National Workshop
On
Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery
Silver Jubilee Celebrations of BTISNET, Pondicherry University
(Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India)
December 13-19, 2017
Pondicherry University
Pondicherry University is a Central University in Puducherry, founded in 1985 by Government of India.
The University is a collegiate university with a jurisdiction spread over the Union Territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep and
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It has 35,000 students in its 87 affiliated colleges including 27,000 students in the distance education mode.
The current strength of students studying on-campus stands at 6,500.
About the Centre
The Centre for Bioinformatics was started as Distributed Information Sub-Centre funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India
in the year 1991 and was upgraded to a full-fledged Centre in 2001. It was conferred Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics by
the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Govt. of India in 2007. The Centre offers M.Sc, Ph.D programmes in Bioinformatics and
M.Tech Computational Biology as a collaborative network programme with the support of Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
The Centre has access to several online and offline e-journals. A round-the-clock modern computational facility is available to all the students of Bioinformatics.
Computational Approaches to Drug Design
Now-a-days Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery (CADD) tools are cast-off in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Molecular Biology,
Biochemistry etc. The main benefit of CADD is its cost effectiveness in research and development of new drugs. Wide ranges of software are used in CADD
via grid computing to accomplish various research goals in drug discovery process. Soft wares such as AutoDock, Discovery studio and Schrodinger are
being used for structure based drug designing. CADD uses API’s, programming languages such as JAVA, Perl and Python etc., including
software libraries. There are different techniques used in CADD homology modelling, molecular docking, energy minimization, QSAR, pharmocophore
modelling, and molecular dynamics simulations etc. Thus, the workshop "Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery-2017" will provide a stage to
critically analyze and understand the methods and mechanisms involved in computer aided drug design targeted towards various diseases such as cancer,
autoimmune, microbial infections, and drug targeting.
Objectives
The program will be focused on the advancement and exploration of modern trends in drug discovery viz. Computational strategies,
Bioinformatics tools, biological databases, molecular modeling, analyzing bio-molecular interactions and rational drug design.
Subject Area
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Protein Modeling & Computer Aided Drug Designing.
Outline of the Workshop:
Workshop will be conducted in two sessions Morning and Evening. Morning session will have lectures from faculty members from the Centre and
other eminent scientists on topics mentioned above. Demonstrations and hands on training in the evening session will be organized by faculty members
of the Centre in the following fields:
- Structure elucidation of organic–putative bioactive- compounds including novel synthetic schemes, use of computational techniques, etc
- In silicostructure based drug design including structural biology (X-ray protein crystallography) and modern in silico tools (Virtual screening, MD simulations).
Course Content
Science involved in disease target identification.
Various computational approaches in drug discovery using bioinformatic tools, introduction to Drug Designing, molecular modeling, QSAR studies,
protein optimization & energy minimization , molecular dynamics, protein-protein interaction networks, pathway analysis, protein-ligand
complex analysis, exploring chemical databases, virtual screening, ligand and structure based docking approaches, various online tools for predicting
ADME and Drug-likeness, bioavailability, toxicity, Lipinski's Rule of 5 will be discussed in detail and queries and doubts will be solved.
Level of Participants
The "Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery" workshop is directed to young scientists/researchers (Ph.D. students), post-doctoral fellows,
as well as experienced scientists/researchers from academia and industry with a background in Chemistry, Pharmacy, Biology, Medicine and Biotechnology.
Young faculty members of universities/ colleges, Research scholars pursuing research in the field of Drug Discovery, Bioinformatics Computational
Biology and related fields are invited to participate.
Prerequisites : Knowledge in basics of Computers
Number of Participants : 40 (on first-come, first-served basis)
Date : December 13-19th, 2017
Duration : Seven days
Boarding & Lodging Arrangements : Boarding and lodging is available for limited number of candidates, which will be provided on first-cum-first basis.
Registration Fee
- Research Scholars: Rs.1000/- (without accommodation)
- Faculty: Rs. 3000/- (boarding and lodging is as per actual cost basis)
- Industry sponsored personnel: Rs.5000/- (boarding and lodging as per actual cost basis)
- USD.100.00 (SAARC, boarding and lodging as per actual cost basis)
- USD.500.00 (Other Countries, Boarding and lodging as per actual cost basis).
The registration charges includes symposium proceedings working lunch and refreshments. The demand draft should be taken in favour of "Coordinator-CADD-2017" payable at Pondicherry.
How to Register
Applicants can register only by online at www.bicpu.edu.in with the demand draft details. Demand draft should be sent by speed post to
Dr. A. Dinakara Rao, Coordinator, so as to receive on or before November 20, 2017. (Participant's name and address should be written at the back).
Confirmation of registration will be done by return e-mail.
Important Dates
Registration closes : November 20, 2017
Venue
Seminar Hall
Center For Bioinformatics
Pondicherry University
Puducherry
*** Acceptance of registration will be sent by email ***