The Department of Microbiology at Adamas University organized one day workshop at the Adamas University Auditorium on April 29, 2017. The title of the workshop was “Influence of Microbiology on Human Health” with focus on role of microbes and microbiology in human health. This workshop was also the first workshop from the School of Science. The workshop was supported by Microbiology Society, the largest learned microbiological society in Europe with a worldwide membership in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools. Microbiology Society also publishes key academic journals, organizes international scientific conferences and provides international forum for communication among microbiologists and supports professional development. Dr.Arindam Mitra from the Department of Microbiology is currently serving as the first Microbiology Society Champion from India. More information about this activity is listed in the Society’s webpage: Click here
As a part of Champions activity, Dr.Mitra proposed a workshop on Microbiology to be conducted at Adamas University which Microbiology Society agreed to support.
The Workshop began with inaugural speech by the Dean of Science, Dr.Sanjib Ghosh. Dr.Ghosh spoke about how the workshop’s timing was relevant in the same week the world celebrates DNA day, which marks the discovery of structure of DNA and also mark the near completion of Human Genome project. Dr.Ghosh briefed about the Workshop and the requirements for students to undergo annual summer internship. The Registrar of Adamas University, Dr. TK Ghoshal also addressed the audience and motivated the students by his encouraging words.
After a brief tea break, a brief presentation was made by Dr.Arindam Mitra on the activity of Microbiology Society and how joining the Society could develop professional career of participants. This is then followed by talks from the faculty members under different departments under Biological Sciences including Microbiology, Biotechnology and Biochemistry. The talks were designed to match the theme of the workshop.
Dr.Palashpriya Das, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology spoke about “Microbes at work”. Dr. Das engaged the students with her talk on the diverse role and application of microbes in health, industry and environment. Dr.Rajib Sengupta, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry discussed “S-nitrosylation in microbes and mammals”.Dr.Sengupta emphasized that Redox regulations of S- nitrosylation signalling have diverse roles in cell division, proliferation and death. Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh talked about “Microbial flora of the human body”. Dr. Singh highlighted the importance of the microbial flora in health and disease. Dr.Arindam Mitra talked about the role of “Vaccines and their impact on society”. Dr.Mitra emphasized that vaccines are one of the safest prophylactic measures against infectious diseases worldwide and how world is cured from infectious diseases such as Smallpox and Polio simply by vaccination. Each talk ended with questions and answers sessions from the audience. Participants asked relevant questions and interacted with faculty members and made the session even more stimulating and interesting.
The post lunch session had hands-on activity for participants. The first hands-on activity demonstrated whether hand sanitizers are effective in reducing microbial loads from hands. This activity was conducted by Department of Microbiology and there were more than 50 participants from the audience in the activity. The second hands-on activity was conducted by SHRM Biotechnologies, a company based in Kolkata. A brief presentation was made about the company and how the company could benefit the student’s community in terms of future training and projects was also discussed. They demonstrated how blood typing is done and ten participants had their blood group checked as part of the second hands-on activity.
A feedback form about the workshop and a quiz based on presentations were earlier provided to participants as a part of workshop kit to assess the effectiveness of the workshop. All students submitted the filled-in feedback and quiz forms at the end of the workshop. The vote of thanks was given by Ms.Kasturi Mukherjee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the end of the workshop.
There were around 140 students, 20 faculty members and 3 scientists attended the workshop. All participants interacted and actively took part in the workshop. Overall the students were benefitted by active learning, stimulating discussions and engaging hands-on activity on important aspect of Microbiology and Human Health.
