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Enhancing Research Skills

One Day Workshop to Enhance Research Skills

The team of MNR Foundation for Research and Innovations (MNR FRI) hosted me at MNR Dental Hospital. I was invited for the one-day workshop by Dr Vishwanadham Duppatla, COO, MNRFRI (LinkedIn). Read here to know more about the stellar personality and achievements of Dr Duppatla (Visu) .

Visu standing second from right in the first row.

Visu's role is to encourage the Research and Entrepreneurial culture among faculty and students of MNR educational trust institutions with a special emphasis on Medical college. He has established a process of establishing an incubation platform for graduate students who can start exploring their start-up ideas with limited internal funding.

Visu invited me to address the staff and students of the Dental and Medical colleges of the MNR Educational Trust on research skills and how to enhance it.

He is actively collaborating with young minds in the biomedical space and IKP Knowledge park for a mutually beneficial outcome.

Enhancing Research Skills

The covered topics on the three important topics

Research Methodologies
Research Ethics and Plagiarism
Research Article Writing

The staff and students of the dental and medical college were in attendance. It was the first time I was delivering a talk to a room full of doctors. They were one of the most interactive and a lively audience I had.

Research Methodology

The research methodology best practices were introduced to the students and a live examples of the problem formulation and problem definition were illustrated.

Ethics and Plagiarism

The ethics of plagiarism is merely the ethics of stealing. Plagiarism is an act when you take someone's work and try to pass it off as your own. This is known as stealing, which is not only unethical, but it is also illegal. In legal terms, plagiarism is considered literary theft. If you knowingly use another person’s work without giving them credit, you are committing plagiarism. Plagiarism also extends to ideas and products; taking someone’s original idea or product and passing it off as your own. [1]

Research Article Writing

The method of writing a research proposal and the process of writing and receiving a research grant were explained in detail. A step by step approach was discussed. You can read more about it here and here.

Medical Research Curiosity

Medical research is filled many voids which man has been trying fill with information and knowledge. One such topic of contention which came up during the discussion was Vitamin B17. It is now being called a 'Cancer Curing vitamin'.

Why is b17 banned in the US?

Health food stores had stopped selling B-17 in the form of apricot seeds in 2002, due to armed raids. The F.D.A. openly banned apricot seeds and laetrile extracts, because they had been published as a cure for cancer. Curing cancer is illegal in America. Bitter Almonds are a rich source of Vit. B-17. [1]

Amygdalin (Vit. B17) is a compound found in the pits or seeds of apricots, apples, peaches, plums, red cherries, and other fruits. It's also in bitter almonds. [2]

The above question (or example) raised many eyebrows and answer even more. The business angle of medical research and its relationship to the monetary funds allocated to curing cancer were correlated. The students were amazed and worried at how the noble field of healthcare was trapped in the whirlpool of business and money making and they were it in too ! ( The video on the left)

Solar Energy and Human Body

Another topic that was raised was the relationship of the solar energy and the human body which is becoming a concern for the Gen-X and Gen-Y crowds. The sun as the source of all energy and the lack of exposure to it causing problems to the physical human body were discussed.

The implications of the lack of sun - human activity as a medical research topic was shown. The areas of interest were:

Skin Problems and Conditions (Dermatology)
Hormones and bodily fluid operation (Endocrinology)
Reduced bone density and increased cases of pains in various body joints (Orthopedics)
Psychology

The range of topics that can come out of this research gaps are enormous and extremely beneficial.