About 127 students were conferred degrees at the 39th convocation of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology. DBT’s initiative will include genome sequencing of bacterium samples to develop a central repository of bacterium strains
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is in the process of developing a catalogue of existing and emerging resistant mutations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by performing whole genome sequencing of more than 30,000 MTB samples from active TB patients across the country to develop a central repository of both the database and MTB strains in India, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Rajesh S. Gokhale, has said.
This would help to map the genetic diversity of pulmonary and extrapulmonary MTB isolates and their associated treatment outcomes. The initiative would identify associations of mutations of MTB to drug-resistance patterns and provide new means of identification through AI-based technologies, Dr. Gohkale, who was the Guest of Honour at the 39th convocation of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), said, during his address on Saturday.
TB, which continues to be a major health issue plaguing the nation over the decades, was a classical example of the concept of “middle-income trap” (an economic situation wherein nations could not get past a certain level of growth). The major issues in TB control were multidrug resistance and manifestations of extra pulmonary TB, which was increasing at a rapid pace.
DBT was putting in all efforts so that the country could break free from the ‘middle-income trap’-like situation in the area of TB and this was possible only if one kept pace with the changing paradigms and pushed for innovation and technological empowerment.
In this context, it was important that young medical professionals stepped out of their comfort zones and used their knowledge and skill sets to contribute across cross-cutting interventions to tackle the complex challenges facing the country, Dr. Gokhale, said. He advised the new graduates never to be afraid to press the “reset” button in life and to focus on real-world challenges that needed an intelligent, analytical, and forward-thinking approach.
V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, in his convocation address, spoke about the enormous push that happened in the nation’s health sector, towards improving human resources in health, at the undergraduate as well as super speciality-levels. The pandemic years also saw the nation consolidating its technical expertise and scientific vigour to come out with eight vaccines across all platforms as well as RTPCR diagnostics. Transformative policy changes were happening in various sectors, he pointed out.
SCTIMST, which has been an exemplary model combining public health, engineering sciences, and clinical sciences, should push to expand into more areas, Dr. Paul said. It could also foray into high-end Medical Value Travel and Tourism, which could bring in resources for the institute too, he said.
About 127 students of the institute, who were pursuing DM, Mch, Post Doctoral fellowships, Phd and MPH degrees, were awarded certificates of merit. The president of the institute, V.K. Saraswat, conferred the degrees on students.
Later, the annual G. Parthasarathi Oration, was delivered by Lalit Dandona, Research Professor, Public Health Foundation of India and honorary national chair of population health, ICMR. Dr. Dandona spoke on the topic ‘Ideal Framework for Knowledge Generation and its Utilisation’.
Director of SCTIMST Sanjeev Behari welcomed the gathering and presented the report.
