The five-day first winter school on nanotechnology in advanced drug delivery began on December 2 at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) at Mohali in Punjab.

"Nanotechnology is a new approach to research and development for controlling the fundamental structure and behaviour of matter at the level of atoms and molecules. It has great potential for improving our quality of life", said Prof. N. Sathyamurthy, director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) while inaugurating the first winter school from December 2 to 6. He also delivered the scientific talk entitled 'Atomic and Molecular Clusters: Designer materials for the Nanoworld'.

Prof. P. Rama Rao, director of NIPER, in his welcome address said, "The prospective of Nanotechnology to change our world is indeed truly overwhelming. It will definitely have an effect on every aspect of our lives, from medicines to the power of our computers. Nanotechnology applications, other than in the field of advanced drug delivery, are emerging in many different areas which are very important such as information technologies, materials sciences, manufacturing, instrumentation and energy." He also mentioned about the NIPER's Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, which has been set up for research in new frontiers of pharmaceutical sciences.

Talking about the school, he said that it is the first winter school on nanotechnology, which will focus on the developing synergy between nanotechnology and healthcare. He added that the participants would have better understanding and form a network that may possibly leads to further interaction in the field of nanotechnology.

The five-day activity of the school will comprise of lectures by experts from India and abroad like Dr. K. C. Gupta, IGIB- New Delhi; Dr. R. S. Verma, IIT Madras; Dr. V. R Swamy, Nikon; & Dr. T. Das, Veeco, Prof. C.M Lehr, Saarland University, Germany; Dr. I. C. Kown, KIST, South Korea; Dr. M. J. Blanco-Prieto, University of Navarra, Spain; Dr. B. Steitz, EPFL, Switzerland; and Prof. P. Caliceti, University of Padua, Italy. There also will be technical presentation and demonstrations on advanced microscopy techniques like atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy techniques as well as nano-sizer and non-invasive animal imager used in nanotechnology research.