State level Workshop on Droplet-based digital PCR (ddPCR) and its applications organized by Life Science Dept. of CUSB, April 02-03, 2025

A state level workshop on ' Droplet-based digital PCR (ddPCR) and its applications’ was organized at CUSB by the Life Science Department under DST- PURSE Project on 2-3 April, 2025. The workshop was organized to provide the introduction to ddPCR technology, its working principle, advantages, applications, overview of instrument, functional demonstration and running the instrument with probe, dye-based chemistry and its data analysis. The workshop started with a welcome address by Prof. Ram Pratap Singh, Deputy Coordinator, DST-Purse project and Head of the Department of Life Sciences. Coordinator DST-Purse project Prof. Venkatesh Singh motivated all participants to be an active learner and get the most benefits from the expert resource person. He also highlighted the use of advance instrument and technology has become an integral part of biological research.

The technical session started with a brief Introduction to PCR, RT-PCR, 3rd generation ddPCR, its instrumentation, working outflow, highlighting the advantages of ddPCR over other existing PCR machines and its applications in various field of Science by Rajesh Saha and Dr. Prashant (Field Application Specialist, Bio-Rad Laboratory, India) and his team. The participants had a hands-on experience of Droplet generation, Thermal cycling, running the experiment with their ongoing experimental sample with ddPCR in Life Science Laboratory. The participants were highly inquisitive in learning the new technique and enhancing their skill and engaging the experts over day. Research and Development Cell chairman, Prof. Durg Vijay Singh also attended the workshop and inquired about the new research opportunities and development can be made with this instrument. He highlighted the participants to develop their analytical and problem-solving approach to their research.

Prof. K. N. Singh, Honourable Vice Chancellor of CUSB highlighted the need of such workshops to fulfil the mandate of NEP 2022, and motivated Team-PURSE to organize many more such skill-oriented workshops in coming months and for participants from across the Bihar. Prof. D. V. Singh, Director, RDC, Prof. Ashish Sankar, Prof. Vivek Dave, Prof. Prafull Kumar Singh, Prof. Prabhat Kumar Singh, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Dr. Naveen Kumar Singh, and Dr. Amrita Srivastava also attended the workshop and had igniting discussion with the expert team over the ddPCR applications and its data analysis. Over 80 participants inclusive of B.Sc. to Ph.D. level of Life Science, Biotechnology, and Pharmacy departments of CUSB; participants from Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga and Magadh University, Bodh Gaya also participated in this workshop. The participants showed high interest to this workshop, appreciating to their hands-on experience in running the experiment, workshop content and stating this workshop as most essential for their ongoing and future research.