Department of Experimental Medicine

The Department of Experimental Medicine (DEM) is the first department to be started in the Medical University in the year 1992. Its focus has been on infectious diseases and mainly on HIV/AIDS and Leptospirosis. The Department is involved in multidisciplinary research to address the challenging issues that are relevant to the society. The department has proved its excellence at both national and international level in education and research in HIV and Leptospirosis. This department was the first in the country to provide rural PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV) services from the year 2000 onward at Namakkal District, Tamilnadu. In the year 2009 the department has been recognized as a Referral Laboratory for HIV DNA PCR testing by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Government of India. The Department is also recognized as a National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for HIV testing under the External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS) of NACO since the year 2000.

The Department's activities involve

Education and Training
Research Programs
Diagnostic Services
National Reference Center for HIV/AIDS
Implementation of MTCT program at rural areas of Tamilnadu.

Faculty

Dr S. Mini Jacob, MD., Professor & HOD
Dr .K.Sivasangeetha, MD., Associate Professor

Staff

Dr. K. Mary Sushi, M.Sc, M.Phil, Ph.D. (Research Officer)
Dr. D. Anitha, M.Sc,M.Phil., Ph.D., (Research Officer)

Mr. G .Thatchinamoorthy, B.Sc,DMLT, M.Sc. (Lab Technician Gr1 )
Mr. A .Ganesan, M.Sc,M.Phil (Research Officer)
Mr. V .Mohan, (Lab Technician Gr III)
Ms .R. Vanitha, (Lab Technician Gr III)
Mr. G . Pachaiappan, (Lab Technician Gr III)

Workshops, Training program and conferences attended by the staff of the Department

2012

Dr.S. Mini Jacob conducted the Ethical Committee meeting on 13/6/12.
Dr. Mary Sushi attended the NRL review meet at NARI, Pune on 25th January, 2012.
Dr. S. Mini Jacob attended the International workshop on HIV/AIDS and women in Washington DC (January 9th to 13th 2012).
Ms. Baby and Mr. Rajkumar (laboratory technician) attended the ICTC Lab Technician Training program held at Stanley Medical College from 3rd to 7th January 2012.

2011

Dr. Mary Sushi attended the HIV/AIDS update at TB Sanatorium Hospital from 14th to 16th November, 2011.
Mr.Pachiappan & Ms. Vanitha attended the Biosafety and calibration of Equipments workshop held at the Microbiology Department in Madras Medical College from 5th to 7th August, 2011.
Ms.Anitha & Dr.Mary Sushi attended the Biosafety workshop of MMC/ TANSAC on 14th & 15th of July, 2011.
Mr.Ganesh & Mr.Thatchinamoorthy attended the Calibration of Equipments and Biomedical waste training program from May 30 to 1st June, 2011 at TB Sanatorium Hospital.
Mr.Thatchinamoorthy attended a training program on filter paper testing of sentinel surveillance samples at NARI on 7 & 8th of April, 2011.
Ms.Anitha attended the Introduction and Scientific and Medical writing workshop held in Epidemiology Department on 18/3/2011
Mr.S.Ganesan & Dr.K.Mary Sushi participated in the Scientific workshop conducted by ITECH and CDC in Chennai ( Feb 17 & 18th 2011)
Ms.Amudha & Dr.K.Mary Sushi participated in the SRL meeting held at TANSAC(29th January 2011)
Dr.S.Mini Jacob participated in the International workshop on HIV/AIDS and women in Washington,DC (January 10 & 11th 2011)

2010

Dr Mini Jacob gave a lecture on “Testing related to HIV” for Medical officers participating in “NACO Training program for LACs (Linked ART Centers)” on 14th December, 2010 at GHTM training center, Tambaram Sanatorium.
Ms. Amudha attended the EQAS NARI training program held in October 2010.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended the HIV DNA PCR meeting held at Hyderabad on Sept 31 & October 1st, 2010 conducted by NACO, APSACS.
Ms. Anitha attended the HIV Science Symposium held at YRG Care in August 2010.
Mr Thatchinamoorthy, underwent HPLC training at C.L. Baid Mehta College of Pharmacy 12-17th July, 2010.
Mr Ganesan attended the EQAS training program at Pondicherry State AIDS Control Society on July 7-9th, 2010.
Ms Amudha of the EQAS project visited NARI, Pune and brought the coded samples from NARI to be tested in the Department on May 20th 2010
Dr S Mini Jacob participated at the “International Conference on Health System Strengthening” organized by the Tamilnadu Health System Project, Government of Tamil nadu from 6-10th May, 2010 at Mamallapuram, Chennai.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended the SRL meeting on NABL Certification conducted by NACO on 6th & 7th April 2010 in Bengaluru.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended Training on diagnosis of HIV in infants and children below 18 months by using DNA PCR Testing–The National Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) program of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) 9th –11th February, 2010 at Hyderabad.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended the ‘Apex Lab Meeting’ under the EQAS program of NACO, conducted by National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune on the 28th & 29th January 2010
Ms Amudha of the EQAS program attended the Training Program for Technical officers SRL from 21.01.2010 to 23.01.2010 at GHTM, Tambaram Sanatorium. Dr Mini Jacob gave a talk on “Introduction to HIV, Transmission and disease”
Dr Mini Jacob, Dr Mary Sushi and Ms Amudha attended the SRL review meeting at Tamilnadu State AIDS Control Society on 05/01/2010.
Mr. Ganesh Arumugam, Laboratory Technician underwent training in ” Laboratory Management System and ISO-15189 internal audit for clinical laboratories” at Center for Electronics Test Engineering (CETE), Government of India, Bangalore from September 8-11th, 2009
Dr M.R. Sivakumar met with Dr Ann Melvin, Dr Thor Wagner and Mrs Nina Ellis at the University of Washington Seattle USA to discuss the Indo US Project on 28th of April, 2009.
Dr S Parameshwari, Dr S Mini Jacob and 2 medical students from the University of Washington (Ms Natalie and Ms Andrea) attended the Medical symposium on Pneunocystic Jeroveci Pneumonia organized by the ITECH Fellows at Tambaram Sanatorium on the 6th of April, 2009.
Mr G Thatchinamoorthy, Laboratory Technician and Dr S Mini Jacob attended one-week South Zone workshop on External Quality Assurance Scheme in NIMHANS Bangalore organized by the NACO on 27th April to May 1st, 2009
Dr S Mini Jacob attended a workshop on “Latest approach to HIV infection and management” conducted by Merieux Foundation on March 3-6th 2009 at New Delhi.
Mr. Ganesh Arumugam and Mr. G Thatchinamoorthy, Laboratory Technicians participated in the workshop for Dried Blood Spot testing under HIV sentinel surveillance held at National AIDS research Institute (NARI), Pune, on19th & 20th March 2009.
Dr M.R. Sivakumar, Prof & HOD was invited to speak on “NeuroAIDS” to ITECH fellows and visiting international ITECH faculty at Tambaram Sanatorium on 16th of February, 2009.
Dr S Mini Jacob gave a lecture on HIV Diagnosis to the ART Medical Officers at Tambaram Sanatorium on 10th of February, 2009.
Dr S Parameshwari attended the 2nd ASCCON Conference on HIV/AIDS which was held on 27th February to 1st March 2009 at Jaipur and presented a poster on PMTCT program.
Dr M. R Sivakumar, Prof & HOD and Dr S Mini Jacob attended the Training of the Trainers Program (Training on HIV/AIDS for the laboratory technicians of the Tamilnadu State AIDS Control Society) at the Department of Microbiology at the Madras Medical College on 6th October 2008.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended a clinical symposium on “2nd line regimen of ART” conducted by the ITECH Fellows at Tambaram Sanatorium on 17th of October, 2008.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended ” External Assessment of HIV testing quality of NRL’s with Apex Laboratory” in National Institute of Biologicals at Noida from 23-25th September 2008.
Scientists from NACO and CDC visited the department for the monitoring and evaluation of the Laboratory as well as for EQAS on the 16th July 2008.
Dr M. R Sivakumar Prof & HOD visited the Puget Sound Blood Center , Seattle USA on the 2nd week of June, 2008 to observe Umbilical Cord blood banking.
Dr.S.Mini Jacob, Ms.D.Anitha and Ms.K.Annie Phoebe attended the 3rd INTEREST Workshop at Lusaka, Zambia -May 2009.
Dr S Mini Jacob attended the 2nd INTEREST Workshop at Dakar, Senegal -May 2008.
Ms D Anitha, visited Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA for training in HLA Typing assays-July 2008
Dr. K. Mary Sushi, Mr. G Thatchinamoorthy, Ms.Vijayakumari attended the HIV/STD Training program at University of Washington, Seattle, USA- July 2007.
Dr S Mini Jacob was trained to Perform P24 antigen assay at the Department of Pediatrics and Laboratory Medicine (under Dr. Lisa M Frenkel), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. May 13th –June 30th, 2006
Dr.Parameswari, Dr.S.Mini Jacob, Dr.S.Shoba and Dr.N.M.Samuel attended the Eighth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection 12-16 November 2006 Glasgow, UK
Dr S Parameshwari attended the HIV/STD Training program at University of Washington, Seattle, USA- July,2005.
Mr A Ganesan attended training in Laboratory techniques in the Department of Pediatrics and Laboratory Medicine (under Dr. Lisa M Frenkel), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. July , 2005
Dr N M Samuel, Dr S Mini Jacob, Dr S Shoba and Ms JJ Vijayakumari attended the 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24-28 July, 2005
Dr N. M. Samuel and Ms. D Anitha attended the XV International AIDS Conference 2004, July 11-14th, at Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr S Mini Jacob, underwent training in OligoNucleotide Ligation Assay (OLA) in Dr. Lisa Frenkel’s Laboratory at the University of Washington for 8 weeks (July- September, 2004). As a part of the training program, she also participated in “Principles of STD/HIV Research” Course, held by the University of Washington, Center for AIDS and STD, Seattle, Washington, USA. July 19-29, 2004.
Dr.K.Mary Sushi and Ms.Vijayakumari attended the EGPAF Call to Action Directors Meeting at Kampala, Uganda October 11-14th, 2004.
Prof. Dr. C. V. Bhirmanandham and 3 faculty members and two Research Scholars of the Department attended and presented papers at The 2nd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment, Paris, France, 13-16 July, 2003.
Mr A Ganesan attended the Leptospira training program at the National Referral Center for Leptospirosis at ICMR, Port Blair, Andaman, 2003
Dr N. M Samuel, Dr S Mini Jacob and Ms Udayakumari participated in EGPAF Call to Action Site Directors meeting at Cape Town, South Africa in August 18-21st, 2003.
Dr.R Vishwanath and Ms. D Anitha were trained for a period of 8 weeks (October to December 2003) at University of Washington Seattle, USA for HIV resistance testing at Dr. Lisa Frenkel’s Laboratory.
Ms.Vijayakumari and Dr.S.Mini Jacob participated in the workshop on Grant Writing organized by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, USA at Mysore, Karnataka in January 2002.
Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. C. V. Bhirmanandham and four staff members of the Department attended the X1V International AIDS Conference-Barcelona, Spain, July, 2002.
Dr S Mini Jacob and Dr. R Vishwanath were trained in automated DNA Sequencing and HIV drug resistance testing at Center De Biologic, Madrid, Spain, 2002
Dr N M Samuel, attended the 1st International AIDS Society Conference on HIV pathogenesis and treatment held at Buenos Aires, Argentina – July 2001.
Dr N M Samuel attended the World Federation of Scientists, Erice, Italy on August 2001.
Dr N M Samuel attended the 3rd Conference on global strategies for the prevention of HIV transmission from Mother to Infants, Kampala, Uganda-September 2001.
Dr.R.Vishwanath, Dr S. Parameshwari and Dr.S.Mini Jacob attended the advance training on HIV Clinical Management organized by the International Antiviral Therapy Evaluation Center (IATEC) in collaboration with the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Virology, University of Amsterdam. The Netherlands from 1st June 2001 – 6th July 2001.
Dr.K.Mary Sushi attended and presented at the 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Melbourne, Australia – October 2001.
Dr.S.Parameshwari attended the meeting on the development of Manual of Procedures for the MTCT project at the National Institute of Child Health Development, Washington, USA in November 2001.
Dr.S.Mini Jacob, Dr.K.Mary Sushi attended the SEAWP workshop on Quality Assurance in HIV testing at Bangkok, Thailand in February 2000.
Dr N M Samuel, Dr S Mini Jacob and Dr S Parameshwari attended 2nd Conference on Global Strategies for the prevention of HIV transmission from Mothers to Infants: Montreal, Canada, September 1999
Dr S Mini Jacob and Dr S Parameshwari attended Training programme on HIV/AIDS at the KIS clinic, Munich, Germany: June-July 1998
Dr Major D.Raja, Dr N.M Samuel, Dr S Mini Jacob and Dr S Parameshwari attended 12th World AIDS Conference, Geneva, Switzerland: July 1998
Dr S Mini Jacob, Dr S Parameshwari and Ms Adeline Attended seminar on role and responsibility of women for the prevention of RTI/STD/HIV/AIDS conducted by TANSACS, 1997
Mrs G Sundari and Dr S Mini Jacob underwent training in the use of HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) at the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, September 1994
Dr. Mini Jacob trained in the use of HPLC-Course sponsored by Lab India at Pune, October, 1994