CSIR-IMTECH celebrates 83rd CSIR Foundation Day

New Delhi: The 83rd Foundation Day of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was celebrated recently at the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) with prestigious Foundation Day Lecture delivered by Dr Krishnananda Chattopadhyay, Chief Scientist at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata.

This year’s Foundation Day Lecture delivered by Dr Chattopadhyay focused on the “Conformational fluctuations of proteins: from test tubes to neurodegenerative diseases” and outlined his lab’s interdisciplinary approach to use single molecule spectroscopy to investigate folding and aggregation of proteins. The work from his lab is an important milestone in developing process for diagnostics and therapeutics which is currently absent for major neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr Chattopadhyay in his talk made some important reflections on how protein conformational disorder and aggregation have serious implications in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. These processes are difficult to study as they often share common conformational landscapes, which are inherently heterogeneous, consisting of multiple pathways and intermediates of varying toxicities. In his address, he outlined that his lab has been developing and using sensitive fluorescence methods at ensemble and single molecule resolution to address the heterogeneity and toxicity of a number of neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Dr Sanjeev Khosla, Director, IMTECH while welcoming the guests and faculty to CSIR’s Foundation day apprised the audience with the contributions and commitments of CSIR for the vision of making India a developed nation in 2047. He highlighted scientific and technological interventions from CSIR and especially how its constituent laboratory IMTECH has always helped the society. Dr Khosla emphasized the need for innovative collaborative solutions that will pave the way for a sustainable future especially for areas like neurodegenerative diseases. The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), known for its cutting edge R&D knowledge base in diverse S&T areas, is a contemporary R&D organization and was established in 1942. Currently, CSIR has a dynamic network of 37 national laboratories, 39 outreach centers, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units.

As part of the celebrations, CSIR-IMTECH also felicitated its retirees and employees who have completed 25 years of their service. The institute also awarded mementoes to wards of its staff for their outstanding performances in various sporting events held at the state and national level. As part of Foundation Day celebrations, an open day for the general public and students was also organized few days back for them to get a glimpse of the facilities, infrastructure and showcase scientific prowess of CSIR-IMTECH.

CSIR-IMTECH is a national center for excellence in microbial sciences and was established in 1984 under the aegis of CSIR. IMTECH’s vision and mission are to create translational ecosystem strengthened by fundamental discoveries and to address unmet healthcare and industrial needs with state-of-the-art processes and platforms.