MICROBIOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT IN FOOD SAFETY

Date : 2021-12-13

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Nitte (DU) and University of Maryland, USA, jointly conducted an ASM (American Society for Microbiology) – IUSSTF (Indo – US Science and Technology Forum) virtual course on ‘Microbiological Risk Assessment in Food Safety’. ASM - IUSSTF Professorship was awarded to Dr Abani Pradhan of University of Maryland to deliver this course in collaboration with Dr Iddya Karunasagar, former Senior Food Safety Officer, FAO and Advisor, Nitte (DU) and Dr Indrani Karunasagar, Director, DST Technology Enabling Center, Nitte (DU). Food is a highly traded commodity internationally and as per World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, food safety standards should be based on risk assessment carried out according to protocols established by the Joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission. Food safety risk assessment involves use of various statistical tools to obtain probabilistic assessment of the risk and to assess the impact of risk management measures. The ASM-IUSSF sponsored course comprised lectures on risk assessment models, Monte Carlo simulations and development of risk estimates. Dr Abani Pradhan delivered lectures on these aspects and Dr Iddya Karunasagar spoke with suitable examples on how risk assessments have been used by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to develop international food safety standards. The course was highly appreciated as it was important for faculty and students in the area of food technology, microbiology, public health and food safety. It attracted 324 registered participants and included faculty and students from Nitte (DU), Pondicherry University, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, State Fisheries Universities in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Sri Lanka, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and number of other academic institutions. Daily attendance exceeded 180 participants and in some institutions, the course was screened in a class room with 50 students watching on one large screen. Before the start of the course, a pre-assessment was carried out. On completion of the course, the participants were provided with feedback form and post-assessment survey done. Over 200 participants returned the forms and obtained e-certificates. Overall the participants graded the course from ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’.

Last updated 2022-02-26 05:38:37

Mitigating Antimicrobial Resistance in One health

Date : 2021-11-26

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A webinar on “Mitigating Antimicrobial Resistance in One Health” was organized under DST TEC platform on 18 October 2021. The resource persons were Dr Patrick Sorgeloos, University of Ghent, Belgium and Dr Mathias Middleboe, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Indrani Karunasagar, in her opening remarks explained the concept of one health and the increasing antimicrobial resistance in all the sectors. Prof. Dr Alka Kulkarni, Registrar Nitte (DU) explained the theme of the webinar and the need for organizing this important event with international experts. Dr Iddya Karunasagar introduced the speakers and described their immense contributions. Dr Mathias Middleboe spoke about mitigating AMR in European aquaculture. His experimental evidence involving phage coated surfaces that could prevent biofilm formation and the use of live feed to reduce the pathogen load is a major translation of research for field application of phages. Dr Patrick Sorgeloos spoke on microbial management as an alternative to antibiotics in aquaculture. He enlightened the audience about traditional and business aquaculture and summarized various phases in aquaculture using green technology. He also elaborated on how antibiotics usage was started in aquaculture, cautioned about the repercussions and explained the difference between R and K strategist.

Last updated 2022-02-26 06:50:38

IDEATION DRIVE – 2021 Health and Allied Sciences

Date : 2021-11-15

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DST Technology Enabling Centre in association with the Institution Innovation Council, Nitte (DU) initiated an ideation drive to translate the ideas to technology through innovation. Best selected ideas will get a prize, mentoring support, boot camp training, start up grant support, and business development support Process Phase 1: Identification of the problem Phase 2: Discussion of the selected problems with peers from the domain to develop possible solutions Phase 3: Development of teams for addressing the problems and possible solution Phase 4: Review by the experts Target Domains Healthcare: Medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, nutrition, drug discovery, development of vaccines, maternal & child health, infectious diseases, Covid-19, rare and neglected diseases, patient care and safety, water & sanitation, solid waste & bio waste management Digital Health : Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, imaging, wearables, IT in healthcare and other related sub-domains

Last updated 2022-10-12 05:08:19

WEBINAR ON WORLD FOOD DAY

Date : 2021-10-18

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DST Technology Enabling Centre in collaboration with Nitte University Centre for Science Education and Research organized a webinar on the occasion of World Food day 2021. The international event was a clarion call for collective efforts towards combating issues of hunger, food insecurity and food wastage. The theme for World Food day 2021 was ‘Our actions are our future’. The key note speakers for the webinar were Padmashri Dr S Ayyappan, Former Director General ICAR & Chairman of Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, Shri Tarun Shridhar, Former secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, GOI and Dr Iddya Karunasagar, Advisor (Research & Patents). Dr Indrani Karunasagar accorded welcome and introduced the speakers to the audience. Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Nitte (DU) Prof. Dr Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, in his opening remarks highlighted the requirement for collective and comprehensive work to eradicate hunger and nutritional deficiencies. Sustainable system is a requirement to tackle the global hunger index as well as other health related burden, said Dr S Ayyappan. He spoke on aspects of better production, nutrition, better environment for a better life. He discussed the facts and presented statistics on Indian farming including strategies to improve it. This could result in enhancing farmers income through integrated farming by clustering of land, climate smart farming, agripreneurship, water footprint, innovation in water management, use of low cost technologies, use of nano fertilizers, production of high value crops, urban agriculture, cultivation floating horticulture, vertical farming, aquaponics, organic farming, biofortification, agritourism etc. Dr Iddya Karunasagar former senior Food Safety Officer, FAO explained about technical resources and standards available from FAO, their roles and responsibilities. He highlighted the various flagship publications of FAO that covers global data on food sector, process of scientific risk assessment to set the food standards, International agreements and guidelines regarding various aspects of food sector. Shri Tarun Shridhar reiterated the theme of the world food day and wanted concerted action to protect the livestock industry. He opined that livestock play a major role in the economic prosperity. To add on, he said livestock sector runs throughout the year and provides nutritional security and can also generate value added products. Yet its role is not recognised sufficiently.

Last updated 2022-02-26 06:48:43

IPR IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AREA

Date : 2021-10-06

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A talk on ‘IPR in Biotechnology Area’ was organized by DST NU-TEC platform on 6 October, 2021. The speaker of the session, Ms Mahuva Shetty, is a Trade Mark Attorney at Mangaluru. The session was moderated by Dr Iddya Karunasagar. Speaker Ms Mahuva Shetty introduced the topic to the participants by emphasizing on the importance of IPR in recognition, financial incentives of the creator, ensuring originality of the product and promotion of R&D. She briefed on how intellectual property rights can be protected under various categories namely, patents, trademarks, copyrights, geographical indicators, semiconductor integrated circuit layout- Design, plant variety protection and how biodiversity protection and implementation policies work. She further updated the audience on how copyright and trademark is gaining popularity in recent years with relevant day to day examples that participants could connect to, like pirated drugs during Covid-19 pandemic and many household cleansing products. Ms Mahuva Shetty detailed the importance of trademark and the need to make it unique, necessitating prior-art-search before applying for the same. Another major category of IPR-Copyrights was also addressed by the speaker. She enlightened the audience on how copyrights can protect literary works, artistry, musical and dramatic works, giving the individual right over the expression and not the ideas. She highlighted on the bundle of rights under copyright with two distinct categories - the economic and moral rights and presented several examples. Factors affecting ownership as well as exceptions to copyright were the other topics covered. The final important concept covered in the talk was on patents. Criteria for patentability and the NUNS rule that states the patent should be novel, should have industrial application, should have non-obvious inventive step and should not attract the provisions of section 3 and 4 of patent act 1970 was introduced to the audience. The talk ended with an interactive question and answer session and various doubts of the participants were addressed.

Last updated 2022-02-26 05:41:48