There are very limited opportunities for Indian medical students and even residency trainees, to engage in high quality mentorship program focusing on development of research skills. The newly launched DIPS program is one such. I am reproducing the content from the India Alliance website below. You can check their site out here.
Rapid developments in biomedicine and information technology are ushering in a new age of medicine. Artificial intelligence, genome editing, tissue engineering, are just a few of the frontier fields that are changing the practice of medicine.
About the DIPS Workshop
These 4-day DIPS workshops are a unique opportunity for senior MBBS and MD students (and equivalent) to get exposed to the frontiers of biomedicine and related fields, and receive training in quantitative methods and research methodology. The workshops will also provide a platform for discussion and learning aimed at skill and perspective building for the most aspiring young physician researchers by bringing them together with senior mentors. Eminent physician scientists will make up the workshop faculty.
The DIPS workshop will include discussions on the need for physician-scientists, their making, and the experiences of physicians who are now full-time researchers. There would be emphasis on the fundamentals of a biomedicine research career, such as asking a good research question and thinking quantitatively. Didactic lectures on frontier topics would be coupled with lab/facility visits and opportunities to meet cutting-edge practitioners. These workshops will also provide an opportunity to young participants to discuss the relevance of biomedical research and career options with the best physician researchers in India.
The workshop will include the following:
“Mentor Talks” by senior and highly accomplished physician researchers, who will convey the excitement of clinical and translational research through the example of their own career trajectory. These will illuminate the path towards becoming a physician-scientist.
“Frontier Talks” will introduce a key biomedical research area and discuss it fully to convey the value and enthusiasm of research. Examples include how to ask the right question, quantitative sciences, data analysis, basic biology to therapy, etc.
“Technology Talks” will introduce participants to new technologies that are changing the face of medicine. Examples include next-generation sequencing, genome editing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, model systems, etc.
“Methodology Talks” will introduce participants to quantitative thinking and logic essential for research.
DIPS Workshop Programme:
The workshop will consist of a 3-day core program followed by a 1-day program focused on a specific topic, such as e.g. immunology, cardiorespiratory medicine, regenerative medicine, etc. with focus on model systems and disease biology. This fourth day’s program will also be open to the attendees of previous workshops as a single-day meeting.
The core, which will essentially remain unchanged between workshops, would be on the following lines:
Day 1
| Introductions and Agenda |
| The Making of Physician-Scientists |
| Break and interaction |
| Where it all starts: Asking a good scientific question |
| Genomics and Medicine |
| Lunch |
| Technology talk: Basics and Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing |
| Hands on in a Genomics facility |
| Break |
| Life of PI (Principal Investigator) |
Day 2
| Quantitative thinking and data analysis of experiments |
| Break |
| When data analysis is the experiment |
| Lunch |
| Hands on in a high performance computing facility |
| Break |
| Technology Talk: Machine Learning |
| Beyond statistics for mechanistic understanding of disease: Animal models |
Day 3
| Translating a trillion data-points into therapies and new insights |
| Genomics and Cancer: The end of a beginning |
| Break |
| From precision diagnostics to precision therapeutics: The new world of genome editing |
| Lunch |
| The need for physician-scientists: A scientist’s perspective |
| Discussions and formation of mentored groups for continued interactions along with tea |
Day 4
| Yeast to Primates: The need for model systems and practical aspects of making choices |
| Transgenics, Knock-outs and Knock-ins: The essential toolbox |
| Zebrafish models for genetic discovery |
| Break |
| Visit to mouse and zebrafish facilities |
| Lunch |
| Yeast, Worms and Flies: Going deep into fundamentals of biology |
| Mouse models of cardiorespiratory disease |
| Break |
| Modeling complex diseases: Limitations |
| Using human cells and tissue explants as models |
Upcoming DIPS workshops
During 2017-18, two DIPS workshops will be organised in Delhi NCR (23-26 November 2017) and Hyderabad (2-5 March 2018).
Eligibility: To apply for participation in the Workshop, applicant must be
– an MBBS (final professional) and/or MD student training in an Indian medical college.
– prepared to pay refundable advance of INR 2500 (MBBS) or INR 5000 (MD) which will be refunded after the workshop to those who have attended the complete workshop.
– prepared to make their own travel arrangements. Accommodation (double occupancy) and meals will be provided by the organisers at no charge.
Application deadline
For Delhi NCR workshop September 23, 2017 (Call for applications currently active)
For Hyderabad workshop January 2, 2018 (Call for applications will be announced end of September 2017/ early- October)
Application Form for the Delhi NCR Workshop can be found here
Organizers
Prof. Rakesh Aggarwal, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. Dr.Aggarwal is a Professor of Gastroenterology. Besides being an active clinician, he has been involved in training clinical fellows in the areas of gastroenterology and hepatology, and epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory research in liver disease, in particular viral hepatitis. He is a member of several national and international policy-making groups.
Dr. Anurag Agrawal, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi. Dr Agrawal employs experimental and computational approaches to understand biological and clinical aspects of respiratory diseases and metabolic dysfunction. His group has also developed computational tools for analysis of complex medical datasets and integrated solutions for healthcare delivery and digital data collection to aid community health efforts. Dr. Agrawal is also a Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Senior Fellow.
Supported and facilitated by
Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance is an initiative funded equally by the Wellcome Trust, UK and Department of Biotechnology, India, aimed at promoting basic biomedical, clinical and public health research in India through funding and engagement.
In case of queries, please write to workshops@wellcomedbt.org; it may take up to 3 working days for a response.
Scepticemia 
I am a DNB course coordinator.I shall encourge my students to attend the course.
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