Recent Trends in Collagen
CLRI celebrates its Diamond Jubilee on 24 April 2008. Several advances have been made in frontier areas of science and technology in the institute. Several landmark technologies and contributions to science have been made during the years. When looking back, significant efforts were made in the past towards understanding the structure and functions of collagen at CLRI.
Collagen is an important structural protein in the animal kingdom and contributes significantly to the biological functions. At the time when the institute commenced its research, the elucidation of structure of collagen provided an intellectual challenge. Several groups addressed the issues relating to structure of collagen, its biological functions and also its industrial applications including leather manufacture. The unraveling of the structure of collagen by the group of Prof GN Ramachandran of the neighboring campus of University of Madras has an organic link to CLRI, in that, it was the then Director, CLRI who provided the much needed Kangaroo tail for the research. Subsequently, the structure of collagen came to be known as the Ramachandran Model or the Madras Model. With this modest beginning, CLRI continued to guide the path of research in Frontier areas of collagen research. A symposium on collagen was organized as early as 1962 at CLRI to bring to light various research and development initiatives taken towards the understanding of collagen structure and its functions. The outcome of the conference was brought out as an edited volume. The volume edited by former Director of CLRI, Dr N Ramanathan, is even today a primary source of knowledge in this area.
Continuing with this trend, CLRI organized a symposium on Trends in Collagen in 1999, alongside the XXV IULTCS Congress. The symposium provided a forum to revisit our understanding of structure and functions of collagen. The symposium was special in that the Indian Academy of Science, thought it appropriate to bring out a special issue on Trends in Collagen in the Proceedings Chemical Sciences.
CLRI has a strong research base which works on the understanding of collagen structure, collagen related diseases, smart biomaterials and their clinical applications. It is in this context that an international conference on Recent trends in collagen is proposed.
Highlights of the Conference
The Conference is proposed for 24-25 January 2008, ahead of the Leather Research Industry Get-Together. It is proposed that the conference will address important areas such as
- Collagen: Structure and functions
- Diseases
- Smart biomaterials and clinical applications
- Commercial Ventures
|