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Bioinformatics Centre entitled “Centre for drug design, disposition and toxicoinformatics” at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala came into the existence on 20th January 2021 under the umbrella of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi. The primary aim of this centre is to provide training on applications of bioinformatics and in-silico tools for drug discovery and development to young PG students, doctoral fellows, faculty members, and scientists from different institutes. Other objectives of the center are development of tools and databases related to the prediction of toxicity and distribution of drug molecule, designing of small drug molecules (natural product or synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds) for the treatment of most prevalent multifactorial diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Diabetic Complications and Resistant Cancer, and in-silico assisted formulation development. The centre is equipped with good quality hardware facilities (a server, 4 workstations, 08 PCs) along with the availability of commercial softwares (Gaussian, Cresset, Discovery Studio and Material Studio). This centre is running under the guidance of a team of four faculties from different disciplines including Prof. Om Silakari as Principal Investigator (PI) from bioinformatics and medicinal chemistry background, Prof. Ashok Kumar Tiwary and Dr. Bharti Sapra as Co-PIs from Pharmaceutics background and Prof. Sukhjeet Kaur (Co-PI) from Computer Science background. One project associate who is involved in scientific and training related works and one scientific administrative assistant involved in official and training related activities are also the part of this centre.

Activities of the Centre

• Conducting of 3-5 days workshops to provide training related to following bioinformatics and computer-aided drug design (CADD) approaches to young faculties, scientists and PG and doctoral fellows
  • Structure based drug designing (SBDD) as well as ligand based drug designing (LBDD) approaches such as molecular docking, quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR), pharmacophore modeling and machine learning, scaffold hoping etc.
  • Biological and chemical databases mining.
  • Bioinformatics tools and techniques i.e. protein modeling, network analysis, threading, target fishing etc.
  • In-silico assisted formulation development.
  • Pharmacokinetic (ADME) and Toxicity (T) profiling of new lead molecule.
• Research activities related to design of small molecule inhibitors for the therapy of various most prevalent multifactorial diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetic complications, resistant cancer etc.
• Research activities related to in-silico assisted formulation development for some CNS acting drug.
• Database and algorithm development.

This centre will provide a platform to the young budding researchers and those who are already engaged in the field of in-silico drug design for interacting with the leading scientist and experts from this field. Thus, the centre may provide the deep understanding of fundamental concepts and also help in conceptualizing research problems in advanced molecular modeling based in-silico drug designing.

Coordinators of the Centre

• Prof. Om Silakari, Principal Investigator, BIC
• Prof. Ashok Kumar Tiwary, Co-PI, BIC
• Prof. Sukhjeet Ranade, Co-PI, BIC
• Dr. Bharti Sapra, Co-PI, BIC

About the Principal Coordinator

Prof. Om Silakari,

Dr. Om Silakari is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala, India. He received his Ph.D. from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, MP. He has more than 18 years of experience in teaching and research. His research area includes computer-assisted drug design of new anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetes, and anti-cancer targets and the synthesis of new lead molecules. He has authored four books and several book chapters with reputed international publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, Academic press etc. Dr. Om Silakari has published more than 150 national and international research articles and also working as a reviewer for reputed professional journals. He has more than 5000 citations with H-index = 32 and i10 index = 84. Dr. Om Silakari has guided 9 PhDs and 32 Masters Students. Dr. Silakari has received research funding of more than 1.5 Crores from various reputed funding agencies i.e. DBT, CSIR, ICMR etc. Dr. Silakari is having an active association with different societies and academies around the world. Dr. Om Silakari made his mark in the scientific community with the contributions and widely recognition from honorable subject experts around the world. Recently Dr. Silakari has been featured among the world’s top 2% scientists in a list published by Stanford University, USA.

About the Co-PIs:

Prof. A. K. Tiwary,

Prof. Ashok Kumar Tiwary is associated with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala, India. Prof. Tiwary received his doctoral degree from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi. He has more than 27 years of experience in teaching & research and guided 14 PhDs and more than 50 PG students. His research area includes transdermal dosage forms, modified release oral dosage forms, biphasic liquid systems, solubility enhancement and permeability improvement. Prof. Tiwary is an eminent researcher in the field of pharmaceutics and formulation development. He has published more than 150 research articles in various reputed journals with more than 4900 citations, h-index = 38, and i10 index = 86. He is a reviewer and editorial member for various reputed journals. He has received research funding of more than 3 Crores from various reputed funding agencies i.e. DST, CSIR, ICMR, AICTE etc. He is a member of various professional bodies such as Indian Pharmaceutical Association, APTI, Fellow of Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy (India), Gerson Lehrman Group - Council of Health Advisors (UK) etc. Dr. Tiwary has been listed as a notable pharmaceutical scientist by Marquis Who's Who. Prof. Tiwary currently serving as Dean Academic Affairs and has held various administrative positions in Punjabi University, Patiala such as Head, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Dean Faculty of Medicine, Dean Research, and Controller of Exams.

Prof. Sukhjeet Kaur,

Prof. Sukhjeet Kaur is currently working as a Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University, Patiala. She received her PhD from Department of Computer Science, Punjabi University, Patiala. Prof. Sukhjeet has more than 25 years of teaching and research experience in guiding Masters's and Ph.D. scholars in the areas of Digital Image Processing, Image Watermarking, Fingerprinting and Steganography, Medical Image Denoising, Medical Image Segmentation, Face Recognition, Invariant Moments and Transforms etc. Dr. Sukhjeet has published more than 40 research articles in the various reputed journals with more than 250 citations, h-index = 10, and i-10 index = 10. Dr. Sukhjeet is a co-investigator in Bioinformatics Centre having funding of 74 Lakh received from DBT.

Dr. Bharti Sapra

Dr. Bharti Sapra currently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala. She has received her PhD from Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala. Dr. Bharti has more than 13 years of teaching and research experience in the area of Pharmaceutics and formulation development. Dr. Bharti has published more than 50 research, reviews, and book chapter articles in the journal of international repute with more than 1100 citations, h-index = 16, and i-10 index = 24. She has guided 2 PhDs and 20 Master students. Dr. Bharti is a co-investigator in research projects having funding of more than 1.25 crore received from ICMR and DBT.

Project Staff:

• Mohit Motiwale (Project Associate)
• Manoj Kumar (Former Project Associate)
• Vinni Kalra (Former Scientific Administrative Assistant)

Hardware Facility

Details of previous workshops organized by the centre