Eye on future,varsity plans bioinformatics courses

Most of these courses will be short-term,three to six months and will deal with subjects like intellectual property rights,regulatory requirements as well as on how to prepare international patents. Speaking about the plans of the department,Dr Pramod S Khandekar,chair professor,bioinformatics and biotechnology said,“A few need-based courses are the need of the hour for the industries. We have come up with a few courses after consultations from a few industry personnel.”

The courses will be started in a year’s time. “We are making a step by step progress. At the moment we are in talks with companies like Zydus and Cipla. We will get professionals from these companies to come and talk to the students. Many of these companies are involved in producing high technology products. Through the courses,we also plan to teach students how to write international patents. There are lots of areas about which the students get trained only after joining a company. Our goal through these courses are to make them better prepared to enter the industry,” added Khandekar.

Apart from these courses,the department also plans to start bulletins and journal of international standards on biotechnology. Dr B A Chopade,director,Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB),said,“There is great scope in the field of biotechnology today. With the journals as well as news bulletins,we plan to keep our students informed about the kind of developments happening across the globe. A few programmes will also be organised where students will go out and meet school children as well as their parents to spread more awareness about the subject so that more students opt for this field.”