Somaiya Vidyavihar hosts 4th Edition of Darwin to nucleate & nurture biotechnology

Mumbai/New Delhi: Somaiya Vidyavihar hosted the 4th edition of Darwin, an International Conference and One of India’s Biggest Evolutionary Movements in Biology from 3rd February to 5th February 2023 in hybrid mode at Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai.

The 3-day conference encouraged problem-solving through innovation, science and research, and hosted Startup Summit to celebrate Life Sciences startups, which facilitated great investor connections for startups along with being positively impacted with the insights being shared at the event. It promoted ‘Open Science’ by bridging the gap between researchers and Bio-enthusiasts, and promote Bio-entrepreneurship by translating research to business through the novel initiative called Startup Summit.

It was conducted at no cost to sensitise and financially support the Bio-community by providing scholarships and project funds to sustain Biolabs, as well as Biohackers, while promoting research culture globally. An initiative of Somaiya Vidyavihar, the international conference was organised by Bioriidl, an extension of Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory (riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar), a not-for-profit organisation under Somaiya Trust.

This global celebration of biology was facilitated through a panel of industry experts and renowned scientists; consisting of cutting-edge research topics, talk sessions by established biologists, hands-on workshops, and BioHackathon (A hackathon to solve global problems from a biological perspective, and this year’s theme was Sustainable Biotechnology). The conference witnessed overwhelming participation from 46 countries across the globe. To enlighten the attendees, three-panel discussions were scheduled on the following themes – BioDesign, Food & Agriculture and bioentrepreneurship.

A Research Symposium – Paper Presentation competition was held, and the winner was Mr. M.D Hridoy Ahmed with his paper titled ‘An Immuno-informatics approach for annotation of hypothetical proteins and multi-epitope vaccine designed against Monkeypox Virus’.

Dr. Tony Davis, Director, and Co-Founder at Carbometrics & Ziylo, in his keynote address, said“’It was a rewarding experience to speak to such a large, diverse, and engaged audience. My congratulations and thanks to Darwin / Bioriidl for organizing and sustaining this wonderful event.

Ms. Bhavna Pandya, Innovation Catalyst,riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar and Head, Bioriidl, in her welcome speech, said, “”At Bioriidl, we are curating the best resources, forging partnerships while inviting global researchers to share about their research work for the benefit of the bio-community around the world. Darwin is providing a platform for the students, researchers, academicians, professionals & entrepreneurs who can think outside the boundaries of lab-based research to design solutions which can tackle global issues while enabling people to believe in open science, community-driven innovations & entrepreneurship. We successfully conducted several regional conferences in different 7 countries in their respective time zones and languages to achieve the mission of inclusivity and accessibility for all.”

Mr. Gaurang Shetty, Chief Innovation Catalyst and CEO, riidl Somaiya Vidyavihar, said, “”I feel extremely proud and honored witnessing Darwin achieving such huge milestones. The 3 day hybrid conference supported researchers, bio-enthusiasts & entrepreneurs by promoting knowledge sharing, problem solving, and networking across the world. Through previous editions, Darwin has empowered over 40+ bio-startups and in this particular edition, we have encouraged more than 100 startups in the life sciences domain through Startup Summit. We believe in supporting, building and celebrating our community within and beyond our capacity’’.