January 12, 2023ICGEB turns 40
On the cusp of the ICGEB’s 40th anniversary, Lawrence Banks was on location for major events at ICGEB New Delhi, including the handover of the Directorship of the Indian Component by Dr. Dinakar Salunke to Prof. Ramesh V. Sonti. A major scientific meeting on Protein RNA interaction in cellular regulations meeting, inspired by the recent emergence of new strains of RNA viruses, was held from 22-24 November, organised by Dr. Neel Sarovar Bhavesh, Neeti Sanan-Mishra and Jitendra Thakur of ICGEB New Delhi, together with Deepti Jain, of RCB, Faridabad. On 25 November, celebrating 35 years of research and quality education, the New Delhi Component organised a one-day Alumni Meeting, with over 40 alumni in attendance and speakers from across world regions. This meeting, organised by Dhiraj Kumar and Pawan Malhotra was a precursor of a major alumni meeting that will take place in November 2023. On 30 November 2022, the Component hosted the Italy-India high-level meeting on Pandemic Response and Post-Pandemic challenges to promote Global Cooperation in the field.
On the same date, ICGEB scientific and project management teams were in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the first in person meeting with representatives from the African laboratories involved in the COVID-19+ project on RT-LAMP and Community Laboratories Diagnostic Empowerment. The year ahead promises to be equally intense with the Scientific Council convening in Trieste, Italy in March, including newly appointed members Angela Gronenborn, Lynne E. Maquat, Shekhar C. Mande and Bongani Ndimba. In May, the Board of Governors will convene in Cape Town, South Africa with new Governors including the Ministers of Science for Chile and Serbia. Two Arturo Falaschi Conferences will be held, in Trieste, on TDP-43 function and dysfunction in disease, and in Cape Town, on Advances in prostate and cervical cancer research, as well as an array of Meetings and International Seminars scheduled throughout the year. Additional events will take place to mark 40 years since the establishment of the Organisation.