A recent study by Rajan Sankaranarayanan’s group from the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad has found a novel mechanism of lipid metabolism. This opens up new avenues to understand the production of lipid-based bioactive molecules such as antibiotics.

As the world focused on developing coronavirus vaccines, a team of researchers from the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Manesar, delved into finding a therapeutic route for COVID-19. They tapped into the rich repository of Ayurvedic herbs and found Mulethi to be a promising candidate. The herb contains an active ingredient that shows potential in alleviating aggressive symptoms of COVID-19. Here is a report on their findings.

The bacterial world contains a treasure trove of potent compounds with biological activities that can be harnessed for human benefit. Researchers from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, have recently found that Urdamycin, a compound produced by Streptomyces bacteria, has the ability to induce cell death in cancer cells.

This new study from researchers at IISER Pune delves into the potential biological function of an 'orphan enzyme' using a variety of biochemical, molecular, and structural techniques. Siddhesh Kamat, the Principal Investigator who led this project was recently awarded the EMBO Young Investigators Award as well as the Merck Young Scientist Award.

The global wound care market is on the rise with exorbitant costs incurred each year for skin wound care. Nature-derived drugs with wound healing properties that can be manufactured at a lower cost are presently a global requirement. Now, a study by scientists at Tezpur University has identified the country’s first wound-healing peptide from snake venom with anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and non-enzymatic properties.

Researchers at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru have used a combination of techniques to unravel the mystery of how prions misfold. Prions are proteins that undergo structural changes to form compound assemblies called amyloid fibrils, which can lead to fatal infectious neurodegenerative diseases like the Mad Cow disease and other Transmissible Spongiform Encelopathies in mammals.

Researchers at the Central Drug Research Insitute (CDRI), Lucknow, recently synethesized a class of chemical compounds which have strong anti-oxidant and anti-dyslipidemic activity, adding to the arsenal of potential drugs targeting lifestyle disorders such as obesity and diabetes.