In this age of overuse of drugs and the menace of drug resistance, attention is shifting to identifying efficacious drugs based on the patient’s molecular signatures prior to administration to the patient to prevent the use of unwanted drugs and needless toxicity. The validation of such diagnostic procedures is discussed critically.  Also considered is the emerging paradigm of molecular disease markers and the targeted inhibition or over-expression of such markers with specialized drugs.Further, new developments in implantable smart sensors and the translational questions associated with such devices are also considered in this session.

Thematic Keynote Overview(15 mins)
Dr. Nader Pourmand, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.
An overview of the importance of identifying early diagnostic markers, sensors and their importance in personalized medicine

Bullet Talks(5-7 min each)

• Signal Transduction and drug resistance- The basis for personalized medicine
  Dr. Tarun Patel, Loyola University Medical Center,
  Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago, USA

• Status and translational importance of biomarkers in early diagnosis of diseases
  Dr. Krishnakumar Menon,
  Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine
• Role of next generation sequencing in personalized medicine
  Dr. Ramprasad, SciGenomics, India
• Molecular Diagnosis: The key to personalized medicine
  Dr. LalithaBiswas, Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine
• Non-enzymatic sensors and integration into Lab on a Chip systems
  Dr. Satheesh Babu, Assistant Professor, Amrita Biosensor Lab, Amrita University, Coimbatore
• Implantable Smart Sensors- new problems for translation of diagnostics
  Dr. Harish Kumar, Endocrinologist, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre
• Regulatory questions in translation of nano-engineered implants
  Dr. Y K Gupta, Professor and Head,
  Department of Pharmacology,
  All India Institute of Medical Sciences,
  New Delhi, India

Discussion Session (10 min)