The commencement of Day 1 of the “High-End Workshop on Instrumentation and Bioinformatics” under the Karyashala Scheme started with an inaugural function on July 18th. The workshop was organised by the Department of Medical Parasitology and the Central Sophisticated Instrumentation Cell, PGIMER Chandigarh with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, under the SERB initiative. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a platform for demonstration and hands-on training on numerous high-end techniques such as Next Generation Sequencing, MALDI-TOF, and flow cytometry, among others, and their role in medical diagnostics and patient care.
Prof. Vivek Lal, Director of PGIMER, was the chief guest. Other dignitaries from the faculty of Medical Parasitology and CSIC were also present. The programme started with Saraswathi Vandana, followed by a welcome address by Prof Rakesh Sehgal, thereafter lamp lighting and an extraordinary talk by Dr Lal, where he very enthusiastically spoke about the importance of new technologies and their pivotal role in medical diagnostics. He also emphasised that the latest technological advances can be used for the betterment of patient care, be it for diagnosis or treatment. He also highlighted that the latest equipment should not be used mechanically but with care that any sample sent to the laboratory is of a patient who is suffering and requires accurate diagnosis and treatment. He was very happy to see participants from all over the country.