Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE:
IN FOCUS: ASTHMA
FACE TO FACE
NICED: An Overview
BIOLOGIX :
BURNING ISSUES
UNSOLVED ISSUES
FROM ALUMNI’S
DESK
IN FOCUS
POLLUTION
FACE TO FACE
PAGE 2
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE PA
Dr Rabi Majumdar
Advisor, School Of Biotechnology,WBUT
Lecturer,Dept. Of Bioinformatics,WBUT
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 4
Biovariance, is blooming for the first time by our beloved students from the De-
partment of Biotechnology of this University with all its essence and breaking all
“In addition to the barriers to create the ultimate bonding between the students and teachers with a
having a major view to open up new vistas accumulating the scientific and technological informa-
impact on poverty tions of present and past. Amit Chakraborty, Project Officer, WBUT
and hunger,
biotechnology
has great I am happy to know that the students of Biotechnology are going to publish a magazine. Hope
potential to this will contain your thoughts and inspiration, not only on the narrow field of your class room
alleviate specialization but also on the general applicability of the knowledge on the benefit of human
environmental kind. It is important to inquire who we are on the planet and what we do to keep it safe and vi-
degradation”. able for all. Never stop asking questions. Keep the windows of mind open. My best wishes for
(2001) the success in your life". N.P.Bhattacharya,HEAD,Bioinformatics Dept,SINP,Guest lecturer,WBUT
BIOVARIANCE
CONTENTS
PAGE 5
EDITORIAL
9 IN FOCUS
NEW SCIENTIST
12
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 6
18 BIOLOGIX
BURNING ISSUES
22
WHITE BIOTECHNOLOGY:
Can it make our lives sweeter in
reality…??
24 UNSOLVED ISSUES
ASBESTOS POLLUTION –
A serious health hazard
PLASTIC BAGS-
Reality check up
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 7
DISCOVERIES
26
MOSQUITOCIDAL
VACCINES
28 BIONFORMATICA
PROTEIN MODELLING
CAREER ASCENT
CURRENT NOTIFICATIONS
BIOTECH POUTPURRI
33
CURRENT BIOTECH NEWS
ISSUES ON CAMPUS
40 WBUT CAMPUS : A place
21 QUIZ
AND
31
CROSSWORD
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 8
EDITORIAL
Our demographic dividend or nightmare?
-Dr Joydeep Mitra <utechbiotech@gmail.com>
Nandan Nilekani (Infosys co-founder) in his best selling book ‗Imagining India‘ (Penguin
Press, 2008) raises the stirring possibility that India would demographically be the youngest
nation within a few decades. If millions of young peoples‘ energy is harnessed constructively, it
could be a boon to the people of India and the world and if not, it would be a nightmare. With a
population of ~1,160,000,000, only 3 – 5% Indians read, write or understand English -an indis-
pensable currency of acquiring higher education. Adult literacy rates vary state wise within In-
dia; however, we still have the largest number of illiterate people among all countries. Malnour-
ishment and undernourishment in India is one of the highest in the world. The supply of clean
drinking water reliably separated from effluents, professional quality sewage treatment systems
remain an urgent yet unmet need. Water borne diseases deprive India‘s masses of immense pro-
ductivity gains including usurping hospital expenditures, thus cost economic growth and impose
human suffering on the most vulnerable. Disease causing microorganisms do not discriminate -
the most deprived among us are ones with the least amenities of care and support.
Science has delivered –the infant mortality rate has fallen, vaccination (small pox, polio,
among others), advances in medical care, sanitation, have increased longevity. More needs re-
main, especially in inventing sustainable energy use coupled with high standard of living. These
have to be met by the current young generation and be our demographic dividend which could
serve as an example in world history as has been accomplished by the following examples, de-
spite the prevailing challenging infrastructure within India.
Dr. Verghese Kurien‘s community based efforts in Anand, Gujarat, contributed exempla-
rily (white revolution) to enable India become the largest annual producer of milk in the world.
Prof. M. S. Swaminathan and his co-workers‘ scientific research have empowered Indian farm-
“Biotechnology has ers with sustainably higher crop yields fostering the much empowering green revolution. Mr.
the potential to Satyen ‗Sam‘ Pitroda and his colleagues ushered in the telecommunications revolution in India
bring tremendous which has accentuated connectivity among all citizens. Mr. E. Sreedharan has consistently dem-
benefits …” (July onstrated the professional completion of government projects (Konkan Railway and Delhi
10, 2001). Metro Rail) within budget and on time. Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research
Organization have accomplished some of the most cost effective payload liftoffs of satellites
into space. Tata Motors‘ engineers produced the world‘s lowest priced car (nano) in India.
This issue contains an interview with Dr. G. Balakrish Nair of National Institute of Chol-
era and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata. Learning and watching how successful scientists work
might inspire us and could pave the way for us to find newer, better ways of prosperous, sustain-
able and peaceful livelihood. Scientists and engineers must play an immense constructive role.
Innovation by young Indian minds could maximize our dividends and meet our immense
challenges with Indian solutions to an India aspired by Rabindranath Thakur (1861-1941, Nobel
Literature, 1913) as:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of
dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-- Rabindranath Thakur (in Gitanjali, 1910).
BIOVARIANCE
IN FOCUS - POLLUTION AND ASTHMA
PAGE 9
Causes of Asthma:
Environmental tobacco smoke: maternal cigarette smoking, is associated with high risk of
asthma prevalence and asthma morbidity, wheeze, and respiratory infections.
Poor air quality from traffic pollution.
High ozone levels has been repeatedly associated with increased asthma morbidity .
Caesarean sections: They have been associated with asthma when compared with vaginal birth.
It was proposed that this is due to modified bacterial exposure during Caesarean section compared
with vaginal birth, which modifies the immune system .
Psychological stress: It was found out that stress modulates the immune system to increase the
magnitude of the airway inflammatory response to allergens and irritants.
Antibiotic : It was found that antibiotics make one susceptible to development of asthma
because they modify gut flora, and thus the immune system.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 10
Local side effects: and cough are also common Osteoporosis by in-
Local side effects of symptoms associated with creasing bone
inhaled steroids depend use of inhaled steroids resorption and
on delivery system, dose Systemic side effects: decreasing bone
and frequency of adman Treatment with corticoster formation.
stration. The most common oids may cause hypotha
local side effect is Dyspho lamic-pituitary adrenal
nia (Hoarseness) which is (HPA) axis suppression by
reversible after discontinue reducing corticotrophin
tion of therapy. (ACTH) production , which
Orophayngeal candiasis in turn leads to reduced
(Thrush) affect adults more cortisol secretion by
often children. the adrenal gland.
Sore throat, throat irritation Steroids can also induce
References:
Books:
1. Essentials of Medical Pharmacology, K.D.Tripathi, 5 th Edition
2. Goodman & Gilman‘s Pharmacological basis of Therapeutics.
3. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, Gupta, Jindal & Kumar,Vol.12 Issue 24
Websites:
1. www.indiainfoline.com
2. www.pharmabiz.com
3. www.vhn.net
4. www.healthcare.com
5. www.druginfonet.com
6. www.journal.prous.com/.../images
7. www.soylabs.com/img/osteoporosis.jpg
8. www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/03_sec2_def.pdf
9. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma
PAGE 12
WITH
DR.DR G.B.NAIR, PhD, FNA, FNASC,
main drivers of future He graduated from Loyola college, Madras University in 1975, gained his M.Sc (Title-A review
on L-asparaginase production in microorganisms and studies on L-asparaginase activity in estua-
economies;
rine fungi (Supervisor: Dr. D. Chandramohan) in Marine Biology in 1977 from Annamalai Uni-
information and versity and acquired the Degree of Ph.D (Title-Studies on ecology, serology and taxonomy of
communications
Vibrio parahaemolyticus and allied vibrios from estuarine and neritic environs of Porto Novo
(Supervisor: Professor R. Natarajan) from Annamalai University in 1982. He joined the Depart-
technology, advanced ment of Microbiology,(NICED), Calcutta, a constituent Institute of the Indian Council of Medi-
materials, and cal Research and a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Diarrhoeal Dis-
eases, in 1981 and worked there till April 5, 2000 after which he took up the current assignment.
biotechnology”. He has been working on enteric pathogens with particular emphasis on Vibrio cholerae, the
causative agent of the disease cholera.
In 1987-88, he did postdoctoral research on the heat-stable enter toxin of V. cholerae with Dr.
Tae Takeda in the Department of Infectious Diseases Research, National Children‘s Medical
Research Center, Tokyo, Japan and in 1994-95 he did his sabbatical research on molecular epi-
demiology of V. cholerae in the Department of Microbiology, Kyoto University, Japan with
Professor Yoshifumi Takeda. He was also a visiting scientist at the Department of International
Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1992 for 3 months where he
worked with Dr. David Sack and at the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Nair is an elected member of the Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Vibrionaceae, Interna-
tional Committee on Systematic Bacteriology from 1986; in August 1996 at the Jerusalem IUMS
Congress; he was elected as the Secretary of this subcommittee. He was elected to the position of
Member-at-Large of the International Union of Microbiological Society (IUMS) at the Executive
Board Meeting held on July 7, 1994 at Prague, Czech Republic and held this position till August,
1999; he is the first Indian Microbiologist to be on the executive board of the IUMS. He was
elected as the Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) in 1995, as Member of
NICED Guha Research Council (GRC) in 1997 and as Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Sci-
ences (FNA) in 2002. On April 30th, 2002, Dr. Nair was elected as a Foreign Associate of the
National Academy of Sciences, USA and on November 26th, 2004, he was elected as a Fellow of
the Third World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy now renamed as the Academy of Sciences
for the Developing Nations, in November 2004.
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 13
Dr. Nair was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia,
USA in recognition and appreciation for his outstanding contribution to Public Health Education for Vibrio cholerae and Chol-
era in March 1994. On January 5, 1998 he was awarded the Professor S.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Award from the Physiologi-
cal Society of India and delivered the Memorial Oration at the Indian Science Congress at Hyderabad. He was awarded the
prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for Medical Sciences in 1998 for his contributions, which lead to the discovery of
the new cholera causing serogroup now globally known as Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal and for his contributions on describ-
ing a cell-rounding factor from strains of Vibrio cholerae.
Our Group at NICED on 20th April 09, From left to right: - Amit, Chandan, Santosh, Dr. G.B. Nair, Deblina and Abhinav
Dr. Nair is on the Editorial Board of several journals including Journal of Clinical Microbiology (Publication of the American
Society of Microbiology), Epidemiology and Infection (Cambridge University Press), Microbes and Environment, Indian
Journal of Medical Research, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology and the Indian Journal of Microbiology.
PAGE 14
NICED today is engaged in research on tion of Vibrio cholerae O139 strains was
diseases of national importance and bio- developed which has been supplied to
logical problems of global interest. It is WHO (SEARO), New Delhi for distribu-
the one of the major laboratories in India tion to various national and interna-
which initiated, right from its inception, tional laboratories. The Institute has its
multidisciplinary concerted efforts for basic science set up with well equipped,
conducting basic research on infectious modern technological facilities in differ-
diseases, specifically Amoebiasis and ent disciplines such as bacteriology,
Cholera. virology, parasitology, biochemistry,
pathophysiology, molecular biology,
NICED also conducts research on
electron microscopy, immunology and
acute diarrhoeal diseases of diverse eti-
vaccine development.
ologies as well as typhoid fever, infective
hepatitis and HIV/AIDS related epidemi- In order to fulfill the vision,
“The first century of ological research and screening. Institute National Institute of Cholera and Enteric
the new Millennium also trains health professionals for better Diseases (NICED) shall identify enteric
will belong … also to management and prevention of diarrheal infections of national health priority,
diseases and for rapid and correct diag- Initiate appropriate multidisciplinary
biotechnology which
nosis of etiological agents. Epidemiologi- research to develop strategies for treat-
will bring cal investigations of diarrheal diseases ment, control and prevention of enteric
unprecedented are carried out in different parts of India. infections of national health priority ,
advances in human Antiserum of Vibrio cholerae is raised in Collaborate with other national and in-
and animal health, the Institute and supplied to the national ternational scientists who are working
agriculture and food and international laboratories. Presently, for the same vision.
production, specific monoclonal antiserum for detec-
manufacturing and
sustainable Though the Institute is principally financed search. The WHO and UNICEF also pro-
environmental by the Indian Council of Medical Research vide assistance on applied research. Sev-
management”. (ICMR), New Delhi, different national and eral workshops on management and pre-
(Foreword, National international funding agencies extend sup- ventive aspects of diarrheal diseases are
port to the Institute on specific research sponsored by WHO, UNICEF and Ministry
Biotechnology Strategy
projects. The Japanese International Co- of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of
for South Africa). India. These national and international
operative Agencies (JICA) has financed a
technical collaborative research workshops are conducted at the Institute
with the Institute to conduct re- and also in different parts of India involv-
search molecular aspects of differ- ing doctors of State Health Services and
ent enteropathogens with special international participants. Each year 4-5
emphasis on Vibrios. Under the post-graduate students of this Institute
DEPT. OF JICA-NICED exchange programme get Ph.D. degree from different Universi-
VIROLOGY, Japanese scientists are working in ties in the state (Calcutta University,
NICED the Institute and scientists and Jadavpur University, Kalyani University,
technical persons of the Institute Burdwan University, Viswa Bharati Uni-
are also receiving training in ad- versity). Post-graduate medical students
vance Japanese laboratories. De- also attend courses at the Institute for
partment of Biotechnology (DBT), training on diarrheal diseases and scien-
Government of India DST, CSIR, tists act as co-guides for M.D. students
Ministry of Environment, etc. sup- for thesis work. WHO and JICA also send
port several projects on basic re- international fellows.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 15
Achievements of NICED
Scientists of NICED documented the efficacy of oral rehydration salts solution (ORS) in
young children with dehydrating acute diarrhoea including cholera, which led to wide-
spread acceptance of ORS particularly in children.
Documented the efficacy of doxycycline, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin for cholera.
Nalidixic acid, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin are recommended nationally and interna-
tionally for the treatment of shigellosis.
Identification of new serogroup Vibrio cholerae O139, Bengal from NICED, prompt re-
porting to the national and international scientific community and tracing the pathway
of spread of this new serogroup. On the basis of research at NICED, WHO recommended
that O139 cholera should be notified as cholera.
Documented the clinical characteristics, stool and blood biochemistry of patients in-
fected with V.cholerae O139 which was indistinguishable from those of typical O1 chol-
era.
Detection of Adult Diarrhoea Rotavirus (ADRV), belonging to Group B rotavirus from
Calcutta, the first report of its occurrence outside China.
users (IDUs) in North-Eastern States of India, particularly Manipur.
Development of oral recombinant cholera vaccineVA1.3 as a collaborative effort with
CSIR institutes (IM Tech & IICB).
High prevalence of HIV infection among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Manipur,
Mizoram and Nagaland was documented by NICED scientists.
High prevalence of HIV seropositivity among antenatal mothers was also detected.
Reported first sattelite epidemic of Herpes zoster among IDUs from Asia.
Association Herpes zoster infection and tuberculosis and
MOLECULAR
MICROBIOLOGY LAB
IMMUNOLOGY LAB
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 16
FACE TO FACE:
BY: Abhinav.K.V,Ami Rai,Chandan Gupta, M.Tech (Biotechnology)
2. What are the things that still motivate you and make you focused enough to attain newer heights?
Dr G B Nair: It is always related to my science being some help to people and this is the message
I would like to convey to the students. What is the mandate ? How you‘re guided by the interest
to help poor people. India is still a rapid emerging economy. 750 millions still comes under the
poorest strata. 750 millions out of 1.4 billion is a huge data. Most of my research is directed to
the community and poor people at large.
“Biotech is a
3.What virtues you realized in yourself which helped you choose research as a profession?
terrific industry,
but it's not like Dr G B Nair: My virtue which has helped me choosing my career is exceptionally hard work and tell
having a big my students that there is absolutely no substitute for hard work. You might be intelligent but if you‘re
not hard working, it would not take you far.
chip-
manufacturing
industry.s”
4.Which is the toughest job: Doing research or working as an administrator ?
Dr G B Nair: The virtue which has helped me choosing my career is my exceptional hard work I also
tell my students that there is absolutely no substitute for hard work. You might be intelligent but if
you‘re not hard working, it would not take you far.
Dr G B Nair: Both. If you‘re not qualified, you cannot do anything of quality. If you don‘t
have the Ph.D , you cannot go beyond a certain stage. You should first establish yourself
and then pursue quality work.
6. What was your childhood dream? To what extent do you think that you have achieved
it when you look back ?
Dr G B Nair : I have achieved more than I had dreamed of. In Cholera, our work is interna-
tionally recognized. When I was doing my Ph.D , there was a time when I didn‘t know
where to go because as a marine microbiologist, there were no openings. I was very fortu-
nate that I got a job in this institute as an Assistant Research Officer in 1981 and follows.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 17
7. Can you enlighten us on the technology transfer program under JICA and what implications does it have on
the development in science and technology for students of biotechnology ?
Dr G B Nair : JICA program was started as a post doctoral program in 1987. That was first time when I met
Dr. Takeda who is my mentor and then he offered me a post doctoral fellowship. I think collaboration is
more about human interaction and this JICA building is a standing monument of that. Dr. Takeda became
interested in Calcutta and he initiated JICA.
8. Is the current status of the research going on suitable enough to support the sustainable development of
the living standard of the underprivileged in India ?
Dr G B Nair :Science needs to be translated into public good and many of research organizations across
the country are taking up the challenge. I was away from here from 2000-2007 working in International
Centre of Diarrheal Diseases in Dhaka, Bangladesh. One issue that continuously bugged me was that
money was less here but when I came back I was amazed to see the amount of money available for re-
search here. Chinese have adopted a fascinating strategy to get back people from outside by giving them “Science is the
huge salaries but the good thing is that India is still a democratic and that is a big difference. organized way
of thinking
proved by
9. What basic measures and policies would you suggest to promote basic science at the school
level ? systematic
Dr G B Nair : I would try to change the way science is taught. When I was at the international
observations.”
position, what I found in me was the inability of to communicate well during meetings which I
acquired quickly. Our system doesn‘t allow us to question. Our system doesn‘t propagate that.
I would like to make students more inquisitive and question more.
10.What qualities would you like to incorporate in younger generation in order to build a
good scientific temperament and the right attitude ?
Dr G B Nair : I would like to incorporate the ability to innovate. That is an outstanding re-
quirement. Students want access to the things which are easier. I would try to tell my stu-
dents that your creativeness is the most important. You may not have best of everything but
still you can do high quality research just by innovation.
12. What are the areas in which do you think the attitude of an Indian researcher is lacking ?
Dr G B Nair : Our education system should not be flawed. What is important is to harness this
massive brain power which is going all over the world .The need is to tap that brain power
and utilize it for the benefit of humanity.
DARP 32 CIRCUITS
“Biotechnology is a
Fig 1: Graph showing mortality rates[5(a)]
key industry for the
future. Without Physiological basis of drug addiction:-
DARPP-32,a protein in the brain
biotechnology India The ill effects of drug addiction on facilitates addictive behaviors.
can hardly ensure human body are directly related to Silencing of DARP-32 protein with
wellbeing for its the central nervous system. It gets some kinds of active ligand can in-
weakened and may even lead to hibit the active site of DARPP-32, it
future generation”.
death. Excessive drug usage causes can inhibit production of this protein
(2001) the release and prolonged action of and could help to prevent drug addic-
dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine tion.
binds to D1 receptor(DRD1,a hu-
man gene) which is present in cen-
tral nervous system. This G-protein
coupled receptor stimulates adenylyl
cyclase and activates cyclic AMP-
dependent protein kinases. D1 re-
ceptors regulate neural growth, neu-
ral transmission in the human
physiological system. So, in drug Fig2:- Dopamine [5c]
addiction, DA binds to D1 receptor
triggering a signaling cascade within
the cell. cAMP dependent protein
kinase phosphorylates cAMP re-
sponse element binding (CREB)
factor, a transcription factor which
induces the synthesis of certain Figure3:- D1 receptor[5d] Figure4: CREB[5(b)]
genes including C-Fos.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 19
Dr Florence
Wambugu,
Director, ISAAA,
East Africa:
“In addition to
having a major
impact on poverty
and hunger,
biotechnology
has great
potential to
alleviate
environmental
degradation”.
(2001)
Table 1:- Steps showing Collection of data and identification of common molecular networks for Drug addiction.[1]
This database has a user inter- addiction related genes by using as background and interprets the p-value and other
face which supports browsing of the FASTA format. values .On the basis of the analysis, it gives a predic-
the genes by chromosome or The KOBAS server tion of the common molecular pathway of these drug
pathways, advanced text search have many distinctive tools to addicted genes.[1]
by gene ID, Organism, Type of find out the result if we give as A recent research paper has published that there are
addictive substances, Technol- input the sequences of drug ad- 396 addiction related genes and identified five path-
ogy platform, Protein domain dicted genes. It analyzes the ways that are common to addiction of four different
and sequence search by BLAST data, taking in the input of substance: cocaine, opium, nicotine and alcohol. Also,
search. We can also find out the FASTA sequences of drug ad- there are 18 metabolic and signaling pathway common
DNA sequence or the amino dicted genes and using all the to the addiction related genes[1]. All these pathways
acid sequences of the human known genes in human genome were interlinked with each other through CAMII.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 20
FREE
OFFER
Special Offer
This is a good place to make a special offer for joining your
organization, purchasing a product, or requesting your service. You
can also transform the feedback into a sign-up or generic feedback
form.
References:-
2.Chen F, Li T, Fan SL, Dang YH, Chen T, Yan CX. [Gene expression profiling
in drug addicted brain ]2008 Jul;30(7):809-14. Review. Chinese. PMID:18779121 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
3.Drug Addiction: From Basic Research to Therapy - by Rao S. Rapaka, Wolfgang Sadée - 2008 - Medical - 782 pages.
BIOVARIANCE
QUEST
PAGE 21
QUIZ :
1.What is the alternate name of the enzyme glutamate synthase?
2. Which vegetable on fermentation gives a product called Sauerkraut?
3. What is the name of the plant toxin that inhibits electron transfer in the NADH-Q
reductase complex and can be used as a fish and insect poison?
4. What is Virapap?
5. What is the term used for the process of producing pharmaceuticals using geneti
cally modified plants or animals?
6. Which is the fastest method of DNA sequencing?
7. What are ruderal sites?
8. Which is the most effective method for producing virus free plants?
9. Sonti is a beer prepared in India by fermentation of rice. Apart from yeasts ,a
particular mold is used for this fermentation. What is the name of the mold?
10. The colour and flavour of saffron are due to _____ and --_____ .
11. Flavr Savr tomato was developed by utilizing which technology?
12. What is the full form of GEMP?
13. What is the name of the plant glycoside that inhibits ATP-ADP translocase?
14. What is calpain-10?
15. Lewy bodies are associated with which neurodegenerative disease?
.
Identify the person in this picture
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 22
BURNING ISSUE :
WHITE BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS RELEVANCE IN INDIA
BY: Santosh Kumar Chaudhary,M.Tech (Biotechnology)
Sugar availability is So it can potentially A life cycle analysis shows net negative
high in India, our country being contribute in the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions when ethanol
the second largest sugar pro- in a fuel mix is higher than the standard
pollution produced by plastic
ducer in world. And it is more 10%.
than enough to serve the nation materials and also save the pe- India has the raw materials to set up the
so can be put to the secondary troleum which if used in indus- biotech industry, first being our surplus
use of a substrate for PLA (Poly try can lead to more pollution. sugar and second is the enzyme, which is
lactic acid) Other use of having sugar is the major requirement in distilleries,
textile, leather processing industries. At
that it can be used in produc- present various companies working in
Benefits of producing PLA:- tion of bioethanol. Bioethanol this sector are : Advanced Biochemicals,
1. PLA can replace petroleum from cellulose generates 8 to Biocon India, Maple Biotech, Bharat
in the creation of polymers. 10 times as much net energy as Biotech, Novozymes, Artemis Biotech
2. PLA can be used in the pro- and others. Indian enzyme products are
duction of plastic cups and pack- is required for its production. It
is estimated that one gallon of also supplied to Europe and other Asian
ing materials. Main advantage is countries.
that the plastic produced by PLA cellulosic ethanol can replace
is biodegradable and recyclable. 30 gallons of imported oil.
BIOVARIANCE
Many researches are going on in India to maximize the production of xylanase from different microorganism.
Some are as follows-
1) A xylanase producing fungi has been isolated from soil and identified as
Trichoderma messesi-SAF3. Maximum growth of the microorganism is found
under submerged condition enriched medium, whereas highest enzyme produc-
tion was recorded at 72Hrs. Purified enzyme hydrolyzed xylan to xylopentose
and xylose. A number of xylanase producing microorganism were isolated
from different soils of district Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India as selec-
tive xylan agar medium by plate dilution technique4.
2) An experiment is conducted in university of Mumbai for the production of
xylanase by Immobilization of Aspergillus sp. on nylon bloting cloth whose
yield is 1.68 fold higher than that of freely suspended cells Aspergillus sp. 5.
3) Amino acids such as DL-2-amino-n-butyric acid, DL-alanine, L-lysine
monohydrochloride, DL-valine and L-proline enhanced total xylanase produc-
tion from Staphylococcus sp. SG-13 up to 5.5-fold. The present study showed
that xylanase production has mainly been governed by the chemical structure of
amino acids and their analogues6.
4) IICB Kolkata has patented the process for the production containing xy-
lanase and carboxy methyl cellulose from termitomyces clypeatus having ac-
cession no IICB-411.
Biotechnology applied to pharmaceutical sector in the production of riboflavin (vitamin B2) which re-
duces the emission of carbon-dioxide by 80% and water emissions by 67%. The market share of the bio-
technology method of vitaminB2 production increased from 5% in 1990 to 75% in 2002 7 . Many re-
searches are going on in india to increase the production of riboflavin. Fermentation studies were carried
out for the bioproduction of riboflavin with an agro industrial byproduct, molasses as the carbon source
and lentils as the nitrogen source using E. ashbyii strain in Department of Chemical Engineering, S.V.
University, Tirupati 8.( G. Prabhakaret al 1992).
Many researches are going on for the production of industrially compatible micro-organism but
biotechnology as an industry is still at its infancy, there are very few industries that are using bioprocesses
for their productions. The reasons for this are many. One may be the lack of knowledge of important bio-
catalysts among the managerial staff at companies, they may not be familiar with the different bioproduc-
tion processes, existing potential microbes and lack of suppliers and advertising of biocatalysts in the
mills. Additional barrier is that Industries do not want to take risk with a new technology and still prefer
the tried and tested classical ways. Also, these new methods would require investments early on, in new
machines, training of personnel etc and not many are yet ready to make these investments when the
returns are not guaranteed and it is difficult to determine the long term benefits .
REFERENCE:
1.Europabio,―WhiteBiotech,‖(2004)availableathttp://www.europabio.org/pages/white_biotech.asp#what.
2.Bajpai, Pratima, ―Biotechnology for Environmental Protection in the Pulp and Paper Industry,‖Executive Summary (98)
3.Office of Compliance,―Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) Releases for Pulp and PaperFacilities‖(2000) .
4.Sanjay Kar, Asish Mandal, Pradeep K. das Mohapatra, Keshab C. Mondal; Bikash R. Pati. Production of cellulose-free
xynalase by Trichoderma reesei SAF3.Brazilian Journal of Microbiology (2006) 37:462-464.
5.Purushottam V. Gawande and Madhusudan Y. Kamat. Immobilization of Aspergillus sp. on nylon bolting cloth for
production of xylanase. Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering.Volume 86, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 243-246.
6.Saurabh Gupta, Bharat Bhushan and G.S. Hoondal1. Enhanced production of xylanase from Staphylococcus sp. SG-13
using amino acids. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. Volume 15, Number 4 / August, 1999.
Vibrio cholerae
BIOVARIANCE
UNSOLVED ISSUES
PAGE 24
Asbestos is a serious health fore it can be breathed in to The Ministry of Mines and
hazard commonly found in the lungs or swallowed into Minerals remarks that it may
our environment today. The the stomach but asbestos lift the ban on asbestos min-
name asbestos is given to a fibres slips through and may ing. It is ignoring the views
group of minerals that occur get trapped in the lungs and of exposure victims, in-
naturally in the environment remain there for a long time formed recommendations of
as bundles of fibres and can and it is carcinogenic in public sector medical ex-
be separated into thin, resil- nature . perts, and mounting evi-
ient threads. These fibres dence of an asbestos disease
are resistant to heat, fire, While white asbestos min- epidemic emerging in devel-
and chemicals and are bad ing is currently banned in oped countries. The fact
OUR EARTH IN conductor of electricity. India, its import, export or remains, that the govern-
TROUBLE.. Exposure to asbestos may use in manufacturing is re- ment is pity reluctant over
increase the risk of asbesto- stricted. But still some In- this issue. So general aware-
sis, lung cancer, meso- dustries have asbestos plants ness should be created about
thelioma, other cancers, located even in Midnapore substitutes such as the vari-
and other nonmalignant in West Bengal though there ous types of MMMF (man
lung and pleural disor- is a ban over asbestos. Re- made mineral fibre), that are
ders. Workplace, commu- cently, a ship named Blue generally much less hazard-
nities and the homes are the Lady containing asbestos ous although not completely
common areas for the peo- has been permitted to anchor free from risk.
ple to get exposed to the at Alang, Gujarat. The ship
asbestos, which releases does not have the mandatory REFERENCES:
“Biotechnology asbestos fibres in the air Form 7 documents from
has the potential to when disturbed. Asbestos country of export required http://www.asmasiapacific.org/
download_file.php?uid=81
bring tremendous fibres are harmful because for hazardous waste ship-
benefits …” (July they are extremely small ments. Neither does it have
http://www.medicinenet.com/
10, 2001). and sharp. Ordinary-sized a complete inventory of asbestos-related_disorders/
dust is caught and expelled toxic wastes on board. page4.htm
by the body's defences be-
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 25
The law comes under Section V of the Environment Protection Act of 1986. According to the Act, usage, sale or storage of
any kind of plastic bags is forbidden. The Government of India have banned the manufacture and use of plastic carry-bags
of thickness below 20 microns and size 8‖ X 12‖. The use of recycled or coloured plastic bags for carrying food-stuff has
been prohibited for health reasons. But the law cannot be implemented as the traders complained that if they shift from plas-
tic bags, the cost will increase four to five times and ultimately the customers will have to bear the cost. So the government
should take up some alternative steps to minimize the pollution without burdening the common mass. The use of jute and
paper bags should be implemented, and if possible the government should also use the biopolymer to curtail the consump-
tion of plastic. Plastic bags can also be recycled but it rarely happens. If the government can minimize the use of plastic it
would not only decrease the pollution but it would also decrease the dependency on foreign oil as the plastics are made from
the oil (a non-renewable energy source).
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 26
DISCOVERIES
MOSQUITOCIDAL VACCINES FOR MALARIA—
A DISEASE OF THE POOR
BY: Meenu Maan, M.Tech (Biotechnology)
In light of insecticide
resistance and environmental con-
cerns regarding the use of insecti-
cides1, control of vector borne
diseases using anti-vector vaccines
MALARIA KILLS…. is particularly appealing. Malaria
is a disease that can be controlled
using this approach. Two general
characteristics of malaria transmis-
sion cycle may allow the disease
to be controlled through an anti Fig. Possible molecular-immunological mechanisms of vector impairment and death. 3
(1) Enzyme/receptor inhibition or blockage of protein channels through antibody or
mosquito vaccine targeting ma- lectin binding (yellow shapes).(2) Cellular lysis by a complement membrane attack
laria vectors, First, mosquitoes and complex (green circles). (3) Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC),
man are the only two hosts of the via cationic protein, hydrolases, reactive oxygen intermediates, cytokines, or other
four species of human malaria released factors (red circles). Whether ADCC, or cytotoxic T-cells alone, can induce
apoptosis of vector cells is not known .
parasite, and second, malaria is
only transmitted laterally amongst
these two hosts. effector cells (cytotoxic T- Immunodominance,
The basic principle is that lymphocytes, NK cells, and immune masking, and anti-
blood feeding vectors ingest blood macrophages) are some of these body cross-reactivity further
for energy and egg production. factors that may act separately complicate the matter. Exten-
The bloodmeal contains red blood or synergistically to impair the sive biochemical purification
cells, serum and immune factors insect. of the vector tissue prior to
that are normally present in the Past research has proven the immunization is usually done
host bloodstream. If the host is feasibility of killing blood feed- to preempt this, but such work
vaccinated with antigens from ing vectors and reducing their is extremely laborious and
vector tissue (e.g midgut proteins), fecundity via immunological impractical when dealing with
the host‘s immune response will factors ingested along with smaller vectors such as mos-
be directed towards these antigens blood from the host. quitoes.2
and the bloodstream will have However successful Most of the ap-
immune factors against these Ags identification of molecular fac- proaches involved in discov-
circulating in it. These tors within vectors has been ery of new and unique antivec-
immune factors when ingested rare. This may be said to be the tor antigens apply a reduction-
with blood meal attack the native rate limiting step of this re- ist approach to sort and test
antigen (e.g, the vector midgut), search. The difficulty being that individual antigens or immune
this can lead to the experimental animals when factors. . In this way, the con-
death or impair- immunized with a homogenized fusion of multi- immune fac-
ment of the vec- vector tissue, a polyclonal and tors recognizing many anti-
tor. A spectrum multifactorial immune response gens does not conceal the
of immune fac- is produced against this homo- identification of critical anti-
tors are involved geneous mix of vector antigens. gens.
in this namely, And it becomes difficult to
antibodies, match an immune effecter like
lectins, complement, and immune antibody to a single antigen.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 27
COUNTERING MALARIA
BIOVARIANCE
Protein Modeling:
PAGE 28
NARROWING DOWN
THREE MAIN APPROACHES FOR
THE DISCOVERY SRTUCTURE PREDICTION:
HOMOLOGY MODELLING
PIPELINE…..” FOLD RECOGNITION
SECONDARY STRUCTURE
PREDICTION
AB-INITIO MODELLING
So from the chart we can predict
that Homology modeling is the
best among the all if only the tar-
get sequence or query sequence
has the homolog structure in the data- in the field of molecular modeling is the Ab-
base i.e. if we align the query sequence initio structure prediction. This strategy tells
with the homolog sequence found in the that a proteins fold spontaneously to their native
database by sequence similarity search- conformations to attain the most stable structure
ing and if it shows at least 25% identity in minimum thermodynamic free energy. So if the
upon alignment on 80 or more residues. total free energy of a protein could be minimized
So it is not 100% sure that all times dur- through thermodynamic approach, one can pre-
ing the alignment one can find the ho- dict the three dimensional structure of a particular
molog sequence in the database by data- protein. But the progress of this approach to pre-
base similarity search. The other meth- dict the 3-D structure of a protein is less compare
ods of structure prediction except homol- to others because it is a difficult job to achieve
ogy modeling which is a smart approach this. This is a biggest challenge for the scientists.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 29
The program file anneal.run and newton.run are This steps is required iteratively upto 400
submitted to the job queue, connection to the jobs times for producing lowest energy mini-
running on a remote server, facilitated and imple- mized values from each run directory
mented by the software TINKER. After submitting output file (newton.run.o*).
the jobs, the running started following the simulated After producing the 400 output files
annealing procedure of anneal.xyz, the given guess (newton.run.o*) from each run directory,
structure of predefined sequence. After producing the it is required to filter out the lowest en-
files anneal.001 to anneal.032 (the time required is 2 ergy minimized value output files among
and ½ hours), the program Newton, started to run, 400 files. And hence we sorted the Final
which converts the minimized structure anneal.032 to Function Value (lowest energy value)
newton.xyz and more stable Newton truncated new- from each output file
ton.xyz_2 respectively and produces the output files newton.run.o.* among 400.
(newton.run.o*) of energy minimization values, also
containing the calculated lowest energy minimized
final function value, which is required for sorting.
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 30
Acknowledgments:
Dr. Ansuman Lahiri (Lecturer in the dept. of BMBG, University of Calcutta)
Protein visualization in PYMOL
References: Introduction to BIOINFORMATICS (Arthur M.Lesk)
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 31
fastest..?????
DOWN ACROSS
1. Sequence format that begins with a single-line description 1. Primary protein component of prokaryotic flagella.
followed by lines of sequence data ,can be used as
query input when searching tools like BLAST or Clustal W. 2. Homologous sequences ina single species that are the result of
gene duplication.
4. Proteinaceous compound of which the spicules in 3. An inactive form of the repressor protein, which becomes the
Demospongiae are composed. active repressor when the corepressor binds to it.
6. A space introduced into an alignment to compensate for 5.Group of cloned pieces of DNA representing overlapping regions
insertions or deletions in one sequence relative to another. of a particular chromosome.
7.The ratio of _______ to cytokinin in certain plant tissues
8. Compound whose activated form emits light. determines initiation of root versus shoot buds.
9. Associations between actinomycetes and plant roots
10. Complex sulfated polysaccharide, extracted from red algae .
and used as a solidifying agent in culture media. 11. A small molecule which can elicit an immune response only
11. _______ is used as a high level disinfectant in hospitals to when attached to a large carrier such as a protein.
disinfect surfaces. 12. Class of biochemical compounds like sugars, starch, chitin etc.
12. Heme protein that carries electrons, usually as member
of electron transport chains. 13. A measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by
15. A complex, branched polysaccharide made of- microbes to degrade organic matter in a water body.
many glucose molecules joined into chains of varying lengths. 14. Continuous-mode fermentor in which fresh medium is
introduced to keep turbidity constant.
17. Increased risk of atherosclerosis is associated with de 16. The number of different alignments with a score equal to
creased serum levels of ______. or better than that can be expected to occur simply by chance.
BIOVARIANCE
CAREER ASCENT
PAGE 32
It is significantly harder to create a good but incorrect answer-choice than it is to produce the
correct answer. For this reason usually only two attractive answer-choices are offered. One
correct; the other either
intentionally misleading or only partially correct. The other three answer-choices are usually
fluff. This makes educated guessing on the GRE immensely effective.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 33
BIOTECH POUTPURRI
CURRENT BIOTECH NEWS BY: Anindyo Roy (M.Tech (Biotechnology)
Natto reader's
attention,
Amyloids aggregates of fibrous
proteins, the major component of place an
amyloid plaques accumulated in loid related disease. Natto kinase an anticlotting serine protease
many neurodegenerative disease
present in Natto is the principle component that dissolves the fi- interesting
brous protein aggregates .Thus Natto may provide an effective
like Alzheimer‘s disease can be tar- sentence or
treatment for Alzheimer‘s disease as well as presenting some deli-
geted by popular fermented food
cious dishes.
(Bacillus subtilis) in South-East quote from the
Asia called Natto. According to Reference:
scientists in Taiwan, Natto which is Hsu et al. amyloid-Degrading Ability of Natto kinase from Ba- story here.”
made from boiled soybean can be cillus subtilis Natto.
effectively used to treat such amy- Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemisty,2009;57.
Granulomatous arthritis
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 34
FLU CHIP:
ANTIBIOTIC REVOLUTION:
Researchers at the University of different from the naturally oc- leading to safe and healthy food for us.
Cork has engineered the antibi- curring protein..According to Reference :Society for General Mi-
otic Nisin (an antimicrobial pro- Dr. Field a researcher involved crobiology , New, More Effective Hey…
tein produced by a bacterium in this study ,different Nisin Nisin Anti- nothing
Lactococcus lactis), to prevent variants can now be used spe- biotics of mine
methicillin resistant Staphylo- cifically to target specific patho- Combat is use-
coccus aureus (MRSA)and Lys- gen .Another benefit is that Superbugs less!!!
teria monocytogenes a food Nisin variants can now lagely And Food
borne pathogen by altering dif- replace the commercial food Diseases.
ferent amino acids. preservatives such as sug-
These bioengineered ars,salts and other chemicals in
family of variants, are slightly combating bacterial growth ulti-
mately
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 35
hydrogen.According to re-
searchers at the Penn State
archeal biofilm could use the Reference:
Shaoan Cheng, Defeng Xing,
current to convert carbon di-
Douglas F. Call and Bruce E.
Don‘t oxide and water to methane in Logan.
worry.. I absence of any organic mate- Direct Biological Conver-
am here rial, usually found in micro- sion of Electrical Current
bial electrolysis cells.The into Methane by Electro-
just feel
cells has about 80 percent methanogenesis.
free to eat conversion efficiency of elec- Environ. Sci. Technol.,
tricity into meth- 2009 ,Pensylvenia State Uni- MCROBES-
ane.According to Bruce E. versity.
Logan, Kappe Professor of “A boon or a
Environmental Engineering,
Penn State that the electro- bane…???”
Microbe can use electricicity to chemical reaction occurs
convert carbon dioxide and water without the presence of any
into methane a renewable energy metal catalysts and requires
source.Microbial electrolysis re- less energy as compared to
quires an electrical voltage in conventional chemical indus-
addition to that is produced by trial methods for conversion
bacteria using organic materials to of carbon did oxide to meth-
produce current that releases ane.
BIOVARIANCE
From the Alumni’s Desk
PAGE 36
ComputationL Computer-aided drug design is no longer merely significantly advance the discovery process.
a promising technique. It is a practical and real- Computer-aided molecular modeling helps
biology istic way of helping the medicinal chemist. On
determine which molecules should be synthe-
its own it is unlikely to lead to pharmaceutical
knowledge.. sized and tested. Special computational tech-
novelties but it has become a significant tool, an
aid to thought and a guide to synthesis. Still niques are also available to discover biological
drugs must be synthesized and tested by the targets (proteins, nucleic acids) of a drug.
computational techniques can contribute a clear There has been a manifold increase in the
molecular rationale and above all provide a spur amount of experimental data because of the
to the imagination. burgeoning progress in high-throughput instru-
Advances in biomedical and pharmacological
mentation and techniques. Accompanying this
research have continued to benefit
progress has been a growing reliance of ex-
humanity by producing drugs that
perimental researchers on computer-aided
either alleviate symptoms of disease
drug design (CADD). CADD, or "rational drug
or provide a cure. Exploring the re-
discovery," helps make it possible to select a
lation between chemical structure
more manageable number of candidates that
and function of compounds and in
can then be tested experimentally. Thus, both
finding a cure for diseases. This re-
intuition and rational analysis of databases can
cent success demonstrates that with
be used to generate effective therapeutic com-
good experimental backing, the syn-
pounds. Besides the heavy emphasis on com-
ergy between experimental and
puters, CADD relies extensively on various
computational approaches to drug design can
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 37
In-silico screening of compound databases is presently the There are several key areas where bioinformatics sup-
most popular and useful cheminformatics applications in phar- ports CADD research
maceutical discovery. At the moment, virtual screening tech- # Virtual High-Throughput Screening (vHTS). Pharma-
niques are roughly segregated into target structure and ligand- ceutical companies are always searching for new leads
based applications leading to heartening outcomes for novel to develop into drug compounds. One search method is
drug development. Besides protein-ligand docking, structure- virtual high-throughput screening. In vHTS, protein tar-
based approaches include the development of pharmacophore gets are screened against databases of small-molecule
features from active or binding site. Alternatively, methods compounds to see which molecules bind strongly to the
starting from hits or leads range from pharmacophores or target. If there is a ―hit‖ with a particular compound, it
multi-dimensional Quantitative Structure-Activity Relation- can be extracted from the database for further testing.
ship (QSAR) models and binary fingerprints to compound With today‘s computational resources, several million
clustering or partitioning methods and statistical techniques compounds can be screened in a few days on sufficiently
capable of analyzing screening datasets and deriving predic- large clustered computers. Pursuing a handful of promis-
tive models of bio-activity. Today SAR is a fundamental tool ing leads for further development can save researchers
for developing safer and potent drugs. The importance is on considerable time and expense.
management of time and minimization of animal sacrifice and # Sequence Analysis. In CADD research, one often
expenditure. Modern Pharmaceutical research with its drift knows the genetic sequence of multiple organisms or the
towards high-throughput systems demands swift and accurate amino acid sequence of proteins from several species. It
characterization of large number of compounds for potential is very useful to determine how similar or dissimilar the
target proteins. As a matter of fact, these collections of com- organisms are based on gene or protein sequences. With
pounds must be scored for predictive bioactivity to prioritize this information one can infer the evolutionary relation-
their suitability for chemical synthesis. ships of the organisms, search for similar sequences in
bioinformatics databases and find related species to
those under investigation.
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 38
# Homology Modeling. Another common challenge one can search for chemical compounds
in CADD research is determining the 3-D structure with similar structure or properties to a
of proteins. Most drug targets are proteins, so it‘s
known compound. There are a variety of
important to know their 3-D structure in detail. It‘s
estimated that the human body has 500,000 to 1 methods used in these searches, includ-
million proteins. However, the 3-D structure is ing sequence similarity, 2D and 3D
known for only a small fraction of these. Homology shape similarity, substructure similarity,
modeling is one method used to predict 3-D struc- electrostatic similarity and others.
ture. In homology modeling, the amino acid se-
quence of a specific protein (target) is known, and # Drug Lead Optimization. When a
the 3-D structures of proteins related to the target promising lead candidate has been found
(templates) are known. Bioinformatics software in a drug discovery program, the next
tools are then used to predict the 3-D structure of step (a very long and expensive step!) is
the target based on the known 3-D structures of the to optimize the structure and properties
templates. of the potential drug. This usually involves
# Similarity Searches. A common activity in bio- a series of modifications to the primary
pharmaceutical companies is the search for drug structure (scaffold) and secondary struc-
analogues. Starting with a promising drug molecule,
ture (moieties) of the compound.
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 39
In the early 1990‘s there was a great deal of opti- On the contrary, it soon became apparent that
mism that computer aided drug design would revo- computational tools were needed that could opti-
lutionize the way in which drugs could be devel- mize these lead compounds into potent drugs. The
oped. The enduring exponential increase in com- concept of drug optimization versus denovo de-
puting power had progressed to the point that rudi- sign is an important one. The difficulty with de-
mentary estimations of ligand receptor comple- novo ligand generation is that an entire structure
mentarity could be performed. Furthermore, com- is being created from scratch. The confidence
puter graphics technology had achieved the ability one has of accurately predicting how this struc-
to generate vector models of chemical structures ture will interact and bind within a target receptor
and manipulate them in real-time. This offered, is shaky at best. In drug optimization, we begin
for the first time, the ability to interactively study with a lead compound whose bound structure
computer models of ligand structures and their within the receptor has been characterized, most
binding interactions with a receptor. The use of likely through x-ray crystallography. Subtle
mass screening and combinatorial chemistry al- modifications are then performed to generate de-
lowed researchers to discover lead compounds in a rivative compounds using structure based drug
rapid and efficient manner. As such, denovo de- design to improve binding affinity. Because we
sign tools and their associated problems were no are making much smaller changes, our faith in the
longer needed to generate lead structures. One validity of the resulting structures is far
would surmise that computer-aided drug design greater.These derivatives then undergo testing to
technology would have soon ceased to exist. determine which modifications improve binding.
BIOTECH-
“A technology
The structures of the best ligands can then be eluci- allowing the chemist to focus, synthesize, and for the
dated to verify the accuracy of the modifica- test only the most promising ligands. Thus, util-
tions. This refinement process continues iteratively izing computer aided drug design software to aid future.”
until optimal binding ligands are produced. in the refinement of weak binding lead com-
In addition, the act of generating chemical pounds is the most effective manner in which
derivatives is highly amenable to computerized auto- these tools can be employed. The use of com-
mation. Consider the application of targeted structure puter modeling to refine structures has become
based combinatorial chemistry as discussed standard practice in modern drug design. There-
above. Libraries of derivative components are assem- fore, CADD and bioinformatics together are a
bled based upon the analysis of the active site. Be- powerful combination in drug research and devel-
cause of the combinatorial nature of this method, an opment. An important challenge for us going for-
extremely large number of candidate structures may ward is finding skilled, experienced people to man-
be possible. A computer can rapidly generate and age all the bioinformatics tools available to us.
predict the binding of all potential derivatives, creat-
ing a list of the best potential candidates. In essence,
the computer filters all weak-binding compounds,
BIOVARIANCE
PAGE 40
ISSUES ON CAMPUS
WBUT-SCHOOL OF BIOTECH POLLS
As it is said, the first step in solving a problem is to first realize that there is a
problem and polls are generally conducted to create awareness about the pros
and cons of the situation prevailing in any system. The response obtained by the
organizers from all the members of the School Of Biotechnology was amazing and
we would like to thank them for their kind consideration and support for making
this attempt a grand success. In future also, we hope each and every individual
will help us in creating awareness about the common issues and get them sorted
out positively for making WBUT - SBT a better place to live and work in.
What WBUT-SBT thinks about these issues:
“Democratic
B. What basic measures and policies should be there to promote
basic science at the school level?
sophistication is 1.Stress on practical oriented teaching
2.Quality of teachers should be improved
3.Stress on understanding concepts
the ultimate 4. No changes to be made
5.Others
sophistication…”
C. What do you think is better in this scenario to achieve your goals in
science?
1.Smart work
2.Hard work
3.Basic understanding
4.Common sense
5.Others
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 41
F. What could be done to maintain the equipments and chemicals in the lab
in a good and working state
I. E journals:
1.Subscription should be at par with other IITs
2.Only free abstracts would suffice my research
3.I do not have any idea about it.
4.Consumes a lot of time in obtaining paid papers
BIOVARIANCE
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 42
Big question isn‘t it. Well, most of the forums on internet, biotech aspirants always
ask or looking for good answer. Mostly it is frustrating you don‘t get right answer.
Somethings that are useful are:
#1 PLANNING :
If you are looking for a career in BIOTECHNOLOGY, you definitely need to plan
ahead. Most of the biotech aspirants are not truly opted for BIOTECHNOLOGY.
Reason is simple, before coming to BIOTECHNOLOGY, they might have tried their
luck in Medicine entrance exams.
It is not because we don‘t have jobs, it‘s just planning and finding information
start ahead and plan at least one year before what you want to do.
#2 Mentor:
#3 Field :
Best thing is find a subject you really like during your course. NOTIFICATIONS
#4 Internet:
“ BIOVARIANCE”-The Team
CHIEF EDITOR - Dr. Joydeep Mitra, Reader ,WBUT
And all those individuals that helped us achieve this challenge with perfection.
DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Abhinav.K.V, M.Tech (Biotech)
BIOVARIANCE