IndiaBioscience - News from 2012

Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology’s success in epilepsy management

2012-12-31T00:00:00+05:30

This week's news story highlights the contribution of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) and Prof. Radhakrishnan's work in particular who also happens to be the senior author of the epidemiological tudy presenting the rise of neurological disorders in India (see previous news story).

Turns out, the institute researches different facets of neurological disabilities in an Indian context to produce directly relevant, implementable and cost-effective solutions. Probably, the most notable is the establishment of R. Madhavan Nayar Center for Comprehensive Epilepsy Care at SCTIMST. It has become one of the leading centres for epilepsy care outside North America and Europe and has undertaken over 1200 surgical procedures for epilepsy over the past 17 years. Under Prof Radhakrishnan's direction, SCTIMST has pioneered advanced neurological therapies in India, such as epilepsy surgery and deep brain stimulation. They have achieved excellent outcomes comparable with the best centres of the world and all this has been done at a fraction of the cost abroad (1,2).

By reviewing data of all patients who had undergone presurgical evaluation at Madhavan Nayar Center for Comprehensive Epilepsy Care between 2005-2008, following up with these patients post-surgery and taking their economic background into consideration, they have proposed considerations for performing a cost-effective epileptic surgery. Selection of patients with identified lesions was found to lead to a favourable seizure-free postoperative outcome. In cases, where MRI scans cannot detect a lesion, invasive monitoring needs to be used. In India, health insurance doesn't cover epilepsy care. Mean cost of surgery and hospitalisation amounts to INR 60,000 with invasive monitoring increasing the cost to INR 1,37,000 (3). This precludes invasive monitoring usage to affluent patients only. The same is reflected in the study where 40/214 patients could not proceed further with the surgery because of their inability to afford invasive monitoring. Of note, the cost at this centre is still a fraction compared to cost in USA or in Europe.

Under such conditions the authors conclude that in order to achieve excellent results under minimum cost, it is best to select patients whose lesions can be distinctly identified using MRI alone (4). In another study, SNP rs3812718 associated with higher incidences of epileptic seizures in Caucasian patients was probed for distribution and epilepsy association in South Indian patients. 203 epileptic patients of Kerala origin who had undergone surgery and were seizure-free for at least two years following surgery formed the study group. 282 people also of Kerala origin who didn't have any neurological disorder were chosen as control. Genotyping of these two populations and statistical analysis showed that contrary to European population, SNP rs3812718 doesn't contribute to development of epileptic seizures in Kerala population. This shows the need to identify population specific biomarkers to aid early diagnosis of neurological disorders (5).

On the treatment side, a survey of physiotherapists in the state of Kerala showed variation of treatment approaches in stroke rehabilitation programmes. Uses of walking aids and involvement of the physiotherapist in discharge of the patient were found to be contentious issues. This underlines the need to put a standardised rehabilitation programme in place (6).

The success of SCTIMST in a highly complex case like epilepsy surgery, exemplifies how excellence can be achieved through planning, research and manpower development in Indian healthcare. Availability of newer MRI techniques, companies designing cheaper diagnostic tools, collection of population specific genomic data is sure to make a dent on costs.

However, the first step would be recognition and sensitisation to the problem which can only be achieved by promoting awareness of neurological disorders by education.

An epidemic on the rise

2012-12-10T00:00:00+05:30

An epidemiological study conducted by a team of Indian scientists alarms us to an emerging epidemic of neurological disorders. Increasing life-span, road accidents and stroke occurrences are pin-pointed as the main contributing factors.

Road accidents result in 60-70% of total traumatic brain injury cases in India. Based on the data from National Crime Records Bureau for road accident deaths, the number of people suffering from brain injury is an estimated 1.5-1.7 million each year. Increasing life-span in a population results in increased number of age related dementia. The risk for dementia doubles every 5 years additional lifespan over 65 resulting in 1.6 million dementia patients annually. Over the past 40 years, the incidence of stroke has doubled in India adding 0.45-0.6 million patients. All together, 7 people every minute may acquire a neurological disability in India due to these causes.

Usually family members act as the primary caregiver and face the economic burden of treatment as well. Increased expenditure and loss of earnings (patient's financial contribution) delivers a double whammy. Considering that over 37% of Indians fall below the international poverty line, the socioeconomic burden becomes disproportionately high for the poor*. The study suggests actionable items to contain this problem – enforcing traffic safety measures, better diagnostics, accessible medical treatment, developing rehabilitation programme for those affected and national policy changes.

However, more country specific data and data covering the entire age spectrum inclusive of childhood disorders are required to formulate better national policy strategies to tackle this pressing issue.

Further reading:
Das A, Botticello AL, Wylie GR, Kurupath R. Neurologic Disability: A Hidden Epidemic for India. Neurology.2012 Nov 79(21) 2146-2147

ReachPathways – A free application to retrieve processes a protein functions in

2012-11-26T00:00:00+05:30

ReachPathways developed by the team of Babylakshmi M., Harsha Gowda and Joji Kurian at the Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB), Bangalore (http://www.ibioinformatics.org/) won the second prize in the competition Code for Science India (CFS) conducted by Elsevier. ReachPathways is a free application that can be downloaded from Science Direct (http://www.applications.sciverse.com/action/gallery).

The application allows one to uncover all the pathways a protein/gene might function in. Numerous papers are published in signaling on a regular basis and most proteins are involved in multiple pathways. But sometimes, proteins involved in say pathway A might be involved in say Pathway B only under certain conditions. It is hard to obtain such information via traditional Pubmed searches due to its unstructured format. The team of Babylakshmi M, Harsha Gowda and Joji Kurian Thomas felt that the Elsevier’s code for science competition provided the best platform to create an application that will structure and make sense of the plethora of information available for multiple genes and proteins.

ReachPathways, scans through research articles and identifies the names of proteins within the paper. It then extracts information from 5 different pathway resources – NetPath, Reactome, Wikipathways, STKE and NCI-PID. The pathways that your favourite gene/protein functions in, is then reported in a tabular format. So instead of having to go through each of the resources available, a concise, summary of all the functionalities of the gene is provided enabling the researcher now to choose a process to concentrate on further.

IOB, where this team works, is a 10-year-old private institution that specializes in developing unique bioinformatics solutions. IOB developed the Human Protein Database – a comprehensive reference database widely used by those who work with human proteins (http://www.hprd.org/FAQ). Based on their experience, they set upon an ambitious project of documenting each protein and linking it to the pathway it functions in, this database of pathways was named NetPath and it is one of the sources used by ReachPathways. At present, NetPath concentrates on Ligand Stimulated pathways such as the EGF pathway and has 25-curated signaling pathways (http://www.netpath.org). The second phase is to involve functional pathways, such as glycolysis, fatty acid synthesis and similar ones, within the database.

At present, NetPath as well as ReachPathways only recognize protein names and essentially those that function in higher eukaryotes. The world of science though is not quite limited to these. Maybe, the team will consider in future to include the prokaryotic pathways. It would also be nice if RNA, especially the small-RNAs can be curated in terms of pathways – the world of small RNAs and their diverse functions are just as complex as those of the signaling molecules - a future direction perhaps.

Links:

Human Protein Database - http://www.hprd.org/FAQ

ReachPathways - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UBfEq4Y7f8

Moving towards Non-Immunogenic, Accurate Traceable Implants for drug delivery

2012-11-14T00:00:00+05:30

This article was co-authored by Dhwani Rupani, Dhruvika Chawalla, Malhar Khakharia, Vidhi Khanna

A multipurpose system consisting of an anti-inflammatory agent, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast and an implantable glucose biosensor has been developed by Abhijeet Joshi of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ahmedabad and others at IIT Bombay, Mumbai. Presently available implantable systems for glucose monitoring have low accuracy and low reliability. Additionally they incite host immune and tissue responses leading to inflammation and dense fibrotic tissue formation that interfere with their functioning. To overcome these pitfalls, the novel device comprises of Glucose Oxidase enzyme along with Rudpp-an oxygen sensitive dye to detect glucose, Diclofenac sodium-an anti inflammatory agent to prevent fibrotic tissue formation and iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles that act as the MRI contrast agents to help localise the device. The most outstanding character of this system is the simultaneous, accurate yet separate and independent functioning of each component. Glucose Oxidase (GOx), present in the system, catalyses the conversion of glucose and oxygen to pyruvate and hydrogen peroxide.

Glucose+Oxygen ----(GOx)------> Pyruvate + Hydrogen Peroxide

Change in oxygen concentration is detected by the oxygen sensitive dye Rudpp. Rudpp fluoresces normally but in the presence of oxygen, the dye is quenched. Utilization of oxygen by GOx in the microenvironment of the body lowers the oxygen concentration, in turn increasing fluorescence. This visual change in fluorescence is used as a measure of the glucose concentration. Think of a tattoo that glows when glucose levels are high! Diclofenac is added to the system to suppress host immune reactions that have been a hindrance for available implantable devices. The need to monitor implants from time to time prompted the addition of iron oxide nanoparticles (coated with citrate to provide stability) that act as good contrast agents for MRI. This triple function system is held together in polymeric alginate microspheres. The loaded alginate microspheres are prepared using a droplet generator from a suspension of the components sprayed into its cross linker- calcium chloride.

The novel system was subjected to various analytical procedures in order to determine its characteristics, functionality, effects, etc. Particle size characterization and its correlation with the rapid release of the drug (burst release) from the microspheres showed that particle size was inversely proportional to burst release. Compared to the 'Smart Tattoo' biosensor which has a sensitivity of 0.52%/mM of glucose, the newly developed system showed sensitivity six times higher in 0-10mM concentration ranges. The iron oxide nanoparticles showed good imaging properties when tested. Cytotoxicity studies revealed that the microspheres were not harmful to cells. Detailed study of various parameters in this research is commendable and gives a comprehensive view of the work done to the reader. However, few questions remain unanswered such as the long term toxicity of the components, the fate of sodium alginate microspheres in the body, route of administration of the device and the effect of changing oxygen concentrations in vivo irrespective of GOx.

It can be hypothesized from this research that the use of such devices could extend far beyond glucose monitoring. Various important metabolites could be measured if other enzymes that cause change in oxygen levels are considered, or other diseases could be targeted if the drug present in the system is changed. As a stepping stone, we hope that the research done by Abhijeet Joshi et al is taken forward and an in vivo device to constantly, non-invasively monitor glucose is developed, so we can finally bid adieu to the age old finger-prick method for glucose monitoring.

Recipient of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award in Medical Sciences - Sandip Basu

2012-10-14T00:00:00+05:30

Dr. Shantanu Chowdhury was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2012 in Biological Sciences for his contribution in unraveling a novel gene regulation mechanism mediated by unusual DNA conformations.

His pioneering research work suggested widespread gene regulation by guanine rich DNA motifs called G-quadruplexes in bacteria proposing a global regulatory repertoire of this motif. This work, which featured as a cover citation in Genome Research (2006), was further supported by evidences of G-quadruplex mediated regulation in humans and its conservation in related species like rat, mouse and chimpanzee further strengthened their importance. In their quest for understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms, Dr. Chowdhury and his group found that the unusual DNA structure in conjunction with a protein NME2 regulates gene expression of oncogenes like cMyc. Interestingly, this line of research led Dr. Chowdhury and his group to the novel finding that NME2 localizes at telomere ends and regulates telomerase function suggesting a connection between metastases suppressor activity of NME2 and telomere biology. For continuing this research, Dr. Chowdhury was awarded the Wellcome-Trust-DBT Alliance Senior Research fellowship.

Dr. Chowdhury's contributions towards understanding of G-quadruplex regulatory biology also include observations that G-quadruplex motifs exclude nucleosome positioning and adversely affect the DNA methylation patterns. His work on single nucleotide polymorphisms within G-quadruplex further showed that these regulate gene expression variation at a population level thereby opening up newer research avenues.
Research from Dr. Chowdhury's group has been well-received nationally and internationally as is evident from the large number of citations in several high impact journals. His work has been in focus in Chemical and Engineering News in 2007 and 2009 for its potential as future drug targets.

Dr. Shantanu Chowdhury is a scientist at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) and more details are available at http://igib.res.in/?q=ShantanuChowdhury.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Sciences - Suman Dhar

2012-10-02T00:00:00+05:30

Dr. Suman Kumar Dhar has been awarded the 2012 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for his contributions to the understanding of the unique characteristics of DNA replication and cell cycle regulation in two medically important pathogens, Plasmodium falciparum and Helicobacter pylori.

Dr. Dhar’s studies involve finding key regulators in DNA replication processes that could be potential targets for therapy. His group has identified two targets, PfGyrase for P. falciparum and HpDnaB helicase for H. pylori. One of the crucial observations is the co-localization of H. pylori single stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) and HpDnaB helicase in sharp, distinct foci in exponentially growing H. pylori cells, but spread over large areas in dormant coccoid form providing evidence of multiple roles of SSB, central to bacterial physiology and pathogenesis. Further, he showed that the N-terminus of HpDnaB is involved in switching between strong DNA binding and weak DNA binding activity that may be central to the loading and translocation functions of DnaB helicases.

Dr Dhar is also studying the control of both organeller apicoplast DNA and nuclear DNA replication in P. falciparum. He has functionally characterized key molecules that are essential for nuclear DNA replication. A bacterial type II topoisomerase, gyrase (A and B), and single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) homolog, essential for apicoplast DNA replication have been identified. Gyrase is absent in the human host thus making P. falciparum gyrase an attractive drug candidate. Interestingly, ciprofloxacin and coumermycin, the gyrase-specific drugs kill Plasmodium parasites in vitro. His group has also identified a putative origin recognition complex subunit in P. falciparum (PfORC5) that co-immunoprecipitates with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) during early-to-mid trophozoite stage replicating parasites, while separate from PCNA at the non-replicating late schizont stage. This distinct colocalization of PCNA and ORC in Plasmodium is not common in higher eukaryotes.

These original contributions from Dr. Dhar’s laboratory not only further our understanding of the basic biology of these parasites but also have the potential to manage diseases like gastric ulcer, gastric adenocarcinomas (caused by Helicobacter pylori) and human malaria (caused by Plasmodium falciparum).

Dr. Suman Kumar Dhar is an Associate Professor at the Special Center for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. More details are available at http://www.jnu.ac.in/main.asp?sendval=scmmFacultyProfile.

CodeForScience India Winner – IntelliScholar

2012-09-17T00:00:00+05:30

Elsevier, a name well known among scientists has embarked upon a global series of application development competitions. The first one in 2011 was held in Turkey. This year Elsevier brought the competition to India.

Scientists, researchers and developers, were to create customized innovative solutions to enhance the search and discovery experience for users of ScienceDirect and Scopus. The competition was conducted in two phases; phase 1 involved all the participants to submit a concept note which outlined their idea for an application. The winners of the concept round were then given 40 days to bring their idea to fruition and develop an application that could demonstratively enhance user experience. IndiaBioscience met with the winners of the competition and will be covering the top three winners of CodeForScience (CFS) India. This week we bring you the grand prize winning team of Pinaki Dey, Sudipta Sadhu and Rajiv Ram from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

This team of M.Tech Biomedical students created IntelliScholar. Pinaki says IntelliScholar is a Web Gadget that will make your publication search not just very easy but vastly more informative. This application is freely available on SciVerse. Once downloaded, it loads up along with the publication you are viewing. It scans through the article and displays the organisms that are mentioned within the article – E.coli, Saccharomyces and so on. Then it lists all the references in chronological order. If one is interested in more information about a particular gene/protein, you only have to double click on the gene, it will take you to a new window that displays all information available about that particular gene/protein. A particularly interesting feature is 'trends' which graphically displays the number of publications mentioning that gene in a particular year. Clearly showing when that first publication about its discovery came, how the field around that gene/protein evolved and if that subject is still hot!

However, this seems to be limited for gene/protein study trends. It would be nice to have the same for keywords within the text like say Stem Cells, or miRNA, sRNA though it is obvious that something like that could not be searched for without complicated filters to limit the amount of information one can access. Another downside is that the app being on Elsevier only searches within the Elsevier Journals, if it were to include all within PubMed, it would be able to give a more complete picture.

Nevertheless, for a newcomer IntelliScholar is the perfect app that can quickly summarize and display all required information about that field – major references, prominent authors, lab/institutions the research is from and trends. Thus, what would have taken several PubMed searches, keyword plays can now be done in matter of seconds.

Indian medical care now in Africa, Iraq and even the Americas!

2012-09-03T00:00:00+05:30

Using telemedicine, a combination of telecom and information technology to offer medical consultation cutting across distances, Fortis Malar –a Chennai based hospital is all set to offer specialized medical care in Nigeria and Burundi (Africa) and Iraq. Like Fortis, Apollo Hospitals- the largest provider of telemedicine1 is also looking to expand its network of clinics in Africa and North America and keeping in touch with these patients via telemedicine.

The idea is to offer pre-consultation and follow-up using telemedicine. This will reduce both costs associated with travel and consultation along with duration of hospit

Both these hospital initiatives cater to international patients who contribute to >10% of the hospital revenue. Whether these ventures become successful depends on local franchisees/clinic centers that enroll patients and churn medical data based on which doctors can offer consultation and second opinions.alization. Since these countries have basic and secondary health care the focus of new initiatives is on tertiary care.

Estuary use and behaviour of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins along the Southwest coast of India

2012-08-13T00:00:00+05:30

The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin Sousa chinensis is a widely distributed species with a strictly inshore population making them vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. Habitat degradation and prey depletion are known to severely affect their populations. Estuaries are known to be important habitats for the Indo-pacific humpback dolphins, especially as their feeding grounds. However estuaries can also be suitable sites for port development.

This study is aimed at identifying ecological and anthropogenic factors determining distribution and behaviour of the humpback dolphin in estuarine ecosystems along the southwest coast of India. Investigating and raising cetacean profile with coastal stakeholders such as fishermen, port authorities and tourist operators are integral parts of the study and would identify the key areas to focus conservation efforts. The study also encompasses surveying the coastal area in and around estuaries leading to a better understanding of the cetacean distribution in general and more specifically of the Indo-pacific humpback dolphins in the larger area off the coast.

We hope the results and recommendations emerging from this study would highlight the effects that developmental activities have on marine life and thus influence environmental impact assessment reports of ports and other coastal projects.

Now you can be a part of the study too! Check the poster below for details.

Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation - Going back to nature

2012-07-16T00:00:00+05:30

Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation (VMSRF) is a 20 year old not for profit organisation started by the United Breweries (UB) group with a mission of going back to nature; validate therapeutic and chemical potential of promising candidates and create novel products to improve healthcare and agriculture. VMSRF focuses on research in nutraceuticals – food products having a health or medicinal value, synthetic/natural product chemistry and plant biotechnology. Taking advantage of UB group’s strength in fermentation technology (Kingfisher beer!!) and commercialisation wing, VMSRF is able to bring products to the market soon. Their big seller to the tune of 100+ crores in exports is Hydroxycitrisol, an anti-obesity molecule derived from Kokum plant (Garcinia cambogia and Garcinia indica). Scientists at VMSRF have been able to synthesise develop technologies this as a high purified, water soluble, tasteless and colourless compound. With clinical trials attesting the compound to be safe, hydroxycitrisol has found its niche as an additive in diet drinks. The technology as such is protected with eight patents both Indian and US.

In a slight twist to traditional nutraceuticals, they are utilizing fermented papaya to use as an additive in processed foods. Papaya is rich in micronutrients and known to have hepatic protectant, immune boosting properties, act as an anti-oxidant and aid digestion. However due to its short shelf life, it has remained unexploited. The fermented papaya additive is stable for a long time while retaining immune-modulatory and hepato-protective activity. “It will soon find its way into ice-cream flavours and health drinks” reflects Dr. Anil Kush, the Director of VMSRF positively.

VMSRF has also developed Neem based organic biopesticides - SoluNeem and Checkmite. SoluNeem, patented worldwide is a broad spectrum, powder form, non-toxic, biodegradable insecticide while Checkmite has been specifically developed to check house dust mites. Nimasan is Checkmite in EU market and quite effective in controlling the dust mite allergy in safe and effective way. SoluNeem is US EPA approved. What is its status in India I enquire after having heard of its success in western markets? “Unfortunately, the bureaucracy in India is stifling. The US EPA took 1 year to approve SoluNeem while it has been 3 years since we submitted our application to the Central regulatory agencies and are still awaiting their response”, quips a dismayed Anil. Very reason that VMSRF has been able to make global impact in terms of its technologies and product speaks of its quality of focused competitive research, quality control and IPR protection.

Although relatively medium sized or big companies might be able to brook such delays in approvals, I wonder if delays present the biggest bottleneck for small enterprises or an individual entrepreneur who is pressed to break even soon. Despite the high cost of eco friendly pest control measures , given that more and more people taking to organic products in the cities, organic biopesticides are likely to be in demand in the future.

VMSRF’s work doesn’t stop just at creating new products. They want to impact each step in the value chain starting at crop production. They have also developed technologies for Jaivik Shakti, organic manure made of horse dung and vermicompost; Biofoster, a liquid solution providing complete nutrition to potted plants catering to urban areas and Mycostat, a neem based anti-fungal agent. Dr. Puja Ravikumar is working on metabolomic profiling of tomato to link secondary metabolite pathways impacting insect-plant interactions. The idea is to create new lines of crops where certain secondary metabolites can be enhanced or masked to repel pest insects and attract crop defenders. She also uses biotechnology and molecular biology to improve nutritional properties of safflower oil, efficiency of bio-fuel from jatropa and glycerol solubilisation and characterisation of sandalwood. Dr. Hegde, an agricultural scientist also organises regular workshops on organic and terrace gardening as an outreach initiative. He rightly points out “Research in the lab and developing new products is all fine but what is the use if people around us are not aware of its value?”

In line with its mission of serving the society, VMSRF is next looking to break into developing drugs for cancer and auto-immune disease treatment. Dr. Latha, my host at VMSRF is already working on developing animal models for such diseases. Given its satisfied scientists (everyone I interacted with genuinely seemed so), supportive workplace and the room to experiment, I wish them well in their endeavours.

For more information, see - http://vmsrf.org/index.html

Ref:

1. Preuss HG, Rao SCV, Garis RI, Bramble JD, Ohia SE, Bagchi M, Bagchi D. An overview of the safety and efficacy of a novel, natural (-)-hydroxycitric acid extract (HCA-SX) for weight management. J Med. 2004;33:33–48.

2. M. S. Westerterp-Plantenga and E. M. R. Kovacs, “The effect of (-)-hydroxycitrate on energy intake and satiety in overweight humans,” International Journal of Obesity, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 870–872, 2002

3. H. G. Preuss, D. Bagchi, M. Bagchi, C. V. S. Rao, S. Satyanarayana, and D. K. Dey, “Efficacy of a novel, natural extract of (-)-hydroxycitric acid (HCA-SX) and a combination of HCA-SX, niacin-bound chromium and Gymnema sylvestre extract in weight management in human volunteers: a pilot study,” Nutrition Research, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 45–58, 2004.

Of drugs and patents

2012-06-04T00:00:00+05:30

The past month has seen the Pharma sector in India undergo tumultuous times following compulsory licensing of Bayer’s anti-cancer drug sorafenib to NATCO and patent refusal to Novartis case pending in the Supreme Court. These cases hold a telling whether price limits would be imposed on over 60% of the drugs in India. Considering that over 50% of India’s 1.2 billion strong population doesn’t have medical insurance, is this good sign? Or would this send wrong signals to the Pharma companies looking at India as a high potential market causing them t

o divest?

Indian generics industry has oft fought price wars against expensive imported drugs often manufacturing them at a tenth of the price or less. A few years back Cipla had priced its anti-retroviral drug at $350 per patient/per year when other players in the market had HIV drugs at $15000. Cipla’s expertise in reverse innovation is once more at the fore with the slashing of cancer drug prices by a whooping 75%. This is even cheaper than NATCO’s sorafenib by Rs. 2000.

But whether cost-effectiveness translates to garnering a big chunk in the growing oncology field depends on the how effectively these drugs move to the mass market. The government has failed to improve the healthcare infrastructure in the rural areas where the majority of our population resides. Doctors often influence the choice of treatment and a lot would depend on the type of relationship an individual Pharma companies have with doctors. There is a also a compounded problem of global Pharma companies like Eli Lilly, Novartis and Glaxosmithkline selling drugs without complete data on safety. Contrary to reports, both companies have denied this.

Perhaps the best bet is to have custom made drugs for Indian population. This would provide early access to medicines when clinical trials show them to be safe and effective. Being the cheapest country to run clinical trials at $2607 for a breakthrough medicine according to KPMG’s competitive report providing a guide to location costs around the world, we might be perfectly poised to do just that.

Scientific publishing - Behind the scenes

2012-05-21T00:00:00+05:30

The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) promotes life sciences research in a variety of ways: by offering fellowship to scientists in different stages of their career (their postdoctoral fellowships are open to Indians too!), conducting meetings and workshops, recognising scientists through EMBO membership and publishing scientific journals - The EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports, Molecular Systems Biology and EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Karin Dumstrei, a Senior Editor at the EMBO Journal, which publishes full-length research articles on a wide range of topics in molecular biology gave insight into what happens when a paper is submitted to The EMBO Journal during the India Yatra. She also discussed how journals are evolving and changing with the times and initiatives put in place by EMBO publications to reflect this.

In my grad school, I had the idea that editors were paper chomping people who took immense glee in throwing most of submitted papers into the bin. Not only did this seem a bit ridiculous, but once I met Karin the entire notion has been completely banished since I heard her talk.

Turns out every time one submits a paper, it first goes to the editor in charge of that topic. Karin for e.g. is in charge of neuroscience, immunology and plant biology. Editors all have research backgrounds and are PhD holders. The EMBO Journal has professional editors, which means the initial decision to review the paper or not rests with the editor. The editor makes this decision by assessing suitability, scope, fit to the journal and quality of science. At this stage a whopping 70% of the articles are rejected.

Once the paper makes past the editorial scrutiny, it is sent to referees. The EMBO Journal gives the option of excluding 3-5 referees. Referees are asked for their comments and based on these the paper is rejected, accepted or sent back for revisions. Interestingly, The EMBO Journal has a unique system of referee “cross-talk”. All the comments are pooled together and sent back to referees for them to comment on each other’s report. Karin finds this to be a very useful aid to make decisions and says discrepancies are often weeded out. EMBO is committed to a paper once it reaches the revision stage and offers a scooping protection. If revisions are found acceptable, the paper is published. In order to make this entire process transparent, time lines and referee reports are published along with the paper online. The review process file acts as an important teaching tool as well.

So if an intellectually stimulating job that keeps you in touch with science yet away from actually doing it, identifying ground breaking ideas and travelling a lot appeals to you, being an editor might be a rewarding career choice! Do consider it.

Ramanujan Fellows Conclave

2012-05-09T00:00:00+05:30

The Ramanujan Fellows Conclave, a conglomeration of scientists from diverse and unrelated fields was held in Pune last week touching upon issues like administration in institutes, the future of science and technology with a healthy dose of science. Athula reports…

Named after the genius Mathematician Ramanujan, the fellowship is a re-entry fellowship for those overseas to enter the world of Indian science. The fellowship, instituted by the Department of Science and Technology, funds fellows in all fields of science- spanning engineering, physics, mathematics, biology, ecology, geophysics and other areas that fall into the realm of science.

Organized on the same lines as the Ramalingaswamy Fellows Conclave held at Hyderabad a few weeks ago, the Ramanujan Fellows Conclave was held in Pune, from the 3rd to the 6th of May. Though similar in structure, this was a unique meeting in many ways. The participants ranged from theoretical physicists who work on string theory or fluid state dynamics to those who crosstalk into mechanics of living matter or neurobiology of flight to chemists who synthesize anti-cancer drugs. The research talks ranged from studying the activity of the sun to studying the effect of urbanization on human behavior in Urban Ecology. It must have been an interesting exercise for the participants to communicate one's science in a manner that enables an absolute novice to understand the intricacies of the subject. Much to their credit, majority of the speakers' managed to achieve just that.

The fellows' presentations were interspersed with talks from senior scientists and administrators who shared the experience of doing science in a very different India, when funding was scarce and quality research required constant innovation. The first day started with interesting talks by Dr. K.N Ganesh (Director IISER Pune) and Dr. Vijaylakshmi Ravindran (IISc). Prof. Anil Gupta from IIM Ahmedabad presented a very interesting perspective of small innovations in science. He emphasized the need for a reductionist and holistic approach towards science and research, which in his opinion go hand in hand. For example – it is essential to have genomic and translational science while continuing our investment in basic sciences, which decipher molecular processes to the minutest details. Discoveries from the latter are vital to feed into the former.

Amongst the many inspiring mentor talks were those of Sushanta Dattagupta (Vice Chancellor –VisvaBharati University) who gave an overview of his journey through various universities and institutes to VisvaBharati where science, art and culture come together. KanuryRao (ICGEB) shared his journey through science of immune cells to his present research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. T. Padmanabhan, G. Padmanabhan, S. Umapathy, Dipankar Chatterjee, M. Vijayan and Sriram Ramaswamy all had interesting tidbits about their scientific journey. Each emphasized the young scientists to push themselves beyond limits and work outside their comfort zone. Though a risky endeavor that is how one manages to deliver their best.

Apart from research talks, panel discussions on topics such as fellowship administration in different institutes, future of science and technology in India and funding options for fellows allowed all to voice opinions on various issues plaguing Indian Science, with the hope that changes will come forth through DST.The issues discussed ranged from institutional policies towards administration of the fellowship to topics/issues in science that ought to be pursued in India. The fellows also had a one-on-one session among themselves free of all senior scientists and administrators. The major aim of this was to be able to voice concerns freely. A report of the suggestions, concerns and opinions will be sent to DST and in the future, we should be seeing changes in the way fellowship is administered as well as hopefully, an increase in the awarded fellowship amounts.

Beyond the presentations and the panel discussions, the most important component of the meeting was definitely the opportunity for the fellows to interact over the period of 4 days. Though most Institutes and Universities have all science departments, how often does one from physics or engineering department attend talks in biology or vice versa? A meeting of this cadre to my knowledge does not happen anywhere else in the world. So that is a start, we might be setting a trend, a trend that could yield interesting collaborations, scientific endeavors and great science to look forward to.