One Day Science Exhibition on “Awareness of Genetic Disorders” was organized by the Department of Zoology and Institute of Human Genetics, University of Jammu in collaboration with Department of Pediatrics, Govt. Medical College Jammu on 25th of August 2022. The event was sponsored by the J&K Science and Technology Innovative Council, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of U.T of Jammu and Kashmir under “Science Popularization” and Azadi ka Amrit Mahaotsav programmes. The exhibition was attended by the school, college and university students from various parts of the U.T of Jammu and Kashmir. The students from various schools, colleges and universities participated in the event by presenting posters and models under the various themes of Genetic Disorders Awareness.

Prof. Seema Langer, HoD Deptt. of Zoology and Dean Life Sciences, University of Jammu formally welcome the Prof. Manoj K Dhar, Chief Guest, Dr. G.S. Saini, Guest of Honour, Invited Speaker Prof. Anupam Kour, Deptt. of Human Genetics, GNDU, Amritsar, and Ms. Sunita Razdan, Dr. Sanjay Kharoo, Joint Director J&K Science and Technology Innovative Council and other dignitaries, participants from various Schools, Colleges and Universities for the Science Exhibition on “Awareness of Genetic Disorders”.

Invited speaker, Prof. Anupam Kour, Deptt. of Human Genetics, GNDU, Amritsar delivered lecture on genetic disorders in-depth and explained common genetic diseases and their inheritance pattern in general population groups. She also emphasized on the diagnosis of genetic disorders and genetic counseling to the affected individuals and family members.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. M.K. Dhar, Chief Guest gave an overview of genetic disorders and emphasized the importance of such kind of awareness activities in the society. Prof. Dhar also created awareness about personalized medicine and advancement of genome sequencing techniques mentioning about the timeline for sequencing of whole human genome that can be now achieved in days and even hours.

Prof. G.S. Saini, HoD Pediatrics, SMGS, Guest of Honour spread the word about the importance of awareness of Genetic Disorders and appreciated the efforts of Deptt. of Zoology, University of Jammu for organizing the event. In his remarks he congratulated the department for organization of the programme and also urged the funding agency to promote the organization of more such programmes.

Prof. Shashi Sudan, Principal, Govt. Medical College Jammu and Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences explained the importance of genetic matching before marriages that can reduce the burden of genetic disorders e.g. Thalassemia, Down Syndrome, Sickel cell anemia etc. in families and in general per se.

Prof. B. K. Bajaj, Director, School of Bio-Technology and Co-ordinator IHG, University of Jammu spoke about the importance of diagnosis and awareness of genetic diseases in J&K UT.

The presentations from the participants were evaluated by the jury composed of judges and were awarded with the merit prizes in both the categories of poster and model making. Prof. Roopma Gandotra, Prof. N.K. Tripathi, Prof. Sunil Sharma and Prof. Mohd. Razaq were the judges for the evaluation of Models & Posters presented by the participants from various schools, colleges and universities.

The winners for the posters from School Category were DPS and IDPS, Jammu and for Model, JPS and IDPS bagged the 1st and 2nd prize respectively. In poster category from colleges and Universities, Cluster University Jammu won the 1st prize while Dept. of Zoology JU and GDC R.S Pura secured 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. In the category of Model making the 1st, 2nd , 3rd prizes were won by IHG JU, Dept. of Zoology JU and Cluster University, Jammu respectively. Consolation prizes were bagged by GDC Bishnah, GDC Chennani, GDC Vijaypur for Posters and GGM Science College , GCW Parade for Model making.

Prof. Sanjeev K. Dhigra and Dr. Parvinder were the organizing secretaries, Dr. Nisha and Dr. Rakesh Panjaliya, were the co-organizing secretary for the event. Dr. Sarabjeet Kour of Zoology Deptt. carried out the proceedings of the event. Among the organizers, Dr. Arti Sharma, Dr Parvinder Kumar, Dr. Sarabjeet Kour, Dr. Rakesh Panjaliya, Dr. Ripu Daman Parihar, Dr. Chinmoyee Maharana, Dr. Surinder Sharma, Dr. Pankaj Chibber from Dept. of Zoology were present. The formal vote of thanks was presented by Dr. Nisha Kapoor, Deputy Co-ordinator, IHG University of Jammu.

The awareness program on Genetic Disorders was a success with around 80- 100 participants from students of various schools, colleges and universities from UT of J&K.