The International Conference on Advances in Molecular Diagnostics and Precision Medicine (AMDP) will take place between September 15th to 17th, 2022 at Anna University, Chennai.

The theme of the conference will revolve around various facets of Molecular Diagnostics and Precision Medicine as the major area and Drug discovery and Development and Nanotechnology as parallel sessions.

Over 700 to 800 delegates are expected to attend the conference. Experts from the field of Molecular Diagnostics, Personalised Therapies for Cancer, Infectious Diseases and Rare Diseases, Bio-Nanotechnology, etc. will present their research. Beyond academic deliberations, the conference will provide a platform for investors and other key players in the domain to explore emerging technologies.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the fact that Molecular Diagnostics and Precision Medicine are key pillars of modern medicine. Advancements in Molecular diagnostics paved the way for setting COVID-19 testing centres and labs at a massive scale. Similarly, modern high throughput genomic sequencing technologies facilitated the development of the vaccine against the dreaded virus.

Nucleic acid-based testing, which was a niche area before the pandemic, has seen significant progress and has become a gold standard for viral detection globally.

In addition to this, Nanotechnology with special reference to the use of magnetic nanoparticles also contributed to process automation. This served as a breakthrough for high throughput automated detection technologies. In these times, multiple point-of-care devices were also made available to the public for the timely detection of various infectious and non-infectious diseases.

As a result of these key innovations in the field of Molecular Diagnostics, there has been an increased focus on another related area of Precision Medicine. Precision medicine can be considered the cornerstone of personalised therapy in areas like cancer and infectious disease. This deviation from the earlier 'one-size-fits-all', treatment plan has proved to be much safer and more effective in patients around the world.

Further research in this area will make this technology more affordable, accessible, and available to the common man. The conference will focus on tracking the developments in these fields.

AMDP-2022 is organised by SciGenom Research Foundation ( SGRF ), a not-for-profit organisation, that works toward promoting Science in India through research and education. The Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai will host this conference at their Vivekananda Auditorium. The event will include Plenary lectures, Invited talks, Poster presentations for students, Networking sessions and several other scientific programs.

In addition to the technical sessions, the program also includes a Healthcare Investors Panel discussion which will be moderated by a well-known Healthcare Investor and Chairman of SciGenom group of companies. Under this session, several noted healthcare investors from 3ONE4 Capital, TPG, Eight Roads, Leapfrog investments and Sofina will be participating.

The AMDP conference will also be awarding Student Scholarships, Poster awards, Young Scientist awards and Lifetime achievement awards to deserving candidates and proven performers in the field. One of the key highlights of the event will be a Special address by world-renowned crystallographer and Nobel laureate Prof. Ada Yonath. AMDP 2022 will be a great platform for researchers, clinicians, innovators, and industry professionals to gather, network and eventually contribute to the progress of these two pillars of modern medicine.

Several speakers and participants from Life Sciences and Diagnostics companies like MagGenome Technologies Pvt. Ltd, KMTC, KLIP, Genes2me, Neuberg diagnostics, Nanostrings, Premas Biotech, Levim Biotech, SPT Labtech, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bioengineering, GenNext Genomics Pvt. Ltd., iOrbitz and Institutes like CCMB, IGIB, NCBS, CDFD, AIIMS, CHARUSAT will be in attendance.

The Patron of the conference is the Healthcare Investor and Chairman of SciGenom group of companies, Dr CN Ramchand and Dr S Meenakshi Sundaram are the Conference Conveners and Dr Aniruddha Bhati is the Organising Secretary.

SciGenom Research Foundation ( SGRF ), a not-for-profit organisation, is working to promote Science in India through research and education. Currently, the foundation is involved in several research initiatives that are typically not funded by government agencies but are identified as scientifically relevant and important in consultation with the scientific advisory board. Research activities of SGRF span a wide range of areas including Agriculture, Animal Health, Biodiversity, Genomics, Snake Venom and Human Health.

These research works have contributed to many publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals-the highlights being the Nature Dec 2019 cover page on Genome Asia and Nature Genetics Jan 2020 cover page on the Indian Cobra Genome. The ongoing projects include the study of genomics of coloured rice, metagenomics of rivers in India, wild elephant viral disease genomics, tea looper biocontrol agent development, familial cancer genomics and human genome variation studies.

In addition to research activities, the education arm SGRF Conferences has conducted several educational workshops and international conferences to promote science in India. Besides educational activities, SGRF has instituted awards to recognise outstanding educators and support students through scholarships.

The Centre for Biotechnology at Anna University was established in 1984 right after the emergence of the new technology globally. As a forerunner in Biotechnology education and research, it is aptly established in a premier technical university supporting multidisciplinary growth along with other engineering and technologies of wide diversity rarely seen in any other university or institution.

This centre has a unique commitment to educating a broad spectrum of students-including undergraduate, post-graduate, and research scholars. Starting with M.Tech Biotechnology for 12 students in 1985, the Centre has expanded into a large Department now offering B.Tech, M.Tech, and PhD programmes in Industrial

Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Technology, Food Technology and Computational Biology for 800 students and more than 100 research scholars respectively.

The students and scholars are well-placed all over the world, mostly abroad, and are in great demand in industries, academics, and research institutions. Its pioneering curriculum is a model for many other Biotech institutions across the country and its practical training in Bioprocess engineering, Stem cell technology, Recombinant technology, protein engineering, molecular cell biology, and Bioinformatics is highly valued.

Significantly, a rapid detection kit for filariasis that is marketed in India and Africa, and industrial bioprocesses in operation are some of the product-oriented research outcomes. The department strives in imparting quality technical education and research in advanced and emerging areas of Industrial, Medical, pharmaceutical and food applications of Biotechnology.