Bengaluru : SciGenom Research Foundation inaugurated their sixth annual international conference titled “NextGen Genomics, Biology, Bioinformatics and Technologies (NGBT)” from October 3^rd – 5^th, 2016 in Cochin, India.

Dr.Oommen.V.Oommen, Chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board, India was the Chief Guest for the conference along with Mr. Kris Gopala krishnan, Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys India who was the Guest of Honour and shared learning’s from his experience.

This year, the co-hosts for the NGBT meeting include Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Biology Department), Mumbai, India; The Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB) and The Toronto Recombinant Antibody Centre (TRAC), Toronto, Canada; Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB), Bengaluru, India and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, India.

Mr.Sam Santhosh, Promoter of SGRF (SciGenom Research Foundation), a non-profit organization with the objective of spreading scientific education in the country emphasized the importance Next Generation Sequencing Genomics to the participants at the conference. The Conference has interesting sessions like Genomics in healthcare, Plant, Insect Biology and Genomics, NexGen Sequencing, (NGS) data analysis solution etc.

“This conference is an ideal platform to promote scientific research and innovation” insisted Dr Sekar Seshagiri, Conference Chair“ This year’s conference will feature drug discovery as a major theme and encompasses various key note lecturers with a spectrum of expertise from Genomics to cancer immunotherapy, to pant genomics and cancer signalling”.

This is the sixth edition of the international conference, which will feature cutting-edge development in Genomics. The previous ones were at CCMB Hyderabad, NIMHANS Bangalore, IITM Chennai, IGIB Delhi and RGCB Trivandrum. The 2015 NGBT at Hyderabad saw participation from 500+ delegates with presentations from more than 80 speakers international and national. This year, the conference is organised in Cochin, the market for advanced tertiary/quaternary care facilities. Cochin has one of the best healthcare facilities in India. It is the prime destination for people seeking advanced healthcare facilities from across Kerala. With an established presence of several global and Indian biotechnology companies, globally renowned universities and best-in-class supporting specialized infrastructure, the city will provide the most dynamic atmosphere for the conference proceedings.

The conference will further feature exciting developments in Medical Genomics, signalling Genomics and their applications in life sciences. The three-day program will have speakers from renowned research institutes from across the globe. Some of the distinguished speakers at the meeting include Dr Aakrosh Ratan, Uni. of Virginia, USA, Dr. Nandula Raghuram, GGS Indraprastha Uni., India, Dr. Ratna Dua Puri, SGRH, India, Dr. Analabha Basu, NIBMG, India, Dr. VB Reddy, AgriGenome, India, Dr. Ravi Gupta, MedGenome, India, Dr. Andrew Peterson, Sr. Director, Genentech Inc., USA, Dr. Ramprasad VL, COO, Medgenome Inc., Bengaluru, India, Dr. K Thangaraj, Group Leader, Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology (CCMB), India, and Dr. Chirantan Bose, MedGenome, Bengaluru India. The conference will present an ecosystem for scientists and students to share their work build new connections and explore collaborations.

Young scholars are encouraged to present their work as posters and an international panel of experts will judge their scholarship for awards sponsored by journals of repute including Life, PLOS, FEBSJ and Journal of Cell Science. Young scientists will get an opportunity to obtain career advice as well as interact with prospective employers as part of this job fair.

Prominent providers of sequencing solutions such as MedGenome and Illumina and various scientific journals and prominent names like Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB), agrigenome, Intel, nanostring, affymetrix etc., have partnered with SGRF for this conference.