International Seminar on ‘Therapeutic promise of phytochemicals against COVID-19: A Computational Drug-Designing Approach’

The Seminar/FDP/Workshop Committee, Science Section of the Bhawanipur Education Society College organized an International Seminar in Collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, and approved by IQAC on 23.12.2022 from 12:00 PM onwards with the Students, Faculty Members, and Non-Teaching staff of different Departments of the Science Section. The topic of the seminar was ‘Therapeutic promise of phytochemicals against COVID-19: A Computational Drug-Designing Approach’. Dr. Ayan Roy, Associate Research Scientist, Center for Infection & Immunity, Columbia University, New York, USA, was the distinguished speaker of the seminar. Ms. Shawni Dutta started this session with her introductory note along with the background of the seminar. Dr. Pinki Saha Sardar, Vice Principal of Science, explained the implications of such a seminar utilizing the Inclusion and Diversity Fund of Royal Society of Chemistry, London received by the Coordinator, Dr. Samir Kanti Datta, Dean of Science. She also introduced the speaker along with his brief biography. After the introductory session, the speaker, Dr. Ayan Roy, started his lecture in an interactive mode with the participants. Aspects of a drug from design to therapeutic use in the context to Covid-19 pandemic were nicely explained to the large spectrum of audience. Dr. Roy urged the application of computational studies for the early discovery of drugs compared to conventional wet lab methodology. He thoroughly explained chemical reactions and computational models by which life-saving drugs can be made. He further emphasized the natural ingredients which can be beneficial for the drug-designing approach. His lecture was followed by a question-answer discussion session with the faculty and students of different Science departments. Finally, the talk session successfully ended at around 2:00 PM with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Yeasin Sikdar.