Aswini B | 14 January 2020
CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) collaborated with Sanofi Genzyme conducts the 'CSIR-IGIB Sanofi Genzyme fellowship in genomics for medical professionals' program (find out more about the program at http://is.gd/fig2019). This is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Sanofi Genzyme. It aims to bridge the gap between on-going research and clinics by training and introducing the fundamental aspects of genomics and molecular medicine to clinicians.
One of the participants, Dr Induprabha Yadev, an assistant professor and a surgeon from Government Medical College, Trivandrum, was excited to share his experience during the program with us. While talking to him about the fellowship and the training in IGIB, he said that it was an eye-opener for him. He was not aware of the genomics field until attending the workshop that was conducted by Dr Sridhar Sivasubbu and Dr Vinod Scaria in their college. The workshop kindled his interest and he wanted to learn more about the field. Hence, he applied for the CSIR-IGIB Sanofi Genzyme fellowship program. He says, “The program was very helpful. We were trained by bio-informaticians and we got hands-on training. It was a wonderful experience.” He said that he learned about various aspects of molecular genetics. He mentioned that he comes across many patients with thyroid problems and specifically thyroid carcinoma in his day to day life. Few cases had a familial background and others had some genetic defect. He is interested in working up those cases to look into the molecular aspects. He also added that he would like to conduct some studies to figure out if there was any genomic background to it. He opines that this program should be promoted more among clinicians. He believes that multiple collaborations should be established between hospitals and genomic labs, which would benefit the patients.