The government of Odisha has approved the Biotechnology Policy 2024 to create a flourishing ecosystem for the biotech industry. This will further promote higher education, research & infrastructure development in the sector and strengthen the supportive ecosystem for innovation, incubation, investment, income & impact to build enterprises. Association of Biotechnology …
WASTE WONDERS: This had to happen: domestic and other wastes can go into making objects of daily use. A Canadian company, Low Energies Extrusion Technologies, uses flyash, clay, wire scrap and woodchips to make paving stones, tiles, chair legs and table tops. The company is running a thriving business using …
A team of researchers from the Delhi-based Centre for Biochemical Technology (CBT) has recently formulated an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Elisa) -- an immune-based test kit -- for the early detection of aspergillosis, a disease caused by the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, characterised by attacks of asthma and recurrent chest infibrillations. …
WALKING the tightrope of claims and counter claims seems to have become a way of life for the European Patent Office (EPO) as it contends with on a growing flood of hideously complicated patent claims. (Down To Earth, April 15, 1995. In a new ruling issued in early March, the …
The department of biotechnology (dbt) is planning to promote research in correcting genetic disorders. Scientists will now be encouraged to produce proteins, vaccines and genes for treating hereditary disorders, stated renowned biotechnologist V K Vinayak, a dbt official, at a meet of Indian physiologists in New Delhi recently. Vinayak claimed …
Late January, the European Patent Office took a tough stand on gene patenting by upholding a patent granted to the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. The patent covered the gene for H2-relaxin, a protein that allows the pelvic girdle to widen during pregnancy and childbirth. …
THE 7-year-long debate over patenting of life-forms in Europe has finally reached its denouement. On March 1, the European Parliament decided to drop a proposed directive that would have introduced common standards throughout the European Community (EC) for the patenting of new plants and genetically-altered animals. Ethical issues seem to …
What do you hope to achieve by patenting the protein gene extracted from Amaranthus or Ramdana? Cereals like rice and wheat are an important protein source. However, they are not nutritionally very efficient as they have very low concentrations of several essential amino acids, like tryptophan and lysine. Legumes like …
EVEN as scientists flood the environment with genetically-customised microbes, there is no certainty that these designer creatures will not turn into Frankensteinian horrors. Lest this happens, DNA-manipulators are now tailoring microbes that commit suicide once they serve their purpose. While it is easy to keep a check on the microbes …
How can agricultural biotechnology help meet the world's food needs in the coming century? Till about 1984, beginning with the Green Revolution in the late '60s, the rate of increase in food production was about 3 per cent annually, compared to the population growth, which was a little over 2 …
FINALLY waking up to health hazards from genetically manipulated drugs, the Union government is trying to monitor their production and marketing by setting up a new safety-test system. The ministry of industries has recently issued a list of such drugs and formulations. These are used on humans and animals as …
THE first Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Nassau in the Bahamas, which concluded in the 2nd week of December 1994, showed a shift in focus on certain key issues. The member nations seemed more concerned with issues like bio-safety and the dangers posed …
What is your main area of research ? I have been working in the US since 1967. My main scientific interest lies in oncogenes -- genes that cause certain cells in the body to become cancerous -- and in gene therapy. Gene therapy is an exciting new area of research …
An innovative scheme that combines the latest biotechnology with traditional organic farming methods will be tried out in some villages in Pondicherry to improve the income levels of the landless, small and marginal farmers. The Rs 1.5 crore project, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, will be implemented by …
THE 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity is proving to be inordinately troublesome for the Third World. At the end of a 2-week meeting on this treaty (meant to conserve animal and plant varieties) held in Nairobi this July, developing countries were hardpressed to retain the concessions they had wrestled out …
BACTERIA are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they plague us with diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy and on the other, they provide us with such delights as curd and wine. Now, we have bacteria that are miners. In the past few years, these diminutive diggers have become …
WHEN the Slovak, Gregor Mendel, wrote an obscure paper in 1866 after experimenting on peas for about 7 years, little did he realise that he had stirred a hornet's nest. His experiments were perhaps the world's first brush with what is today known as "biotechnology". It was not until much …
BIOTECHNOLOGY has been occasionally caught giving itself a pat on the back and parrying questions of ethics by flaunting its effects on crop production, rice included. The information contained in this book is a first-hand account of the various directions in which rice biotechnology has grown, an overview of the …
FIRST superheroes and now supercows. The USA is raising a breed of super-udders that will raise milk production in the country by 25 per cent, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). From 1 February, 1994, some farmers began injecting the hormone bovine somatrophin (BST) into cows to boost …
DINOSAURS roar and gallumph across the widescreen and the world watches spellbound. Steven Spielberg"s classic film, Jurassic Park, tells the story of extinct dinosaurs brought to life in a petri dish from genetic material that is all of 65 million years old. This is fiction with a good dose of …
US drug companies are responding to criticism of the high cost of prescription medicines by putting out a new message for consumers: "We are not out to fleece you. We are, in fact, toiling hard to 'discover' drugs that will cure terminal diseases". They have kicked off a television advertising …
