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Dr. Om Silakari

Coordinator

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Brief History of the Centre:-
Bioinformatics Centre entitled "Centre for drug design, disposition and toxicoinformatics" at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala came into the existence on 20th January, 2021 under the umbrella of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi. The primary aim of this centre is to provide training on applications of bioinformatics and in-silico tools for drug discovery and development to young PG students, doctoral fellows, faculty members, and scientists from different institutes. Other objectives of the center are development of tools and databases related to the prediction of toxicity and distribution of drug molecule, designing of small drug molecules (natural product or synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds) for the treatment of most prevalent multifactorial diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Diabetic Complications and Resistant Cancer, and in-silico assisted formulation development. The centre is equipped with good quality hardware facilities (a server, 4 workstations, 08 PCs) along with the availability of commercial softwares (Gaussian, Cresset, Discovery Studio and Material Studio). This centre is running under the guidance of a team of four faculties from different disciplines including Prof. Om Silakari as Principal Investigator (PI) from bioinformatics and medicinal chemistry background, Prof. Ashok Kumar Tiwary and Dr. Bharti Sapra as Co-PIs from Pharmaceutics background and Prof. Sukhjeet Kaur (Co-PI) from Computer Science background. One project associate who is involved in scientific and training related works and one scientific administrative assistant involved in official and training related activities are also the part of this centre.

Approved Objectives of the Centre:-
1. To provide training and develop ability to handle computational tool for in silico drug design to -PG and doctoral fellows -Scientists from industries -Young faculty
2. To employ molecular modelling tools for advanced drug designing and research
3. To utilize in silico assisted techniques for molecular design and formulation development for the treatment of different diseases
4. To develop multi-targeting molecules for treating various multi-factorial diseases like diabetic complications, cancer, tuberculosis, Alzheimer etc.
5. To conduct workshops, conferences and hands-on training to students and researchers