TRAINING COURSE ON 'RADIOIMMUNOASSAY AND ITS APPLICATIONS'

摘要

The 50~(th) Training Course on "Radioimmunoassay and its Applications" organised by the Radiopharmaceuticals Division, BARC, was held during October 11-30, 2004, at the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology, Vashi, Navi Mumbai, 24 medical personnel, most of whom were pathologists and endocrinologists from various parts of the country, participated in this course. Radioimmunoassay is an analytical technique based on immune reaction between the analyte and its antibody which is highly specific, and radioisotopes are used to trace a reaction imparting high sensitivity. This technique can measure substances such as hormones without any extraction at nano/pico mole concentrations in complex biological fluids. Dr Rosalyn Yalow, who along with Dr Solomon Berson, invented this technique in 1959 was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1975. Work on RIAs was started in BARC in the early seventies and RIA kits for several important hormones were developed and supplied to users in hospitals. This led to the need for training persons from hospitals in this technique, which in the course of time became a well formulated training course. The aim of the training course is to train prospective users of radioimmunoassay kits with all the basic aspects of the methodology and its quality control. It enables the trained person to do the assay in a meticulous and correct way, report the values with accuracy and tackle any problem in an intelligent manner. Radiopharmaceuticals Division has been conducting this training course since 1980 and the demand has necessitated two courses a year. The faculty members are drawn from BARC as well as BRIT, which is the supplier of RIA & IRMA kits now. In the past 25 years, 50 courses have been held and over 1200 medical and para-medical professionals have been trained. One exclusive Radioimmunoassay course was held for IAEA sponsored candidates in 1986. Because of the keen interest and request, a few courses were held outside Mumbai, viz. at Bangalore, Surat, Tirupati, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram, which mainly to the local candidates.