Dr S N Khan, director, Technology development and transfer division, Department of Science and Technology inaugurated the two day national symposia organised by Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi on new horizons in drug discovery and development.

This seminar, sponsored by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), was held on September 17-18, 2011 at the college campus in New Delhi under the supervision of Prof S H Ansari, chairman, Dr Mymoona Akhter, convener and Dr M Mumtaz Alam, co-convener of Jamia Hamdard University.

Prof. P V Bharatam, NIPER, Mohali, Dr T P Singh, AIIMS, Dr A K Panda, NII, Delhi, Dr Mridula Bose of Vallabh-bhai Patel Chest, Delhi University, Dr Farhan Jalees Ahmad, Jamia Hamdard, Kundan Ingle, vLifesciences, Dr N G Ramesh, IIT Delhi and Dr C K Katiyar, Dabur India delivered speeches on new drug discovery and development, computer aided drug design (CADD), recent development in natural products, current trends in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics.

Prof. B Jayaram from IIT Delhi has shared his valuable experience about the new tools of bioinformatics used for drug design and development and also about the latest strategies in drug discovery and development.

The seminar provided a platform for interaction between young scholars and scientist from academia and industry with the experienced scientist from various institutions. The seminar directed the students to focus future and to move ahead in various research areas for the benefit of mankind.

The seminar highlighted the current issue of drug design and synthesis, formulation development, biotechnology, herbal drug development and  clinical pharmacy.