The Department of Stem Cell Research at the Lifeline Institute of Regenerative Medicine (LIRM) Chennai, in association with the Department of Biotechnology at the Loyola College, has started a one-month internship programme on 'Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine' for students of lifesciences and clinicians. LIRM, which is attached to Lifeline Hospitals, Chennai, is a unit of RIGID Health Care Pvt Ltd.

According to Dr M Bhaskaran, director, Stem Cell Research, LIRM, the training programme, which started on May 11, is intended to highlight the importance of this futuristic medicine and therapy. The course timings of the programme is between 10 am and 5 pm. Students from all branches of life sciences, both PG and Degree courses have been selected to the internship course. The fee fixed for the course is Rs 3000 and the programme is in the form of a full-time course dealing with both theory and practicals. There will be subsequent batches of training, which will begin on the 6th of every month.

While speaking to Pharmabiz, he said the course is structured in a way that the advanced knowledge on stem cells will be imparted with practical exposure to industrial applications. On every day of the programme, one expert with practical experience on regenerative therapy, will be invited to discuss and share his experience with the students.

The subjects covered under this programme deals with both embryonic and adult stem cells. Stem cell isolation, trans-differentiation protocols, FACS characterisation and Cell culture techniques will be taught as practical experience.

On completion of the course the students will be given certificates. Complete modules of relevant articles and notes with detailed protocol will be issued during the training period, and technical insight on Flowcytometry (BD FACS ARIA) will be given with detailed modules, the director of the department said.