Mysuru: The University of Mysore (UoM)  and Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany, will be jointly organising a two-day International Workshop on Biology and Applications of Actinomycetes at Vijnana Bhavan in Manasagangothri on Oct. 31 and Nov.1.

The workshop will be inaugurated at 10 am by Prof. Joachim Wink Helmholtz of Centre for Infection Research, Germany, who will also deliver the inaugural address. UoM Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar will preside.

The two-day event will be a platform for discussions on the Diversity, Chemical Biology and Ecology of Actinomycetes and the application of modern genomic platforms for the discovery of antibiotics, anti-infectives and anticancer drugs from Actinomycetes. 

The first day of the workshop based on “Diversity, Chemical Biology and Ecology of Actinomycetes and the Discovery of Natural Products” integrates talks on studies of natural products from soil, endophytic and marine-derived new natural products discovery, methods for discovering secondary metabolites, structure elucidation, bio-synthetic research of natural products and new biological activities. The session will focus on the effects of biological and chemical elicitation at molecular level on secondary metabolism in actinomycetes. 

The second day of the workshop based on “Genomic and Synthetic Biology approaches in Actinomycetes Drug Discovery” will feature session on topics including ‘Application of Metabolic Engineering to Optimise Natural Product Synthesis’, ‘The Use of Omics Data and the Engineering of Regulatory Genes’. 

The workshop will also cover the use of bioinformatics tools for reprogramming of biosynthetic pathways through polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase engineering.

The workshop is expected to bring forth and foster new collaboration among the Actinomycetes Biologists. Some of the important speakers include: Prof. Joachim Wink, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany; Prof. Michael Steinert, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany; Prof. Saisamorn Lumyong, Chiang Mai University, Thailand; Prof. Tohru Dairi, Hokkaido University, Japan; Prof. Chenghang Sun, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, China; Dr. Wasu Pathomree, Chiang Mai University, Thailand; Prof. A.K. Dubey, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, New Delhi; Prof. Satya P. Singh, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat; Prof. K. Kannabiran, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu; Dr. Nandkumar Mukund Kamat, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Goa University; Dr. Syed G. Dastager, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Prof C. Subathra Devi, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. 

For details, contact Dr. V. Ravishankar Rai, Department of Studies in Microbiology, Manasagangothri on Mob: 98459-50155 and visit:  http://uni-mysore.ac.in/iwa/index.php