In the early stages of lockdown, as a measure to prevent the spread of the virus, public transportation was stopped. Once the restrictions were lifted, to cater to the needs of public transport, auto rickshaw drivers were back to their work. As of 2019, Mumbai’s auto population was well past 2 lakhs, with an average of one for every five commuters.
SVKM’s NMIMS, SPPSPTM has always prioritized moulding its students into individuals who understand the importance of giving back to the society. Keeping this in mind, a group of students took on a project centered around the problems faced by people who drive auto rickshaws, especially in these unprecedented times. Auto rickshaw drivers often drive throughout the day, and have long working hours with little to no breaks in between shifts.
Students of SVKM's NMIMS, SPPSPTM at their respective home towns engaged in dialogue with the auto rickshaw drivers, in an attempt to acquaint themselves with the health issues they encounter on a daily basis and due to long driving hours. Students followed safety precautions like wearing facemask and maintaining social distance during the activity.
After interviewing several auto-drivers and compiling the responses received from them, SVKM’s NMIMS SPPSPTM Innovation Council Team is of the opinion that back pain and calluses on the palms are the most common health problems faced by these individuals. Apart from these, other problems such as constant exposure to environmental pollution and exhaustion from long working hours were reported. Students gathered photographs and documented the conversations too.
The National Youth day was celebrated in SVKM’S NMIMS Shobhaben Pratapbhai Patel School of Pharmacy & Technology Management, Mumbai on the 12th January 2021, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Faculty reminded students of this momentous day by putting up on their social media platform, pictures of Swami Vivekanand and his quotes.
Following competitions were organized by the students of SPPSPTM of the Isthmus-Urjja Committee (2020-2021) to celebrate the day.
1. Essay Competition on Swami Vivekanand’s teachings & The Lifetsyle of Youth today. The winners were
1st: Ms. Karuna Sathe
2nd: Mr. Pranav Phadke
3rd: Mr. Shubham Jhunjhunwala
2. Poster making. The winner was Ms. Aayushi Mehta
The birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is being observed as ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’ (National Unity Day) on the 31st October every year. The occasion provides us an opportunity to re-affirm the inherent strength and resilience to withstand the actual and potential threats to the unity, integrity and security of the nation.
SPPSPTM, SVKM's NMIMS celebrated Rashtriya Ekta Diwas in a befitting manner on 31st Oct, 2020. The event started with the information on importance of the National Unity Day and connected it to the youth of the country. The event was conducted on online mode using Zoom platform and was attended by students, research scholars, staff and faculty members.
The event ended with the oath ceremony where a Pledge (Oath) was taken by all the participants in the official ceremony to maintain the country’s unity. The participants pledged to preserve the integrity, and security of the nation and also strive hard to spread this message among the fellow countrymen.
The commemoration of the adoption of the Constitution of India is marked by celebrating 26th November as the official Constitution Day. The occasion provides us an opportunity to read and re-affirm the inherent strength and commitment towards upholding our ideology, constitutional values and fundamental principles as presented in the Preamble.
In keeping with the tradition, SPPSPTM, SVKM's NMIMS celebrated this day in a befitting manner. A reading of the Preamble was done and undertaken by the faculty, staff and students, virtually to mark this day.
On 12th October 2020 SPPSPTM, under AICTE organized the Jan Andolan campaign which emphasized on "Unlock with precautions” was organised to promote the highest standards of practice and behaviour in order to promote the implementation of interventions, to reduce health care-associated infection, in the face of Covid 19. A small pledge was taken by the students to highlight the key message:
"Wear a mask, Follow Physical Distancing and Maintain Hand Hygiene”
It’s the ordinary things that we take for granted, and this pandemic, which has halted our progress, showed us how a sense of coherence is necessary. At the heart of this battle, where the world has now realized our importance, pharmacists are working night and day to restore the ‘old normal.’ Between the shades of night and day, pharmacists are bridging gaps and establishing trust as they strive to transform global health.
SPPSPTM celebrated World Pharmacist's Day on 25th September 2020 by using online platform. Dr. Kapil Adwani, Assistant Manager-Clinical Pharmacologist at Jaslok Hospital was the Chief Guest for the function. The host for the evening was Nitya Prabhakar, a student from the 1st year MBA (Pharma Tech) class, who began the event by welcoming the Chief Guest, the faculty and students. After a short and enlightening message from Associate Dean, Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni, the Chief Guest was invited for his talk. Dr. Kapil Adwani enlightened the students with crucial information regarding Pharmacy profession. He spoke about the dignity and respect a pharmacist receives and also shed light on the responsibility of the profession. The challenges faced, the research, the curtailed subsidiary professions, among many others, were some of the topics he included in his talk. He also spoke about the current pandemic and how it is being dealt with, by both pharmacists and doctors. The highlight of the event was the Q&A session where there was active participation from eager students. Overall, the session was very informative and interactive.
Subsequently, the zealous winners of the Pharmacist’s Day Quiz, which was conducted a few days ago, were announced and awarded with e-certificates for their outstanding performance.
To honour the dedication towards their profession, all the faculty members, and the Chief Guest, Dr. Kapil Adwani, recited the Pharmacist Oath and brought the event to a gracious end.
The workshop was conducted on 26th and 27th Feb 2021. The committee for the workshop was as follows:
The main objective of the workshop was introduced by Dr. Maushmi S. Kumar, Assistant Professor, SPPSPTM after welcoming all the facuty participants. There were total 25 participants selected for the workshop. The workshop aimed to discuss the recent ongoing research and development in cancer therapy. The current seminar could alos help a new researcher in the field to detect an emerging trend in cancer research, allowing to pursue a promising career in the field. The workshop was opened by the inaugural talk by Dr. Bala Prabhakar Dean, SPP SPTM. She shared and encouraged the faculty members to gain as much as possible from the valuable talks in the workshop and congratulated the organizers.
Subsequently, the first speaker of the workshop, Dr. Shilpee Dutt from Tata Memorial Centre (ACTREC), Mumbai, discussed the biological cause of cancer and epigenetic regulation of DNA repair in cancer therapy resistance. She is a well-known researcher in cancer, and her focus was on gaining insights into the radiation and chemotherapy-related resistance, molecular mechanisms in cancer, epigenetic regulation, and the DNA damage response in malignant conditions. Her primary research area is therapy resistance in cancer, DNA damage-repair phenomenon, epigenetics, glioblastoma, and leukemia-related cancer. She has immense experience in cancer research, and herein discussed several exciting facts about the malignant disease.
Afterward, Our next speaker, Dr. Kirubakaran, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Gandhinagar, discussed the role of targetting DDR kinase in cancer therapeutics. Her focus is cancer-related protein kinases, novel targets for anti-cancer therapy, and the designing of small molecule inhibitors for the proteins for anticancer drug development. In her talk, she discussed kinases and drug discovery fundamentals in cancer therapeutics.
After that, during the post-lunch session, our next speaker was Dr. Jyoti Iyer, from R&D Department of Biocon Limited shared her vast experience in the field of Biosimilar monoclonal antibodies and their actual clinical application. In her talk, she discussed the biosimilars and related therapeutic entities under the various diseased state in humankind.
Going ahead, the speaker for our workshop was Dr. Pardip Nair, from Biocon talked on recent development of Cancer biomarkers and their potential clinical applications. The cancer biomarkers are quite useful, and we can develop cancer-diagnosing biosensors via targeting such cancer biomarkers that are available to date.
Subsequently, there was an exciting talk from Prof GJ Peters, who is a well-known scientist in the field of cancer research with decades of experience and knowledge. He is a Professor of Pharmacology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam. He delivered his lecture on Co-cultures of 3-Dimensional Spheroids as a model for drug resistance. From his speech, we came to know about the deep insight regarding the resistance phenomenon in cancer, and we further realized the experimental procedures that can be used to understand the possibility of resistance in the malignant condition.
On the second day of the two-day workshop our first speaker was Dr. Vandana Patravale, who is currently working as a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. She discussed the key factors that we should take care of while writing a grant against various open calls and shared her experience about successful grant writing. All the participants, mainly the young research, would get benefited from her talk. Her lecture's central theme was key points in successful grant writing, case studies, collaborative work, and its impact on remarkable research outcomes.
Subsequently, our next speaker for day 2 was Dr. Sandra Kalidien. She is an Attache for Science, Technology, and Innovation at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mumbai. She talked on te various available India-Netherland collaborative opportunities for research and development work. Her speech's theme was "Collaboration and knowledge exchange with institutions & government to foster R&D efforts in sectors of life sciences & healthcare sector”.
The workshop was concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Mayur C. Yergeri, Professor and Head, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, SPP SPTM, SVKM’s NMIMS to all the participants
