Vasco: CSIR – Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) in association with BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, organised an international conference on “Frontiers in Genome Engineering 2023” from 14 th to 16 th Nov 2023.
Dr. Souvik Maiti – Director, CSIR-IGIB and Prof. Suman Kundu – Director, BITS Pilani, Goa Campus delivered welcome addresses during the inaugural session. Thereafter Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty, Principal Scientist, Therapeutic Genome Editing, CSIR-IGIB introduced the theme of the conference and Dr. Charles Gersbach (Duke University) delivered the Keynote Address on ‘Decoding and programming the genome with epigenome editing’. Prof. Rajesh Mehrotra – Professor in Dept of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean, IPCD at BITS Pilani, Goa Campus headed the local organising committee for
this conference.
Genome engineering is a powerful technique that enables precise modifications to be made to DNA of any organism. It offers the ability to add, remove, or edit the genetic information within an organism’s genome. Medical professionals are optimistic about the potential of genome engineering to cure monogenic hereditary diseases like Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis.
While IGIB has an extensive programme on genome editing related to human diseases and has taken the lead in organizing the event, scientists from BITS Pilani campuses (Pilani, Goa & Hyderabad) use the tools effectively to address questions in the domains of animal, microbes and plant sciences.
Over 150 excellent researchers, scientists and Editors from the top-notch scientific journals from across the globe participated in this conference. These include, Keiji Nishida (Kobe University), Matthew Porteus (Stanford University), Francesca Storici (Georgia Institute of Technology), Randall Platt (ETH,Zurich), Indumathi Mariappan (LV Prasad Eye Institute), Di Jiang (Senior Editor – Science), Barbara Cheifet (Chief Editor – Nature Biotechnology) Angela
Eggleston (Team manager and Senior Editor – Nature).
