KERALA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

 Winter School

On

 Bioinformatics and its Applications in Agriculture

 1st December to 21st December, 2009 (21 days)

 

Sponsored by

Indian Council of Agricultural Research

New Delhi

 

Bioinformatics Centre (DIC)

IT-BT Complex

College of Horticulture

Kerala Agricultural University

Thrissur - 680 656, Kerala

About the subject and programme

Bioinformatics is a new emerging field that helps in collecting, linking, and manipulating different types of biological information to discover new biological insights. In short, bioinformatics is an information management system for molecular biology, biotechnology, medicine and agriculture. The most pressing tasks in bioinformatics involves the finding of genes in the DNA sequences of various organisms, developing methods to predict the structure and/or function of newly discovered proteins and structural RNA sequences, clustering protein sequences into families of related sequences ,development of protein models, aligning similar proteins and generating phylogenetic trees to examine evolutionary relationships.

           The sequencing of the genomes of microbes, plants and animals should have enormous benefits for the agricultural community. Computational analysis of these sequence data generated by genome sequencing, proteomics and array-based technologies is critically important. Bioinformatics tools can be used to search for the genes within these genomes and to elucidate their functions. This specific genetic knowledge could then be used to produce stronger, more drought resistant, disease resistant, insect resistant and more productive crops.

            Keeping in view the changed scientific scenario in the post-genomic era and to expose the agricultural scientists to the latest computational biology tools for biological research, a Winter School on “Bioinformatics and its Applications in Agriculture” is being organized at the Bioinformatics Centre (DIC), Kerala Agricultural University from December 1st to December 21st 2009. The training includes theory and hands-on sessions on different aspects.

About us

The Bioinformatics Centre (DIC) at Kerala Agricultural University runs under the Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISnet) programme of DBT, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. The Centre was established as the 23rd Distributed Information Sub Centre (DISC) in 1995 under BTISnet programme and upgraded to DIC during 2004 to promote Bioinformatics research and education. We specialize in plant biotechnology related research work. The Centre enhances access to global information in life sciences especially plant sciences and plant biotechnology involving scientists and students of the University, other S&T institutions and acts as a support centre to the Centre for Plant Biotechnology & Molecular Biology. The Centre is involved in a wide range of research work on plants using systems biology approaches, plant-pathogen interaction studies and study of active compounds in medicinal plants. In addition to this, the Centre offers a credit course in Bioinformatics to post graduate Plant Biotechnology students, conducts various training programmes in Bioinformatics and maintains several databases relevant to agriculture.

Objectives

This program comprises of basic and advanced study domains of Bioinformatics, which are expected to equip the Scientists with a complete practical and applied knowledge

Course content

  1. Bioinformatics and Agriculture.

    2.

  2. Internet and search engines

  3. Databases and internet resources for Bioinformatics analysis

  4. Similarity search and sequence alignment

  5. Primer Designing for gene amplification

  6. Genomics & Proteomics

  7. Biodiversity Informatics

  8. Molecular Markers in crop improvement

  9. Software for Molecular Marker Analysis

  10. Database creation

  11. Data mining in Bioinformatics

  12. Bioinformatics implications in Agriculture

  13. E-resources and E-portals in Agriculture

  14. IPR issues in Bioinformatics

Eligibility

This Winter School is meant for young active researchers I teachers in the rank of Assistant Professor I Junior Scientist / Scientist or above having a minimum of 2 years research / teaching experience in SAUs / ICAR institutes and being actively engaged in work related to Biotechnology and Molecular Biology or any other related discipline. Applicant should not be more than 45 years of age. The total number of participants shall be limited to 25.

Venue

Bioinformatics Centre (DIC), IT – BT Complex, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, Thrissur, Kerala.

How to reach

Thrissur is well-connected by rail and road. Cochin International Air Port is 60 km away from Thrissur. The campus is 10 km from Thrissur town towards Palghat, on NH 47

Duration

December 1 - December 21, 2009 (21 days)

Travel and other arrangements

Boarding and lodging arrangements for the participants will be provided by KAU as per the provisions of ICAR. TA will be paid on actual basis, as per the entitlement, restricted to AC – II tier rail fare, limited to the availability of funds.

Applications to be sent to:

    Dr. R. Keshavachandran

    Professor & Coordinator

    Course Director, Winter School

    Bioinformatics Centre (DIC), IT-BT Complex

    Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara

    KAU P.O, Thrissur, Kerala.  PIN 680656.

    E-mail: winterschooldic@gmail.com

                kaubioinfo@gmail.com

                kauniv.btisnet@nic.in

For more details about Bioinformatics Centre (DIC)

Visit our Website: www.kaubic.in

Phone: 0487 – 2371994, Fax: +91 487 2371994

Procedure for registration:

The participants are required to pay a sum of Rs.50/-(Rupees fifty only) as registration fee. The fee must be paid along with the application form, in the form of postal order drawn in favour of the Associate Dean, College of Horticulture payable at KAU Post Office before 31st October, 2009.

Application form can be downloaded from the here  (MS Word, 62KB)