IMPACT 2025 – 1st Cohort Training for VRDL Personnel (May 5–7, 2025)

Bangalore IMPACT 2025, 3-days hands-on training workshop for VRDL personnel

📢 APSI-India is proud to be a knowledge partner for the ongoing #IMPACT2025 hands-on training workshop, organized by Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, India, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Centre for Biological Sciences as knowledge partner.

#IMPACT2025: Integrated Monitoring of Pathogens and AMR in Clinical WasTewater
TIGS-ICMR hands-on training workshops for first cohort VRDL personnel (20 people), as nominated by ICMR, with APSI and NCBS as knowledge partners, and ground partners Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt - India and the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

This partnership is the first of the series for ICMR-nominated VRDL personnel for capacity building, detecting and monitoring pathogens and AMR from hospital wastewater. APSI-India #Bangalore has completed 3 hands-on training workshops ‘Molecular approaches for pathogens and AMR surveillance’ with health personnel across the state of Karnataka and local government public health offices Sept 2024, November 2024 and March 2025, previously and we look forward to the IMPACT2025 partnership and further the capacity-building for public health personnel.

The 1ˢᵗ cohort training for Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) VRDL staff at the Bangalore Life Science Cluster was held May 5th–May 7th, 2025, a 3-day advanced hands-on training workshop focused on:
🔬 Molecular techniques for pathogen and #AMR monitoring
🌊 Hospital wastewater surveillance
🧪 Customization of indigenous AMR detection assays

This workshop was a key step in building national capacity for integrated AMR surveillance. Thanks to the BLiSC campus facilities, #BSL2 facility at NCBS Akshay Tharali | @Chaitra JJ, #NGS facility @Dr. Awadhesh Pandey LAKSHMINARAYANAN C P for supporting our program.

#AMR #mitigation #WastewaterSurveillance #PublicHealth #OneHealth #capacitybuilding #WWS #wastewaterbasedpeidemiology #WBE #indigenizedkits #costeffective #metagenomics #dynamicPCRkits

BLiSC organizers: Dr. Shivranjani Moharir and Dr. Sufia Sadaf

📍Key highlights:

Inaugural talks by Dr. Rakesh Mishra (Director, TIGS), Dr. Nivedita Gupta (Head, Division of Communicable Diseases at ICMR), Dr. L.S. Shashidhara (Centre Director at NCBS), emphasizing the importance of wastewater surveillance in tackling AMR and emerging infectious diseases.
An insightful session by Dr. Shivranjani Moharir, TIGS on the scope of AMR surveillance through wastewater, highlighting the need for spatiotemporal monitoring and data-driven action plans.
Field visit to the Jakkur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), demonstrating best practices for wastewater sample collection and inactivation, followed by hands-on training on nucleic acid extraction and qPCR assay protocols.
Lab tours including BSL-2, Insectary, and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) facilities.
Strategic discussions with Dr. Jitendra Narayan, (ICMR-HQ) throughout the three days of the workshop.
The workshop concluded with a session on scaling up clinical wastewater surveillance across VRDLs, led by Dr. Siddharth Bhatia, and interactive engagement activities by Dr. Sufia Sadaf (Ph.D.).

Together, we are laying the groundwork for a robust, nationwide AMR surveillance network rooted in environmental monitoring. A heartfelt thanks to ICMR for their continued support and funding, and to NCBS and APSI-India for the knowledge partnership. ✨

For queries and feedback, please reach out to us at apsi@csirccmb.org