Padmavathi from Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai visited the Centre during January 19th to February 19th, 2005 for the evaluation of DNA vaccines as a part of the ongoing DBT funded collaborative research project.

• Mr. Anand from Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai has been staying at this Centre since March 7th, 2005 for the evaluation of ACT2 & VAH vaccines as a part of the ongoing DBT funded collaboration research project.

• Mr. Jagannathan G from Department of Biotechnology, Madras University, joined the Centre for Dissertation Project from 7th January to 6th April 2005.

• Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad Yadav from Agnihotri College of Science (JMSS), Nagpur University, joined the Centre for Dissertation Project from 17th February to 17th May 2005.

• Ms. Vaishali Deshmukh from B.D. College of Engineering, Nagpur University, joined the Bioinformatics Centre for short-term project from 21st February 2005.

Dr. B. C. Harinath

·        Visited Kaivalayadham, Lonavada, on January 30th, and Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Yoga & Nature Cure Hospital, Dharmasthala on February 28, 2005      to get familiar with research in Yoga and Naturopathy.

·    Attended workshop on ‘Effective Living and Leadership’ at Asia Plateau, Panchgani on February 1 - 2, 2005.

·    Attended TB Diagnostic Kit Review Meeting at Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd., Mumbai on February 3, 2024 and on March 3, 2005.

·        Delivered a Guest lecture on TB diagnostics at Amrita Inst. of Medical Sciences, Cochin on February 27, 2005.

·       Delivered a Guest lecture on ‘Isolation and characterization of mycobacterial excretory secretory protein antigens ES-31, ES-41 and ES-43 of diagnostic interest in tuberculosis’ at Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology in Infectious Diseases, KMC, Manipal on March 1-3, 2005.

·    Delivered a Guest lecture on TB diagnostics at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore on March 5th, 2005.

Dr. M.V.R. Reddy

·        Attended 26th All India Steel Medical Officers Conference at Escort Hospital, Rourkela on 13th February 2005 and delivered a guest lecture on “Lymphatic Filariasis: Recent Advances in the Development of Diagnostics & Prophylactic Tools”

Dr. Satish Kumar

·        Attended XVI BTISnet Coordinators Meeting at Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR), Jaipur and presented the 2004 – 2005 progress report of Bioinformatics Centre during February 3 - 4, 2005. Pleased with our ‘Sevamed’ publication, DBT Task Force desired the need for publication of Indian Journal of Biomedical Informatics from our Bioinformatics Centre at JBTDRC, MGIMS.

·    Attended TB Diagnostic Kit Review Meeting held on 7th March 2005 at Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd., Mumbai.

Mr. Pramod Deshmukh attended XVI BTISnet Coordinators Meeting at Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR), Jaipur during February 3 - 4, 2005.

Mrs. Tripti Das attended workshop on ‘Building of Biological Databases’ at Biotech Park, Lucknow during February 8-10, 2005

 Mr. Niraj Shende presented a paper on ‘Detection of Tb ES-31 antigen and its antibody in the patients of tuberculosis with and without HIV co-infection’ in Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology in Infectious Diseases, KMC, Manipal on March 1-3, 2005.

Dr. Santa Saha presented a paper on ‘Analysis of mycobacterial antigens released in vitro by ELISA and immunobloting using anti mycobacterium tuberculosis sonicate antibody’ in Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology in Infectious Diseases, KMC, Manipal on March 1-3, 2005.

 Mr. Vijay Upadhyay attended Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology in Infectious Diseases, KMC, Manipal on March 1-3, 2005.

Mr. Pankaj Dabir visited the Institute for Vector control & Research in Zoonoses, Hosur during February 13 to 18, 2005 to get the new recombinant antigen based ELISA sera test externally validated using coded sera samples.

Research Publications:

·        B. C. Harinath. The supreme energy. Current Science, March 25, 2005; 88(6), 25.

·        B. C. Harinath. TB Diagnostics – The Challenge Ahead. Advanced Biotech, March 2005.

·        Sonika Gupta, Niraj Shende, Satish Kumar, B.C. Harinath. Isolation of excretory secretory protein 6 kDa antigen (ES-6) and its seroreactivity in patients with different stages of pulmonary tuberculosis and healthy household contacts. Biomedical Research, 2005; 16(1): 23-27.

·        Snehal Dabir, Pankaj Dabir, M.V.R. Reddy. Isolation and characterization of a major form of superoxide dismutase from human lymphatic filarial parasite, brugia malayi. Biomedical Research, 2005; 16(1): 19-22.