Department Of Biochemistry

“Today's biochemistry is tomorrows medicine”

INTRODUCTION

Biochemistry, treaties with the biomolecules and their transformation; is embraced with the chemico-scientific basis of the life processes at the biomolecule level to unravel the precise mechanism of molecular interactions for normal physiology and disease states. Thus, Biochemistry is interwoven with various disciplines within the spectrum of medicine and lays the foundation for rational approaches to traditional therapies, genetic therapies, drug design and personalized medicine.

• The Department strives to orient the students towards the application of the knowledge acquired, in clinical or public setting and to provide research and patient care services by way of advanced and routine biochemical analyses.

Department of Biochemistry commenced with the instituting of AIIMS Rajkot by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) in October 2020.

VISION

The Department of Biochemistry aspire for the pursuit of excellence in pedagogy, interdisciplinary research and clinical screening via diagnostic services to enable advancement in medicine and improvements in the quality of life as well as empowering educational practices for all students.

MISSION

• To provide students with a foundational understanding of the chemical basis of biological processes as well as the skill sets to critically evaluate, interpret and create biochemical information to develop internationally competitive clinicians with good clinical acumen, excellent leadership, communication and teamwork skills who can contribute for better healthcare nationally and internationally.
• To ensure learners (students and researchers) have diverse, hands-on, experiential opportunities and the critical thinking skills needed to adapt and thrive in a broad-range of professional environments.
• To perform and support significant novel scientific translation engagement into the myriad of molecular mechanisms underlying life and disease through interdisciplinary research and training to create knowledge, enhance advancing knowledge and improving the quality of life.
• To achieve excellence in laboratory medicine by establishing tertiary level clinical biochemistry service laboratory in accord with the pertinent standards and guidelines to cater the patients and community at large.
• For advancing pedagogy and scientific research of the highest international levels, integrating cutting-edge multidisciplinary approaches by collaborating with other academic and research institutes for continual improvement and to build a rich collegial atmosphere that will equip out faculty, staff and students with transferable skills and an awareness of research ethics.

VALUES

The core values of the department are ethical behaviour, honesty, integrity, discipline, team work, dedication to work and honour in all situations and at all levels.

SLOGAN

Performance par excellence.

 

FACILITIES AND SERVICES

FACULTY

Sr. No.	Name of faculty	Designation
1	Dr. Deepak Parchwani	Additional Professor
2	Dr. Ragini Singh	Associate Professor
3	Dr. Sagar Dholariya	Assistant Professor
4	Dr. Amit Sonagra	Assistant Professor
5	Dr. Anita Motiani	Assistant Professor

 

ACADEMICS AND TEACHING

The department is actively involved in the undergraduate (MBBS) teaching since the inception of the first Batch at AIIMS Rajkot in December 2020. Latest and innovative techniques are used for the teaching, and are carried out by various methods viz interactive didactic lectures, early clinical exposure, tutorials, demonstrations, group discussion, seminars, as well as integrated teaching with horizontal and vertical involvement. The teaching has been made interesting by providing food for thought using the problem-based study like objectively structured clinical cases and practical exercises.

 

OPD DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES

The Department of Biochemistry is catering to a functional Clinical Biochemistry Service Laboratory facility since the inception of OPD services on 31^st December 2021. The laboratory is equipped to measure concentrations or activities of substances in body fluids. The analytes on the Biochemistry Laboratory panel include Basic Metabolic Panel, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, Hepatic Panel, Diabetic Panel, Lipid Profile and other routine clinical chemistry analysis. Result validation and reporting is done using HMIS. The daily OPD patient care is strongly supported by these services.

Quality control: The laboratory routinely follows Internal Quality Control (IQC) procedures to ensure quality reports.

RESEARCH

The faculties at the department have been actively involved in the research activities in collaboration with various clinical and non-clinical specialties covering diverse field extending from basic clinical chemistry to molecular biology, immunology, hormones, cancer etc.

EXPANSION PLAN

DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES

To provide diagnostic services i.e. a collection of techniques for analysing biological markers in the biological fluids or genome or proteome and thus applying biomolecules to medical testing. To be categorized into sub-specialities of:

• Molecular Diagnostic Services for Targeted Cancer Therapy or infectious diseases or at all inherited genetic markers for metabolic and endocrine disorders.
• Screening Centre for Inborn Errors of Metabolism.
• Electrolyte and Arterial Blood Gas Analysis for acid-base disturbances.
• Maternal screening for chromosomal disorders – Double, Triple, Quadruple markers.
• Nutritional Assays: Vitamins, Minerals and associated metabolites.
• Coagulation markers: D-Dimer, Fibrin Degradation Products (FDP).
• Heavy metal toxicity and trace metal analysis.
• Clinical endocrinology: Assay of various hormone and related metabolites.
• Tumour markers.
• Autoimmune diagnostic centre and Inflammatory markers
• Toxicology & Therapeutic drug monitoring: assay of drugs of abuse/chemicals and measurement of therapeutic medication levels to optimize dosage respectively.

Quality control: The laboratory will enrol in External Quality Assurance (EQA) Programme by an accredited Proficiency testing provider for improved validation of testing services.

 

RESEARCH

The department of Biochemistry is envisioned to create interdisciplinary and collaborative research milieu engrossed to comprehend the biochemical aspect in relation with molecular and clinical aspects of diseases and to develop interventional therapies.

• The team at Department of Biochemistry is committed to establish a fully functional molecular biology laboratory, laboratory for the analysis of trace and heavy metals and high-end clinical laboratory for inborn error diagnosis.

 

Department strive to establish a state of art molecular diagnostic and research facility by collaborating with other National and International research institutes.

 

ACADEMICS AND TEACHING

• To lay Foundation for skill-based learning, digitalized, modern with well-equipped facilities.
• Integrating teaching, research, and clinical service in support of learners’ development