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 …
THE UNION government has sanctioned a Rs 10.16 crore plan for the popularisation of biopesticides. This comes on the heels of a large outlay for organic farming announced in the present five-year plan. The project, proposed by the department of biotechnology (DBT) and approved on January 24, envisages the setting …
SINCE ancient times, we have been aware of several basic ideas of heredity. Plants and animals with superior characteristics were isolated and multiplied. Human mating practices were restricted to exclude incest, as well as matings outside specific defined groups. In the 1970s, genetics received a real fillip with the advent …
WHEN PETER Sutherland lowered the gavel in Geneva on December 15 to signify the end of the Uruguay round of negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the reaction in India was sharply divided. While an enraged opposition charged the "economic sovereignty of the country had been …
• WITH WESTERN governments trying to cut health-care costs and consequently, the pharmaceuticals market becoming more competitive, many companies including Glaxo are keen to move into untapped markets. Glaxo chief executive Richard Sykes insists that to be successful, the company must develop "innovative medicines". "Every week, 3,000 genes are being …
NEW RULES for approving experiments with altered genes will slash the red tape that British scientists claim obstructs research (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1895). A report by the British parliament's science and technology committee says British and European laws governing genetically altered organisms are "excessively precautionary", "obsolescent" and "unscientific" …
A GROUP of 20 scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune has developed biotechnological tools to study the genetic diversity of rice. Says team leader P K Ranjekar, "We are interested in studying crops of special relevance to India, and so chose to work primarily on rice." In …
THE BIOLOGICAL Diversity Convention meeting, which was held in Geneva from October 11 to 15 and attended by representatives of 130 countries, failed to establish ground rules for its implementation because most countries gave priority to their own interests. Consequently, the governments have asked for two more meetings to be …
THIS YEAR'S Nobel prize -- worth $825,000 -- for physiology and medicine has been awarded jointly to UK's Richard Roberts and USA's Phillip Sharp for their 1977 discovery of "split genes". The discovery took everybody by surprise because till then, the gene had been thought indivisible. The two scientists made …
GENETIC engineering -- the ability to manipulate the molecular blueprint of life -- is coming of age. Biotechnology is transforming medicine, agriculture and animal husbandry: In the not too distant future, cancer will no longer be a dreaded disease, crops will be able to resist pests and tomatoes will be …
IN RUDYARD Kipling's The Jungle Book, the sagacious elephant reveals to a rapt animal audience the mystery of the black stripes on the body of Sher Khan, the tiger: They were nothing but bramble scratches. That was Kipling's pigment of imagination. Scientists now believe the designer of colourful patterns on …
AS A FRONTIER technology today, genetic engineering is attracting the best scientific minds the world over. The ability to manipulate the genetic make-up of living things has the potential, theoretically at least, to transform human health and world agriculture. It also has immense ethical and safety implications for humankind and …
DESIGNER science is coming of age. Scientists are combining the growing understanding of processes and structures at the molecular, atomic and subatomic levels with computer modelling techniques to synthesise new products. And, they are now discovering that their theoretical simulations are borne out by reality. Scientists hitherto used trial-and-error methods …
CHITTOOR M Habibullah, principal of Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, and his team of gastroenterologists have demonstrated, for the first time in India, that liver cells from a human foetus, when injected into a patient suffering from liver failure, can help the liver recover. Seven patients, whose livers had failed …
MICROBES found in the Antarctic region may soon find application in several industries, especially breweries and bakeries, which will exploit the ability of these microorganisms to produce enzymes at low temperatures. Scientists at Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) found these microbes produce appreciable amounts of enzymes even …
THE DAYS of the European corn borer, a notorious maize pest found in North America and Europe, seem numbered now that researchers have been able to inject into susceptible crops a gene fatal to the insect (BiolTechnology, Vol 11, No 2). But the gene, which has been taken from a …
SHEEP treated with a protein found in the salivary glands of male mice can shed their fleece on their own. Scientists use the protein produced artificially through genetic manipulation in a technique called biological wool harvesting. The technique has been found to be so effective nets have to be put …
IN GENOME Mapping, the entire DNA sequence is mapped in a square whose corners and the associated quadrants are marked A, T, G, C, to represent the four nucleotides that comprise DNA. A nucleotide is represented by a dot in the appropriate quarter or quadrant of the square on the …
FROM PERSONALITY traits to physical appearance, all characteristics are believed to be manifestations of what an individual's genes contain. But, what are genes made of? Now, Indian scientists have devised an ingenious computer programme that will enable researchers to analyse the complex structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and thus assist …
US BIOTECH shares have fallen 33 per cent since January 1 and many firms face the dismal prospect of going out of business, if investors continue to shy away, afraid that drug price reforms will weaken the industry's profitability. Further deterring investors are US President Bill Clinton's public criticism of …
IF SEWAGE disposal is your problem, try treating the waste with earthworms -- you won't be disappointed. Biotechnologists studying earthworms have evolved a process to convert organic waste water -- like sewage, food processing and paper and pulp industry waste water -- into reuseable water while the earthworms' excreta can …
