Popular Lecture series

Title of the event:       Popular Lecture series on “Recent Trends and Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Microbiology             

Type of Event:           Lecture Series            

Date(s):                     2, 3 6 and 8 December 2022                                      

Venue:                       Conducted in hybrid mode                            

Name of Resource person (if any) with designation, address, email address & contact no.:

No. of Participants/Beneficiaries:                54 Students

Name of the activity Coordinator:               Dr Charu Sharma

Name of Collaborating Agency (if any) with address & contact no.: NA

Objective of the activity:

• To make students aware of the job opportunities available in biotechnology and microbiology.

Day 1:02 December 2022 (12:30-1:30 pm)

The first lecture of the series was delivered by Dr. Gaurav SahalConsultant, Chartered Patent Attorney (Int.)Patent Attorney Trainee (Europe, UK) at NLO, Netherlands. The title of the lecture was “Career Prospects in Pharma/Life SciencesEcosystem”
Dr. Sahal’s highlighted the careers that students can take up in different biotech and pharmaceutical companies.He gave a brief description of about 26 different departments/Positionslike, license team operator, purchasing department, bio-equivalence department, training teams, project management team, patents team, R&D department, marketing department, and logistics department where a biotechnology/microbiology student can be employed. He also emphasized that a student should take in to consideration about self-personality traits and qualities in addition to their interest while deciding for a suitable job and explained them by giving relevant examples. All job positions do need an in-depth knowledge of their subject. He also explained about the differences between types of intellectual properties like Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Designs. Later, Dr. Sahal briefed about Trade Secrets and patent functionality.He also enlightened the students about some basic courses such as, WIPO, EPO, and USPTO available on intellectual property rights in India. In the end, he concluded the session by giving top 10 tips for job search. The lecture was followed by an interactive session in which several questions were asked by students and Dr. Sahal gave informative and appealing replies.

Day 2: 3 December 2022 (1:00-2:00 pm)

The expert for the second lecture was Dr. Divya Tiwari, Barts Charity Lecturer, from Centre for Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, U.K. The title of the lecture was “Biotechnology and Microbiology Education: Where can it take you?As the title suggestsDr. Diya gave a broad overview of job prospects for biotechnology/microbiology students in both academia and industry. Academia, includes career aspects in research institutes, universities and medical colleges. Industrial sector includes job options in pharmaceutical, biotech-based industries and contact research organizations (CRO).She alsobriefed about research opportunities in the industrial setup, and introduced students to different types of industries where biotechnology and microbiology graduates are required. Examples of some such industries were food technology, epidemiology, environmental microbiology, clinical microbiology, biosafety, vaccine technology, cosmetic industry, surgical and dental material industry. Dr Tiwari also informed the students about non research career tracks within academia which includes positions involved in research administration, medical communication, science communication and public engagement. Apart from this the participants also came to know about administrative services available in patenting/law, policy/engagement, science administration and scientific advisory boards. The entire lecture was quite informative and interactive as well. A number of questionsraised by experts and students were answered.

Day 3: 6 December 2022(11:00 am-12:00 noon)

The lecture on day 3 was delivered byDr. Swapnil Sinha, CEO, BioNEST, IIT Guwahati, Assam, India.  The title of the lecture was “Translational Research: A walk-through classroom to innovative start up ecosystem”.The lecture began by enlightening the students about the pivotal role of entrepreneurship in the field of science that leads to creative independence and pulls out people from the boredom of 9 to 5 jobs. Students learned about three key qualities of a “Good Entrepreneur”, i.e., creative thinking, the ability to lead people, and passion-driven creative thinking. Before beginning any venture, one should understand the customers’ unmet needs by finding the “lacunas” in the current products and strategies.The lecture also apprised about a common roadmap any start-up in India should follow. It comprises of five steps as Ideation (step 1), Proof of concept (step 2; One can receive funding at this stage like the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), DST, India), Prototype development (Step 3), Scale-up and validation (step 4) and Market entry (step 5).The expert gave a “success mantra” for a successful business in India to find an incubator at the stage of ideation and get a bootstrap or government grant as soon as the “Proof of Concept” is developed. This could be followed by hiring a minimal but efficient workforce. Dr Sinha also invited all the students to attend “Kickstart 2.0: Industrial Conclave 2023 (14^th-15^th February 2023)” at IIT Guwahati.

Day 4:8 December 2022 (11:00 am-12:00 noon)

On the last day of the series Prof. Nagendra Kumar Kaushik from Department of Electrical and Biological Physics & Plasma Bioscience Research center at Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea, talked about “Plasma Bioscience and Medicine: Present, Past and Future”. Prof. Kaushik explained about research updates in advanced plasma physics that has led to the development of different types of nonthermal plasma devices, such as plasma jets, dielectric barrier discharges, etc. which have been used for inactivation of various bacteria and viruses. He also briefed about plasma-based synthesis of biologically important nanomaterials and synergy of plasma with nanomaterials to be used for various biological applications.Prof. Nagendra later discussed about pandemic caused by the novel corona virus, SARS-CoV-2, that influenced about global health. Heexplained the work carried out by his team for developing a friendly approach for viral inactivation, based on plasma technology. In this approach, a microwave plasma system was employed to prepare nitric oxide enriched plasma-activated water (NO-PAW).Prof. Kaushik also explained about various devices developed by their research centerand launched for public health care. Some of them werePLAS⁺Q^AIR (Plasma air sterilizer for hospital, home and public facilities), BioPlastech (to cure dental problems), PLABIO (for skin and Aesthetics), ATI (Wound and Burn Healing), Plasma BT (for healing Skin Disorders). The lecture ended with fruitful interaction between Prof. Kaushik and students.

Outcome of the activity:

The lecture series was very informative and participantsgot acquainted about:

• Different job prospects available in the field of biotechnology and microbiology which can be chosen on the basis of their skills and personality traits.
• Both research and non-research career aspects in the field of biotechnology and microbiology.
• Developing a defined business model that includes three broad steps as Technology partnering, Asset creation and out-licensing and Product development & Commercialization.
• The recent field of plasma bioscience and its application in medicine, environment, sterilization of devices, waste water treatment, seed and plant growth, and food processing units which will help students to pursue their career in Plasma biosciences.
• As per the feedback received from participants, the lecture series was quiet informative and they look forward to such type of interactions in future also in both online and offline mode.

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