Guest Lecture on Application of Bioinformatics Tools and Techniques in Drug Design for SARS-COV-2 at Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi
Ranchi, 31/03/2022:
Amity Institute of Biotechnology of Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi hosted a guest lecture on, the ‘Application of Bioinformatics Tools and Techniques in Drug Design for SARS-COV-2’ on Thursday wherein Dr. Raghunath Satpathy, Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, Gangadhar Meher University, Amruta Vihar, Sambalpur, Odisha was the key speaker.
The application of bioinformatics to vaccine research and drug discovery has never been so essential in the fight against infectious diseases. The greatest combat of the 21st century against a debilitating disease agent SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) virus discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has piqued an unprecedented usage of bioinformatics tools in deciphering the molecular characterizations of infectious pathogens. “With the viral genome data of SARS-COV-2 being made available barely weeks after the reported outbreak, bioinformatics platforms have become an all-time critical tool to gain time in the fight against the disease pandemic,” said the key speaker.
He added, "Before the outbreak, different platforms have been developed to explore antigenic epitopes, predict peptide-protein docking and antibody structures, simulate antigen-antibody reactions and lots more. However, the advent of the pandemic witnessed an upsurge in the application of these pipelines with the development of newer ones such as the Coronavirus Explorer in the development of efficacious vaccines, drug repurposing, or discovery."
The lecture turned to be beneficial for the students, as they explored the various pipelines available for use, their relevance, and limitations in the timely development of useful therapeutic candidates from genomic data knowledge to clinical therapy. Prof. (Dr.) Raman Kumar Jha, Vice Chancellor, Amity University, Jharkhand, Prof. (Dr.) Ajit Kumar Pandey, Director, Amity University, Jharkhand, Mr. Prabhakar Tripathi, Registrar, Amity University, Jharkhand conveyed their blessings on this occasion.