Conclave to address issues of food safety, data science and pollution                                                                 

      

Taking forward the industry-academia interaction a two day International Toxicology Conclave (ITC) was inaugurated at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR) from Dec 05 to Dec 06. In the conclave experts from academia, industry and regulatory bodies deliberated on topics in the niche areas in toxicology like food safety for the future, influx of data science in toxicology and health and abating pollution and its remediation.

Professor Alok Dhawan, Director, CSIR –IITR said, “ITC is an effort to bring researchers, industry representatives and policymakers on a common platform so that a synergy can be developed among all to tackle and resolve the emerging issues of food safety, health and the environment using interdisciplinary approaches. He told that CSIR-IITR is organizing ITC annually since 2015 and it is being celebrated as a part of annual day celebration.

Inaugurating the conclave, Professor Pramod Tandon, CEO, Biotech Park, Lucknow said that that CSIR – IITR has a vital role to play in the area of abating pollution and developing remediation measures to tackle the current scenario. “Research driven initiatives are the need of the hour to ensure food safety and available of safe food for the generations to come” said Dr Tandon.


"ITC is an effort to bring researchers, industry representatives and policymakers on a common platform so that a synergy can be developed "

Professor SK Barik, Director, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute said that in this day and age of data driven strategies leveraging the benefits of data sciences for improving human health is vital.

Sessions on different topics took place in the conclave. The keynote address on the topic food safety for future was delivered by Dr Sanjay Kumar, Director CSIR – Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology. Lecture on the topic Computational Gastronomy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Data-driven Food Innovations was delivered by Dr Ganesh Bagler from Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.

Anoop Kumar Mishra from Reckitt Benckiser Private Limited gave talk on Food Safety: A Public Health Priority. Dr M. K. R. Mudiam, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR – Indian institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, delivered a talk on the Newer Analytical Strategies in Food Safety Management System. Dr Mahejibin Khan of CSIR-Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore talked on the scientific gathering on the threat to food safety and public health due to anti-microbial resistance.

There was a session on nuances of using data and technology tools to alleviate toxicity and promote human health. In this session Dr Subramanian from CSIR – Central Leather Technology Research Institute, Chennai highlighted the advantages of machine learning strategies for toxicity prediction and Dr Chakrabarti from CSIR – Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata spoke about big data and artificial intelligence (AI) based diagnostic and prognostic tools. This was followed by a presentation on the Global Burden of Disease by Dr C Keshav Chandran, CSIR – IITR and the role of AI and data science in revolutionizing drug discovery by Anvita Gupta of AIGen Therapeutics.
India Science Wire