Venue: Seminar Hall, MPTP, Shirpur Campus
Date: July 17, 2018
On July 17, 2018 SPTM organized its first Guest lecture series for the session 2018, by inviting renowned scientist Dr. Harold Katcher (University of Maryland, USA) to deliver expert talk on ‘Theories of Ageing’.
Dr. Harold is Collegiate Professor at University of Maryland, University College Adelphi Division, Utah, USA. He has completed his Doctoral Degree in Molecular Biology from City University of New York and also worked with renowned leaders in molecular biology & bioinformatics during his Postdoctoral research from New York Medical College, Brookhaven National Laboratories and University of Southern California. He has been PIONEER in Cancer Research while working as Research Scientist at Myriad Genetics Corporation, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been part of the team that discovered the first human breast cancer gene, BRCA1 and MTS1.
Dr. Harold has been pioneer in the field of cancer research, in development of modern aspects of gene hunting and sequencing. He carries expertise bioinformatics, chronobiology, and biotechnology and is currently working in capacity of Chief Technical Officer of a start-up company, Nugenics Research Pvt Ltd. exploring in anti-ageing modalities in collaboration with SPP SPTM, SVKM’s NMIMS, Mumbai Campus.
In his lucid talk, Dr. Harold unfolded the intricate science behind ageing. He discussed the contributions by different scientists and research in this field. He felt that the classic model of ageing, based on ‘accumulation of errors’ had become an outdated notion. He enlightened the audience with his ideas based on the evidences suggesting ageing, as an outcome of a failure in the function of cells required for cellular regeneration. His special mention was to outcome of research carried out by Michael Conboy et al., of an experiment on heterochronic parabiosis. He also cited the subsequent studies from Stanford and Harvard, which showed heterochronic parabiosis could rejuvenate stem and progenitor cells from the kidneys, the heart, blood vessels and the brain. He thus envisions that replacing impaired cells with fully functional cells should thus prevent/treat age-associated pathologies allowing us to live healthier longer lives.
The talks were conducted in two sessions for undergraduate, post-graduate students, faculty and research scholars. The speaker made the engaging and very thought provoking. The sessions were very interactive and participants gained valuable insights from the Expert.
The organizing team headed by Dr. Ashwini Deshpande (Associate Dean) and Dr. Sateesh B. (Professor & event In-charge) would like to express sincere gratitude towards Dr. R. S. Gaud, (Director, MPTP, Shirpur campus and Director, Pharma Institutions) for the initiative and constant encouragement. Sincere thanks also go to Dr. Bala Prabhakar, Dean, SPP SPTM for wholehearted support. Special thanks goes to Dr. Kavita Singh (Assistant Professor, SPP SPTM) for the valuable inputs and smooth co-ordination of the trip with the Guest from Mumbai and back. The event compering was done was Dr. Preeti Sangave (Associate Professor, SPTM).
