Medical research should be focused and targeted to bring about lasting benefits to patients by way of standard clinical practice, said Dr Rita Banerjee, senior scientist, Science and Engineering Research Council of the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi.

Dr Rita was inaugurating the national seminar on “Approaches of Nanotechnology in Herbal Drug Development” at Sri Ramachandra University in the city.

Explaining the various funding assistance available from SERC, she said nanotechnology can bring immense advancement in herbal drug development.

Speaking on the occasion Dr JSN Murthy, vice chancellor of the University said nano-technology can make herbal drugs more effective, less toxic and cheaper by administering only small doses. Thirty per cent of the people worldwide depend on alternative systems of medicine which are better in certain areas where allopathic medicine is less effective, he added.

Dr S P Thyagarajan, Professor of Eminence and Dean (Research) said Sri Ramachandra University is dedicated to training talented manpower in research that is in short supply and to reduce the gap of their employability.  India has only 150 trained researchers per million as compared to 4300 in the United States and 2900 in China, he said.

Dr D Chamundeswari, principal, Faculty of Pharmacy said researchers and pharmacy students from all over India attended the national conference.