Conference Date: 21-23 June, 2023
9th Annual Conference of the SMRM on
Mitochondria in Biology and Medicine
The Society for Mitochondria Research and Medicine, India (SMRM) is a nonprofit organization of scientists, clinicians and academicians. The purpose of SMRM is to foster research on basic science of mitochondria, mitochondrial pathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis and treatment through out India and abroad.
One sixth of humanity lives in India. India is rich in terms of cultural and genetic diversity, which has been maintained since time immemorial. Indian subcontinent has approximately 5000 anthropologically well-defined endogamous groups. With a very large population and high birth rate, and consanguineous marriage favoured in many communities, there is a high prevalence of genetic disorders in India. Mitochondrial disorders, unlike any other genetic disorders are inherited exclusively maternally and gains more importance in the Indian context. Each disorder produces a wide spectrum of dysfunction that can be extremely perplexing to the scientist and clinician. Current estimates place the incidence of mitochondrial disorder at about 1 in 2000 to 1 in 5000 live births in Western countries. Due to inadequate diagnostic tools, clinical management and rehabilitation facilities, the burden of the genetic disorders, in particular mitochondrial disorders is much greater in Indian subcontinent than in Western countries.
SMRM acts as a forum to bring together the patients with mitochondrial disorders who need the care, the clinicians who diagnose and treat mitochondrial disorders and the basic scientists who are working in the field of mitochondrial research and medicine.
The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) is an autonomous organization funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. CDFD has a unique mandate to provide service, and to perform fundamental basic research in cardinal areas of modern biology. CDFD has been at the forefront of providing DNA-based human identification services to the investigating agencies; and chromosomal, biochemical and DNA-based genetic diagnostic service to the public and medical institutions in the country. In addition, CDFD offers DNA marker based Basmati Rice purity testing to exporters. The major thrust research areas of CDFD include Microbiology, Disease Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Epigenetics, and Computational Biology.