VOL 1 ISSUE 4

BIOTECH EXPRESS
The gist of Life Science
International Conference of Human Genetics
RNI : UPENG03762/24/1/2012-TC

October- 2013 Rs - 60

Model Organism Special

E. coli
Bioscientists Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose,CSI, CIE, FRS

BioDirectory Department of Biotechnology National Academy of Sciences awardBIOTECH EXPRESS

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Inside this issue :

General Portrait of a model organism - E. coli A short introduction to an important microorganism.

Bioscientists Bionotifications

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, CSI, CIE, FRS

CSIR-CDRI invites application from M.Sc. students for full time Ph. D. programmes TIFR invites application from M.Sc. students for full time Ph. D. programmes Research training fellowship for developing country scientists (RTF-DCS) 2013-14 Joint Admission Test for M.Sc. - JAM 2014 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Admission to Ph.D. Programmes IISER Mohali Admission to the PhD Program January 2014

BioNews
Tamil Nadu agricultural project uses radiation to increase yield. Genetically modified foods and the great Indian hypocrisy. Allahabad University professor bags National Academy of Sciences award

Activity zone
MCQ - GENETICS solve and win cah prizes

BioDirectory
Department of Biotechnology

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Biojobs
National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute -Recruitments of deans and scientists:Direct recruitment or on deputation. Applications are invited for FIVE Energy Bioscience Chairs, Ministry of Science & Technology. UNIVERSITY OF PUNE Post Assistant Professor - Chemical & Biotechnology. Applications are invited for filling up of 03 (three) posts of Scientific Attache, Gp. A by transfer on deputation. Applications are invited for following temporary posts in the DBT research project CCS UNIVERSITY. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV), Indore invites applications from the eligible candidates for the faculty positions.

Conferences
Asian Congress on Biotechnology (ACB)
TSICON 2013 BIOSANGAM 2013 Emerging Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology International Conference of Human Genetics 3rd International Science Congress

Bioproposals
Indo-Russian Joint Research- Funding for IndoFinnish collaboration in ICT solutions for health and well-being. Strategic Japanese-Indian Cooperative Program Biomedical Research Call 2013. Joint science and technology research cooperation Call for joint project proposals 2013.

Latest Research
Administering Natural Substance Spermidin Stopped Dementia in Fruit Flies. How Schizophrenia Affects the Brain. Learning a New Language Alters Brain Development. Multiple Mutations Often Needed to Make TB Bacteria Drug Resistant. Unusual Mechanism of DNA Synthesis Could Explain Genetic Mutations. Terminator Polymer: Self-Healing Polymer That Spontaneously and Independently Repairs Itself. Stem Cell Reprogramming Made Easier. Shared Mechanisms in Fragile X Syndrome, Autism and Schizophrenia at Neuronal Synapses. Scientists Use Wired Microbes to Generate Electricity from Sewage. Scientists Reveal How Beta-Amyloid May Cause Alzheimers. Scientific Societies Face Modern Challenges. New Organism Discovered: Finding Will Help Scientists Understand the Origins of Multicellular Life. Scientists Who Share Data Publicly Receive More Citations

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BIOTECH EXPRESS

Academia. Industry. Government

Connecting...

BIOTECH EXPRESS

Indias leading magazine for Biotech communnity

From the desk of Editor Biotechnology sector in India is youngest of all sectors flourishing in present scenario of Indian economy specially. It is one of fastest growing knowledge based sector in India with immense potential to play key role in shaping Indian economy by 2020. India has many assets in its strong pool of scientists, young research scholars, large institutional network, cost effective production, highly skilled manpower etc. Numerous central, state and deemed universities along with hundreds of private colleges offers various courses in biotechnology and allied sciences at graduate and post graduate level. Despite the huge investment both by govenment and private organizations in this sector the projected results are not fulfilled at the end. There may be much reason to think about these futile efforts, but the direct or indirect reason behind this is lack of current information among students, researchers, industrialists and investors. Some of the schemes are even unknown to this community. Other sectors have advantage in this respect as the sources of information are numerous, for example lots of magazines are present in market for arts and commerce students. These students become determined at early stages of their career due to guidance and proper knowledge about their field provided by news portals but biology student have little problem in this regard because even a single complete source of information is not available for them in Indian market. To constitute a multidirectional bridge between biotech and allied sciences communities, BIOTECH EXPRESS has been introduced as a communicator between these communities. Although other message/news providers are also there but either they are unable to reach target audience or working for another cause like only industry oriented. Biotech express provides complete information required by a biotech professional at single destination whether it is related to their study, job or current news of national and international level importance. Dr. Seema Paghvi Upadhyaye

Editorial Chief Editor: Dr. Seema Paghvi Upadhyaye Principal Editor : Puneet Shakya Senior editors: Lovkesh sharma, Dipika Khanna Contributing Editor: Anuj Gautam Principal correspondent: Vaibhav Sharma Special correspondent: Kaushal Kumar Bhati Photos and Design: Sonu Kumar General Manager (circulation and advs): Nikhil Mishra (08826824621)

Publisher : K P Singh, 31/4, Ext-1, Shalimar garden, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, U.P. Printed at: Monex offset, B-12 SD complex, near MMG hospital Ghaziabad.

ALL RIGHT RESERVED. No part of this issue can be printed in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Editors and publisher do not take responsibility for any mistake although informations are best to assess. For any suggestions or query e-mail us at : biotechexpressindia@gmail.com RNI: UPENG03762/24/1/2012-TC VOL 1 ISSUE 4

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General

Portrait of a model organism

Escherichia coli
E.coli is a Gram-negative, Facultative anaerobic organism, Bacillus (shape) rod-shaped, spore forming bacterium that is commonly found in the lower gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded organisms (endotherms). Morphologically cells are typically rod-shaped, and are about 2.0 microns (m) long and 0.5 m in diameter, with a cell volume of 0.6 0.7 (m)3.
classifications of Prokaryotes placed these in a handful of genera based on their shape and motility (at that time Ernst Haeckels classification of Bacteria in the kingdom Monera was in place). It can live on a wide variety of substrates. E.coliuses mixed-acid fermentation in anaerobic conditions, producing lactic acidlactate, succinate, ethanol, acetate and carbon dioxide. Since many pathways in mixedHistory acid fermentation produce hydrogen gas, these pathThe genera Escherichia and Salmonella diverged ways require the levels of hydrogen to be low, as is the around 102 million years ago (credibility interval: case when E. colilives together with hydrogen-con57176 mya), which coincides with the divergence of suming organisms, such as methanogens or sulphatetheir hosts: the former being found in mammals and reducing bacteria.Optimal growth of E.colioccurs at 37 the latter in birds and reptiles. This was followed by a C (98.6 F) but some laboratory strains can multiply at split of the escherichian ancestor into five species (E. temperatures of up to 49 C (120.2 F). albertii, E. coli, E. fergusonii, E. hermannii and E. vulneris.) ago. Growth can be driven by aerobic respirationaerobic or In 1885, a German pediatrician, Theodor Escherich, discovered this organism in the feces of healthy individuals and called it Bacterium coli commune due to the fact it is found in the colon and early

Habitat

anaerobic respiration, using a large variety of redoxredox pairs, including the oxidation of pyruvic acid, formic acid, hydrogen and amino acids, and the reduction of substrates such as oxygen, nitrate, fumarate, dimethyl sulfoxide and trimethylamine N-oxide.

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General
Enterotoxigenic E.coli include strains that produce enterotoxins when the organisms multiply in the intestine. These strains are commonly responsible for "traveler's diarrhea". They have been responsible for illness in India, in U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, and in travelers in Mexico. This is a problem for travelers from developed countries with good hygiene who visit countries with poor hygiene standards. The illness is characterized by severe diarrhea, which However, within the species, there are 4 strains or cat- may lead to dehydration. The diarrhea may last up to egories that cause diarrheal illnesses or disease. These 19 days. Usually there is no fever. The onset of the ill4 categories are: ness can occur 8 to 44 hours after ingestion. Infective dose, as determined by a human study, is 108 to 1010 Enteropathogenic E.coli causes severe diar- microorganisms. rhea in infants that can last for over 2 weeks and results in death if dehydration is severe. In adults, the illness is Enterohemorrhagic E.coli (E.coliO157:H7) is characterized by severe diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, ab- characterized by severe abdominal cramps usually, but dominal cramps, headache, fever, and chills. The time not always, followed by bloody diarrhea (hemorrhagic for onset of the illness is 17 to 72 hours; the duration of colitis). Some individuals exhibit only watery diarrhea. the illness is 6 hours to 3 days. This strain has caused Vomiting may occur but there is usually little or no feillness to develop in people when it was transmitted in ver. The incubation period is usually about 3 to 9 days. fecally contaminated water and a coffee substitute. This microorganism can also cause hemolytic uremic syndrome in children. This is the leading cause of kid Enteroinvasive E.coli is similar to shigellosis ney failure in children, which often requires dialysis and is caused by bacterial penetration and destruction and may ultimately lead to death. Other manifestations of intestinal mucosa. Symptoms include: chills, fever, of illness due to this microorganism include a central headache, muscle pain, abdominal cramps, and pro- nervous system involvement in which patients develop fuse diarrhea. The illness occurs 8 to 24 hours after in- blood clots in the brain and death frequently results. gestion of food or water containing this organism. The ingestion of a large number of cells (104 to 105 cells) is Escherichia coli is a common inhabitant of the intestinal tract of man and warm-blooded animals. Most strains of E.coli are harmless and are a part of the normal intestinal microflora. These strains serve a useful function in the body by suppressing the growth of harmful bacteria and by synthesizing appreciable amounts of vitamins.

E.coli epidemic

required to cause the illness.

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General
Genomics
The first complete DNA sequence of an E.coli genome (laboratory strain K-12 derivative MG1655) was published in 1997. It was found to be a circular DNA molecule 4.6 million base pairs in length, containing 4288 annotated protein-coding genes (organized into 2584 operons), seven ribosomal RNA (rRNA) operons, and 86 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. Despite having been the subject of intensive genetic analysis for approximately 40 years, a large number of these genes were previously unknown. The coding density was found to be very high, with a mean distance between genes of only 118 base pairs. The genome was observed to contain a significant number of transposons/transposable genetic elements, repeat elements, cryptic prophages, and bacteriophage remnants. Today, over 60 complete genomic sequences of Escherichia and Shigella species are available. Comparison of these sequences shows a remarkable amount of diversity; only about 20% of each genome represents sequences present in every one of the isolates, while approximately 80% of each genome can vary among isolates. Each individual genome contains between 4,000 and 5,500 genes, but the total number of different genes among all of the sequenced E.colistrains (the pan-genome) exceeds 16,000. This very large variety of component genes has been interpreted to mean that two-thirds of the E.colipangenome originated in other species and arrived through the process of horizontal gene transfer.

Proteomics

Full sets of E.coli proteins and their interactions have also been isolated and studied. A 2006 study purified 4,339 proteins from cultures of strain K-12 and found interacting partners for 2,667 proteins, many of which had unknown functions at the time. A 2009 study found 5,993 interactions between proteins of the same E.coli strain though this data showed little overlap with that of the 2006 publication.

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General
scribed the phenomenon known as bacterial conjugation using E.coli as a model bacterium, and it remains the primary model to study conjugation. E.coli was an integral part of the first experiments to understand phage genetics, and early researchers, Because of its long history of laboratory culture and such as Seymour Benzer, used E.coli and phage T4 to ease of manipulation, E. colialso plays an important understand the topography of gene structure. role in modern biological engineering and industrial microbiology. The work of Stanley Norman Cohen and E.coli was one of the first organisms to have its geHerbert Boyer in E. coli, using plasmids and restricnome sequenced; the complete genome of E.coli K12 tion enzymes to create recombinant DNA, became a was published by Science in 1997. foundation of biotechnology. E.coliis a very versatile host for the production of heterologous proteins, and various Protein expression (biotechnology)protein The long-term evolution experiments expression systems have been developed which allow using E. coli, begun by Richard Lenski in 1988, have althe production of recombinant proteins in E. coli. Relowed direct observation of major evolutionary shifts searchers can introduce genes into the microbes usin the laboratory. In this experiment, one population ing plasmids which permit high level expression of of E.coliunexpectedly evolved the ability to aerobically protein, and such protein may be mass-produced in metabolize citrate, which is extremely rare in E. coli. industrial fermentation processes. As the inability to grow aerobically is normally used as a diagnostic criterion with which to differentiate One of the first useful applications of recombinant E.coli from other, closely related bacteria, such as SalDNA technology was the manipulation of E.colito monella, this innovation may mark a speciation event produce human insulin. Modified E.colicells have observed in the lab. By evaluating the possible combeen used in vaccine development, bioremediation, bination of nanotechnologies with landscape ecology, production of biofuels complex habitat landscapes can be generated with details at the nanoscale. On such synthetic ecosystems, E.coli is frequently used evolutionary experiments with E.coli have been peras a model organism in formed to study the spatial biophysics of adaptation in microbiology studies. an island biogeography on-chip. In 1946, Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum first de-

Role of E.coli in biotechnology

BIOTECH EXPRESS

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Bioscientists

Great Indian Scientist

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose,CSI, CIE, FRS
(30 November 1858 23 November 1937)

was a Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early writer of science fiction.
Born in Bikrampur (present day Munshiganj District near Dhaka in Bangladesh) during the British Raj, Bose graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. He then went to the University of London to study medicine, but could not pursue studies in medicine due to health problems. Instead, he conducted his research with the Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh at Cambridge and returned to India. He then joined the Presidency College of University of Calcutta as a Professor of Physics. There, despite racial discrimination and a lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signalling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention, Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to further develop his research.

Back to India

Bose returned to India in 1885, carrying a letter from Fawcett, the economist to Lord Ripon, Viceroy of India. On Lord Ripons request, Sir Alfred Croft, the Director of Public Instruction, appointed Bose officiating professor of physics in Presidency College. The principal, C. H. Tawney, protested against the appointment but had to accept it. Bose was not provided with facilities

for research. On the contrary, he was a victim of racialism with regard to his salary. In those days, an Indian professor was paid Rs. 200 per month, while his European counterpart received Rs. 300 per month. Since Bose was officiating, he was offered a salary of only Rs. 100 per month.[9] As a form of protest, Bose refused to accept the salary cheque and continued his teaching assignment for three years without accepting any salary. After time, the Director of Public Instruction and the Principal of the Presidency College relented, and Boses appointment was made permanent with retrospective effect. He was given the full salary for the previous three years in a lump sum. Presidency College lacked a proper laboratory. Bose had to conduct his research in a small 24-square-foot (2.2 m2) room. He devised equipment for the research with the help of one untrained tinsmith. Sister Nivedita wrote, I was horrified to find the way in which a great worker could be subjected to continuous annoyance and petty difficulties ... The college routine was made as arduous as possible for him, so that he could not have the time he needed for investigation. After his daily grind, he carried out his research far into the night, in a small room in his college.

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Bioscientists

contribution in Biological research

Plant research
Bose subsequently made a number of pioneering discoveries in plant physiology. He used his own invention, the crescograph, to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Although Bose filed for a patent for one of his inventions due to peer pressure, his reluctance to any form of patenting was well known. To facilitate his research, he constructed automatic recorders capable of registering extremely slight movements; these instruments produced some striking results, such as Bose's demonstration of an apparent power of feeling in plants, exemplified by the quivering of injured plants. His books include Response in the Living and Non-Living (1902) and The Nervous Mechanism of Plants (1926). His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the demonstration of the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli (e.g., wounds, chemical agents) in plants, which were earlier thought to be of a chemical nature. These claims were later proven experimentally. He was also the first to study the action of microwaves in plant tissues and corresponding changes in the cell membrane potential. He researched the mechanism of the seasonal effect on plants, the effect of chemical inhibitors on plant stimuli and the effect of temperature. From the analysis of the variation of the cell membrane potential of plants under different circumstances, he hypothesised that plants can "feel pain, understand affection etc." Bose performed a comparative study of the fatigue response of various metals and organic tissue in plants. He subjected metals to a combination of mechanical, thermal, chemical, and electrical stimuli and noted the similarities between metals and cells. Boses experiments demonstrated a cyclical fatigue response in both stimulated cells and metals, as well as a distinctive cyclical fatigue and recovery response across multiple types of stimuli in both living cells and metals. Bose documented a characteristic electrical response curve of plant cells to electrical stimulus, as well as the decrease and eventual absence of this response in plants treated with anaesthetics or poison. The response was also absent in zinc treated with oxalic acid. He noted a similarity in reduction of elasticity between cooled metal wires and organic cells, as well as an impact on the recovery cycle period of the metal.

Honours

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE, 1903) Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI, 1912) Knight Bachelor (1917) Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, 1920) Member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, 1928 President of the 14th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1927. Member of Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1929. Member of the League of Nations' Committee for Intellectual Cooperation Founding fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now the Indian National Science Academy) The Indian Botanic Garden was renamed as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden on 25 June 2009 in honour of Jagadish Chandra Bose.

Bose and patents

The inventor of Wireless Telecommunications, Bose was not interested in patenting his invention. In his Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, London, he made public his construction of the coherer. Thus, the Electric Engineer expressed surprise that no secret was at any time made as to its construction, so that it has been open to all the world to adopt it for practical and possibly moneymaking purposes. Bose declined an offer from a wireless apparatus manufacturer for signing a remunerative agreement. Bose also recorded his attitude towards patents in his inaugural lecture at the foundation of the Bose Institute on 30 November 1917.

Bibliography

Mukherji, Visvapriya, Jagadish Chandra Bose, second edition, 1994, Builders of Modern India series, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, ISBN 81-230-0047-2.

REFERENCES:

Study of metal fatigue and cell response

Bose Institute Website (http:/ / www. boseinst. ernet. in/ home. html) SIR JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE: the unsung Hero of Radio Communication (http:/ / web. mit. edu/ varun_ag/ www/ bose. html) at web.mit.edu J. C. Bose, The Unsung hero of radio communication Article on Jagadish Chandra Bose (http:/ / banglapedia. search. com. bd/ HT/ B_0584. htm), Banglapedia Vigyan Prasar article (http:/ / www. vigyanprasar. gov. in/ scientists/ JCBOSE. htm) Response in the Living and Non-Living by Jagadis Chandra Bose at Project Gutenberg (Project Gutenberg)

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Bionotifications

ADVERTISEMENT No. 09 / 2013

ADMISSION TO Ph.D. PROGRAMMES FOR ACADEMIC SESSION 2014

CSIR-CDRI invites application from M.Sc. students for full time Ph. D. programmes in the relevant areas of research in the Institute: 1.
Condition for eligibility: M.Sc. or equivalent degree in Life sciences/Biotechnology/Chemical sciences/Pharmaceutical sciences and qualified in CSIRUGC-NET, ICMR, DBT examination for Junior Research Fellowship. The fellowship should be valid as on the date of joining for the session commencing January 2014. 2. How to apply: Candidates need to fill up the on-line application form that is available at the institutes website (till 30th September 2013). After submitting the on-line application form, the system generated ID ticket may be printed and signed copy may be mailed along with photograph and photocopies of certificates of date of birth, educational qualifications and proof for qualifying JRF exam to Scientist-in-Charge, Academic Affair Unit, Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR), Scctor 10, Jankipuram Extension, Sitapur Road Lucknow-226031 (India), latest by 10th October, 2013. Hard copy submitted without filling online application form shall not be considered or entertained in any circumstances whatsoever. Online Application URL : http://14.139.230.4/

3. Selection process: All applications will be screened by a committee. The committee will set the criteria for shortlisting the candidates. Only those candidates who are found eligible will be called for written test/ interview/counselling at CDRI, Lucknow between 26-28 November, 2013. No TA will be paid by CDRI and candidates will have to make their own arrangements for 2-3 days stay at Lucknow. The number of students to be selected will depend upon the positions available with scientists at CDRI. The decision of the committee with regard to selection of candidates shall be final. 4. For more details visit our website www.cdriindia.org BIOTECH EXPRESS

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BIOTECH EXPRESS

Bionotifications

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BIOTECH EXPRESS

STUDENTS

BIOTECH EXPRESS

Bionotifications

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Admission to Ph.D. Programmes (SpringSemester201314)

Applications are invited for admission to the Ph.D. Programmes of the Institute in all disciplines of Engineering & Technology, Sciences, Architecture & Planning, Humanities & Social Sciences and Management. Admission to reserved category candidates will be done as per Government of India notification. A good number of Institute Research Assistantships are available. Application process will be done ONLINE only. Start of filling up of online application form : 27.09.2013 Last date for filling up of online application form : 21.10.2013 Last date for deposit of application fee : 22.10.2013 Receipt of completed forms in PG Admission office : 25.10.2013 For details, please visit the Institute website http://www.iitr.ac.in or http://pgadm.iitr.ac.in or contact 01332-284010/285875 Chairman, PG Admission 2014.

www.kash biotech.com
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Bionotifications

IISER Mohali
Admission to the PhD Program January 2014
Applications are invited from prospective candidates for admission to the PhD Program at IISER Mohali in the areas of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Earth & Environment Science and Humanities & Social Sciences for the session beginning in January 2014. Candidates interested in pursuing research in interdisciplinary areas are also encouraged to apply. Application Procedure: Prospective candidates should apply online using the Online Application Facility by visiting the website at http://www.iisermohali.ac.in. Short-listed candidates will be invited for a screening-test/interview at IISER Mohali. Last date: The online application facility will be open till 12.00 noon, October 15, 2013. For further details about the program and research areas, please visit our website: http://www.iisermohali.ac.in

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Biojobs

Applications will be picked up for screening in two batches, first on May 31 and second on Nov 30, 2013.

Selection Process:
The applications should be submitted in the prescribed format available at our website (www.nabi.res.in) or can be obtained by post from Administrative Officer, National Agri Food Biotechnology Institute, C-127, Industrial Area, Phase-VIII, SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab-160071 (India). Application(s) completed in all respects, in th prescribed form accompanied by attested copies of certificates, testimonials in support of age, educational qualifications, experience etc., alongwith non-refundable application fee of Rs.100/- (US$25 by suitable mode of bank transfer in case of candidates applying from abroad) for general and OBC category candidates (No application fee for Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe/PWDs candidates), by means of Demand Draft (issued by State Bank of India only except for the candidates applying from abroad) valid for at least 3 months, drawn in favour of National Agri Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali payable at Mohali(Branch Code 1828), should be sent to The Executive Director, National Agri Food Biotechnology Institute, C-127, Industrial Area, Phase-VIII, SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab-160071 (India). Synopsis-sheet to be submitted by email: In addition to submitting the hard copy of application form, the candidate is also required to fill up his particulars in the synopsis-sheet available on NABI website, in MS-WORD or EXCEL format (NOT ON PDF FORMAT), and email to scientistrectt13@nabi.res.in. This is MOST- URGENT.

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Biojobs
OPPORTUNITY FOR SENIOR SCIENTISTS OF INDIAN ORIGIN

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY ENERGY BIOSCIENCE CHAIRS
Applications are invited for FIVE Energy Bioscience Chairs, a senior level scheme of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.
Objective The scheme is aimed at engaging senior scientists of Indian origin working in modern biological sciences, and who are desirous of pursuing, complementing and enhancing quality of R&D in energy related biosciences in Indian institutions.
The application, along with all relevant information and documents and duly forwarded by the competent authority of the host Institution where the awardee wants to work, should be sent to Dr. Rekha Matlani, DBT-ICT-Centre for Energy Biosciences, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parikh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400 019 India, E-mail :- dbt.uict.ceb@gmail.com, in the prescribed format that can be downloaded from the website : http://www.ictmumbai.edu.in/.

UNIVERSITY OF PUNE
NOTIFICATION
It is hereby notified for the information of all concerned that applications are invited for the various teaching posts in the Department of Technology on purely temporary basis for a period of one year from the date of joining under Section 77 of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994.

Post Assistant Professor - Chemical & Biotechnology

Pav Band Rs. 15600-39100 with AGP of Rs. 6000/B.E. / B.Tech. and M.E./ M.Tech. in Engineering or Technology with First Class or equivalent either at B.E. / B.Tech. or M.E. / M.Tech. For the post of Biotechnology, M.Sc. in Biotechnology or Botany with at least 55% or equivalent grade and NET/ SET/ SLET/ Ph.D. (Biotechnology or Botany) may also applv. Candidates should apply online from 30.09.2013 to 14.10.2013 through the University website www.unipune.ac.in, link to Recruitment online and then take the printout of the said application and attach attested copies of the necessary documents to the same. The Candidate should submit the printout of the application form along with all enclosures to the Assistant Registrar, Administration-Teaching, University of Pune, Pune - 411007, on or before 22.10.2013.

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Biojobs

Government of India Ministry of Science & Technology Department of Science & Technology
ADVT. No. DST / 01 / 2013-Rectt.

Closing Date: 31.10.2013

Applications are invited for filling up of 03 (three) posts of Scientific Attache, Gp. A Gazetted one each in the Indian Missions abroad at Moscow, Tokyo and Berlin by transfer on deputation (including short-term contract) basis.
1. SCALE OF PAY : Rs. 37400 - 67000/-(PB-2) + Grade Pay Rs. 8900/- (Revised) 2. NATURE OF THE POST: Temporary 3. PERIOD OF DEPUTATION : Three to Four years. 4. Essential Qualification & Experience:
(i) Masters degree in Science or Bachelors degree in Engineering or Technology of a recognized University or equivalent. (ii) Scientists or Technologists working in Indian Central / State Government / University / Recognised Research Institutions / Semi-Government or Statutory or autonomous organizations in India or abroad; and (a) holding analogous post on regular basis; or (b) with 02 (two) years regular service in post in the scale of Rs. 14300-18300 (prerevised) or equivalent; or (c) with 07 (seven) years regular service in the scale of Rs. 12000-16500 (pre-revised) or equivalent.

HOW TO APPLY :

Applications should be neatly typed on thick plain paper (A-4 size 210 x 297 mm) in the prescribed Curriculum Vitae Proforma (Annexure-I) given below. Applications on the Proforma other than the one given below will not be entertained. The receipt of Applications would be acknowledged by the Department via E-mail only. The completed applications along with attested copies of ACRs for the last five years may be sent in the prescribed Proforma through proper channel to Under Secretary (Rectt.), Department of Science and Technology, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016 by 31.10.2013 i.e. within two months (by 5.30 P.M.) from the date of publication.
List of Applications received within prescribed time and date shall be posted on DST website within 07 working days of closing date of applications. The candidates are advised to check the status of their applications. Any representation in this regard (non inclusion of name in the list of applications received within the prescribed time limit) can be filed within seven days of date of posting the list on the website alongwith the relevant proof of delivery of application within the prescribed time limit.

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Biojobs

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY, CCS UNIVERSITY

Applications are invited for following temporary posts in the DBT research project, entitled Anticipation in genes: Molecular, physiology and behavioral correlates of response of circa-annual clocks to seasons in nightmigratory song birds sanctioned for five years.
1. Research Associate: Essential qualification: The applicant should be a Ph.D. (with at least 55% marks in his Masters) in Zoology with research experience in the area of Biological clocks and must have publications in peer reviewed journals. Emoluments: as per DBT sanction for this post. 2. Animal Attendant (One): Essential qualification: Intermediate (+12) in Science stream in first division. Preference may be given to those having some experience of working with birds. Emoluments: as per DBT sanction for this post. Apply on plain paper with your passport size photograph affixed and full academic details along with the copies of relevant certificates, and contact address of two referees by October 25, 2013, to Dr Sanjay Kumar Bhardwaj, Principal Investigator, Department of Zoology, CCS University, Meerut 250004, Uttar Pradesh. Email applications will NOT be considered. Applications will be screened. No TA/DA will be paid, if called for the interview.

PhD position in Medical Genetics

A three year PhD fellowship is available under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Asli Silahtaroglu, Medical Genetics Program, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (ICMM). The research interest of the group is to investigate the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in short and long range epigenetic silencing and nuclear organization and to develop visualization methods for ncRNAs. How to apply: Applications must be written in English and include (i) a motivation for the application (up to 1 A4 page) (ii) curriculum vitae (iii) list of publications, if any (iv) a copy of MSc diploma and grade transcripts (v) a short review of scientific research conducted previously for an MSc thesis or equivalent, and (vi) the names, e-mails, telephone numbers and addresses of 2-3 references. Further information can be found at the following link: www.ICMM.ku.dk Deadline for application is Nov 10, 2013. BIOTECH EXPRESS

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Biojobs CSIR CSIR Central Drug Research Institute Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
B.S. 10/1, Sector 10, Jankipuram Extension, Sitapur Road, Lucknow226021 (India) Web : http//www.cdriindia.org

MoES Project : Drugs from the Sea (Sponsored by Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi) Advertisement for Coordinating Cell at CSIR-CDRI Advertisement No. 08/2012
In order to harness the bioactive principles from the vast marine biota occurring in Indian waters for human therapeutic purposes, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, has been implementing a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional Research and Development programme on Development of potential drugs from ocean (Short title : Drugs from the Sea) since, 1991 with participation of several research labs & Universities under the coordination of CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow.

A Coordinating Cell for the project DRUGS FROM SEA has to be created under the guidance of Director, CSIR-CDRI for which the following short term contractual positions are available:-

Program Coordinator:- One Position (01) @ Rs. 50,000 / p.m. Consolidated: Age: up to 65 years. Essential Qualifications: Ph.D. in Chemistry / Pharmacology / Microbiology / Biochemistry with more than 10 years of research experience, and experience of managing large projects. Job Description: to assist Director, CSIR-CDRI in interacting with all participating centres, project data management, timely monitoring of various reports and budgets, organizing meetings, updating web portal and any other matter. Project Assistant: - Two Positions (02) @ Rs. 27,000 / p.m. Consolidated: Age: up to 32 years. Position Code: 002 Essential Qualifications: M.Sc./Science graduate with two years full time MBA / PGDM (Human Resource/ Finance) from recognize institute/university with 60% marks plus minimum 02 years work experience (preferably in government/ quasi government organizations). Desirable: Computer fluency especially of MS word, excel & access; and good command in written English. Job Description: Correspondences, tracking data, keeping data/ budget in excel/ access and to assist the coordinator.
Essential Qualifications: MCA/ B. Tech (IT / Computer) with 60% marks plus minimum 02 years work experience in web designing / data base management (preferably in government/ quasi government organizations). Desirable: Good command in written English. Job Description: Designing/managing web portal, correspondences, tracking data, and to assist the coordinator. The engagement shall be initially for a period of one year which can be renewed annually up to a maximum period of 05 years on satisfactory performance.

Soft copy of the application along with a copy of CV has to be emailed to CDRI, Lucknow (drugs_sea@cdri.res.in) and a hard copy should be sent by post to Director, CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow 226021, UP, India, mentioning the advt. no, position code on the envelope. The last date for submission of applications in response to this advertisement is 29-01-2013.sion of application form.

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DEVI AHILYA VISHWAVIDYALAYA

INDORE
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV), Indore invites applications from the eligible candidates for the following faculty positions (Regular and Self Finance Courses) in the University teaching/Non teaching departments:

Professor-2 Posts Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering/ Industrial & Food Microbiology/ Fermentation Technology/Medical Microbiology/ Environmental Microbiology/ Molecular Genetics /Genomics Reader/Associate Professor 2 Posts Molecular Genetics/ Genomics/Proteomics/ Applied Microbiology/Virology Lecturer/Assistant Professor 1 Enzyme technology/ Molecular Biology/Genomics and Proteomics
Desirous candidates can download the application form from the above website. Duly filled in application form along with the necessary enclosures and a Demand Draft of Rs.300/- from unreserved candidates and Rs.100/- from SC/ST/OBC candidates, drawn in favour of Registrar, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, payable at Indore, should be submitted in the office of the Deputy Registrar (Establishment), Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, R.N.T. Marg, Indore-452001 (M.P.) in person or by registered / speed post. The last date for submission of application form is 21.11.2013.

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Biodirectory

Department of Biotechnology
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialization in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It was set up in 1986.
The setting up of a separate Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1986 gave a new impetus to the development of the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. In more than a decade of its existence, the department has promoted and accelerated the pace of development of biotechnology in the country. Through several R&D projects, demonstrations and creation of infrastructural facilities a clear visible impact of this field has been seen. The department has made significant achievements in the growth and application of biotechnology in the broad areas of agriculture, health care, animal sciences, environment, and industry. The impact of the biotechnology related developments in agriculture, health care, environment and industry, has already been visible and the efforts are now culminating into products and processes. More than 5000 research publications, 4000 post-doctoral students, several technologies transferred to industries and patents filed including US patents, can be considered as a modest beginning. Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has been interacting with more than 5,000 scientists per year in order to utilise the existing expertise of the universities and other national laboratories. A very strong peer reviewing and monitoring mechanism has been developed. There has been close interaction with the State Governments particularly through State S & T Councils for developing biotechnology application projects, demonstration of proven technologies, and training of human resource in States and Union Territories. Programmes with the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have been evolved. Biotechnology Application Centres in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have already been started. A unique feature of the department has been the deep involvement of the scientific community of the country through a number of technical task forces, advisory committees and individual experts in identification, formulation, implementation and monitoring of various programmes and activities. Necessary guidelines for transgenic plants, recombinant vaccines and drugs have also been evolved. A strong base of indigenous capabilities has been created. The field of biotechnology both for new innovations and applications would form a major research and commercial endeavor for socio-economic development in the next millennium.

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Biodirectory
The DBT has set up task forces and expert committees with the involvement of eminent and active scientists from all over the country to advise on the identification of thrust areas in Biotechnology for financial support. As a result biotechnology has received a significant fill-up in the country with adequate support from the Govt. of India. Fifteen Task forces and various expert/steering committees of the department met two or four times during the year to review and monitor the on going projects and also consider new proposals in the priority areas.

List of DBT task forces and committees :

Bioinformatics. Stem Cell Biology. Seri Biotechnology. Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan Corp Biotechnology. FRS is Distinguished Professor Plant Biotechnology. and Director of The National Animal Biotechnology. Centre for Biological Sciences. Infectious Disease Biology. He has become the Secretary of Food and Nutrition Security. Department of Biotechnology, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. India on January 28, 2013, reHuman Resource Development. placing Maharaj Kishan Bhan. Biological Agents for Agriculture. Basic Research in Modern Biology. Infrastructure & Centers of Excellence. Biotechnology Programme for Women. Human Genetics and Genome Analysis. Aquaculture and Marine Biotechnology. Chronic Disease Biology: Neurosciences. Biotech Product and Process Development. Biotechnology Programme Promotion Committee (BPPC). Biotechnology Programmes for SC/ST & Rural population. Inter-disciplinary Research Committee (IDRC) in Biotechnology. Environmental Biotechnology & Biodiversity Conservation Bioengineering.

DBT Autonomous Institutes :

Institute of Immunology Delhi National Centre for Cell Science, Pune Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar National Brain Research Centre, Manesar Institute of Plant Genome Research Delhi National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Hyderabad Centre for DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics, Hyderabad Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable DevelopmentImphal Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram

In India, more than a decade of concerted effort in research and development in identified areas of modern biology and biotechnology have given rich dividends. The proven technologies at the laboratory level have been scaled up and demonstrated in field. Patenting of innovations, technology transfer to industries and close interaction with them have given a new direction to biotechnology research. Initiatives have been taken to promote transgenic research in plants with emphasis on pest and disease resistance, nutritional quality, silk-worm genome analysis, molecular biology of human genetic disorders, brain research, plant genome research, development, validation and commercialisation of diagnostic kits and vaccines for communicable diseases, food biotechnology, biodiversity conservation and bioprospecting, setting up of micropropagation parks and biotechnology based development for SC/ ST, rural areas, women and for different States.

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Biodirectory

DBT Public Sector Undertakings

Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited, Bulandshahar Indian Vaccine Corporation Limited Delhi Biotech Consortium India Limited, New Delhi

Human Resource Development

Details of ongoing teaching programmes: 35 M.Sc courses in general biotechnology 13 M.Sc courses in agriculture biotechnology 3 M.Sc (3/2 years) courses in neurosciences 2 M.Sc courses in marine biotechnology 2 M.V.Sc courses in animal biotechnology 2 Masters in molecular and human genetics 1 M.Sc course in medical biotechnology 1 M.Sc course in environmental biotechnology 1 M.Sc course in industrial biotechnology 1 M.Tech in pharmaceutical biotechnology 1 M.Tech. Marine Biotechnology 1 M.Sc. Plant Biotechnology 6 M.Tech courses in biochemical engineering, bio process technology and biotechnology

PG diplomas (Post M.Sc. /M.D./MS/ M.Tech)

2 IPR Diploma 1 Medical biotechnology 1 Genetic Engineering and Bioprocess Development 1 Animal Biotechnology

Biotech industrial training programme

To reduce the mismatch between requirement of industry and students produced by university , the Department of Biotechnology is facilitating industrial training for six months to postgraduate students in leading biotech industries. The Department is providing stipend to all the selected students and to attract more industries to offer this training, training fee of Rs. 50,000/- per student has been introduced from 2007-08. The number of applicants as well as candidates selected for training and the companies offering training under this programme has increased exponentially during the last 2 years. Approximately, 30% of students thus trained find permanent placement in the industry . The programme is being implemented through Biotech Consortium India Limited .

Fellowships

DBT Junior Research Fellowship (DBT- JRF) programme

DBT JRF programme has been started from the year 2004. 250 JRFs are selected through Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET) conducted by University of Pune, Pune and fellowships are provided for an initial period of 3 years which could be extended upto five years. Contingency grant of Rs.30,000/- per fellow per annum is also provided. Top ranking 100 students in merit are given option to join any institute of their choice in the country for pursuing Ph.D. Option is given to next 100 candidates in merit list to join DBT supported PG teaching universities ( a maximum of two students per institute) .

DBT Postdoctoral Fellowship (DBT- PDF) programme

The department initiated a programme for providing 100 PDF per year in 2001. Fellowship of Rs. 11,000 per month in the first year and Rs. 11,500 per month from 2nd year and contingency grant of Rs. 50,000 per PDF per annum is provided . This fellowship can be extended upto 5 years on merit / progress on NIH pattern. Selection of PDFs is done by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

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Bioproposals

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Bioproposals

Biotech express

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Bioproposals

Indo-Russian Joint Research

DEADLINE DATE 1st November 2013
Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India and Russian Foundation for Basic Research concluded an MoU for funding of Joint Research Proposals in India and Russia in the areas of Basic Science. Under this MoU each project will receive annual funding of up to equivalent of US $ 20,000 (roughly Rupees 1,200,000/-from DST to the Indian partner and up to Rbls. 600,000/- from RFBR to the Russian partner). DST and RFBR invite Indian and Russian scientists / researchers to submit proposals for Joint Research Project in the following areas of basic sciences under DST-RFBR cooperation: - Mathematics, Mechanics and Informatics; - Physics and Astronomy; - Chemistry; - Biology and Medical Sciences; - Earth Sciences; - Telecommunications and Computer Sciences; - Fundamental of Engineering Sciences.

Call for Proposals 2013

Submitting an application

Indian applicants for funding should submit completed application form and all relevant, clearly labelled attachments in a single email to the email address: skvdst@nic.in to reach by 5 pm on 1st November 2013. An email acknowledging receipt of the application will be provided to the applicant in 7 working days. They are also requested to send eight hard copies to DST by 10th December 2013. It should be ensured that application with identical title has been submitted by his / her Russian counterpart scientist with RFBR by due date.

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Bioproposals

Funding for Indo-Finnish collaboration in ICT solutions for health and well-being
Preannouncement
Tekes and the Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) continue their collaboration in supporting IndoFinnish R&D and innovation collaboration.

Start planning joint projects NOW! We encourage companies and research groups to start preparing joint projects immediately. We warmly welcome representatives of Indian and Finnish organisations to attend the workshop. Funding will be available for innovative R&D projects of companies and research organisations
The aim is to launch ambitious joint projects of high international standard between Finnish and Indian organisations. Potential projects will be funded by Tekes in Finland, and by DBT in partnership with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in India. The joint projects must meet the requirements of the funding organisations. In the Finnish part of the project, the general funding terms of Tekes will be applied, and in the Indian part of the project, the general funding terms of DBT/BIRAC will be applied.

The call for proposals will be launched in August 2013

Details of the call will be available at the websites of the funding organisations.

The proposals shall be submitted to the appropriate funding organisation using their normal procedures latest on 29 November 2013. The guidelines for applicants will be available in the call announcement.
The applicants will be notified about the funding decisions in April 2014.

Themes of the call

The themes of the call are under consideration. Main focus is on application of computational biology/bioinformatics/ICT in health and wellbeing solutions for affordable and user-friendly health care technology, diagnostics, medical technology, telemedicine and m-health.
More information on the workshop will be available in near future. Further information Shailja Gupta Director International Cooperation Department of Biotechnology Ministry of Science and Technology Block-2, 6-8th Floors, CGO Complex, Lodi Road New Delhi - 110 003. Ph: 91-11-24363748 Fax: 91-11-24362884 Email: shailja(at)dbt.nic.in

Indo-Finnish Healthcare Technology Workshop, 10-12 September 2013, Helsinki, Finland

To facilitate partnering and development of joint projects, Tekes will organise a workshop in collaboration with DBT. The workshop will offer an opportunity to learn about Indian and Finnish expertise in the area, to meet potential collaborators, to identify and further develop project ideas.

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Strategic Japanese-Indian Cooperative Program Biomedical Research Call 2013 DEADLINE DATE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS: 31st October, 2013
The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science & Technology. Government of India, New Delhi and the Japan Science & Technology (JST) conduct the India-Japan Science & Technology Programme to promote bilateral scientific collaboration between Indian and Japanese scientists. Applications are invited from eligible Indian researchers /scientists to submit proposals for joint projects.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS-2013

Areas of cooperation:

'Biomedical Research' Medical diagnostics for early detection, particularly for infectious diseases System biomedicine and their computational platforms Aim of Program and Research area:
The aim of the program is to strengthen collaboration between Japan and India within the area of Biomedical Research to achieve world-class scientific results, leading towards new innovative science and technology. This research area is currently undergoing remarkable development and is considered important on a global scale in achieving steady growth and sustainability in the long run.

Who can apply:

The joint application must include one Indian and one Japanese Principal Investigators, who would be responsible for technical as well as administrative co-ordination of the project and its periodic scientific and financial reporting to the DST/ JST respectively. The Principal Investigator (PI) and other investigators in India should be scientists/ faculty members working in regular capacity in UGC recognized Universities/ Deemed Universities/ Academic Institutes and National Research & Development Laboratories/ Institutes. It is preferred that a member of the project team may be designated as Co-PI.

Processing:

The formats for joint project/seminar proposals and other details are available at the website: www.dst.gov.in. Project proposal is to be submitted through e-mail to nvasishta@nic.in (preferably in MS Word format in one file indicating file name as PI name & area code) as well as by Post (3 copies ) in the prescribed format on or before the given deadline (31st October, 2013), through proper channel to : Dr. Naveen Vasishta, Scientist D International Division, Science & Engineering Research Board, Room No. 19, 5 & 5 A, Lower Ground Floor, Vasant Square Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi - 110070 Japanese Principal Investigators need to submit proposals with a matching research plan to JST simultaneously. Japanese Researchers are requested to contact JST for their application submission period, documents to be submitted etc. The Japanese contact points is: Ms. Shoko Hirakawa, Ms. Emi Kaneko, Department of International Affairs, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tel. +81(0)3-5214-7375, Fax +81(0)3-5214-7379, e-mail: sicpin@jst.go.jp.

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Bioproposals DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (DST) GOVERNMENT OF INDIA & AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH (A*STAR), SINGAPORE
JOINT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COOPERATION CALL FOR JOINT PROJECT PROPOSALS 2013

DEADLINE FOR THE SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS : NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Within the framework of the Programme of Cooperation in Science & Technology, between the governments of the Republic of India and the Government of the Republic of Singapore signed on 3rd August 2012, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore invite Indian and Singapore scientists / researchers to submit proposals for joint research projects in the area Advanced Materials & Energy (Preferably in following sub-areas): Materials and devices for efficient & cost-effective solar energy conversion, smart windows and wavelength tuning materials, solar hydrogen, and solar powered desalination; Nanomaterials for water purification; and Scalable coating methods for organic and nanomaterials involving self-assembly approach. Property/feature enhancement of surfaces or materials

Advanced Materials and Energy

How do I apply?

Indian and Singapore applicants shall write a common application to be submitted to both DST and A*STAR both using their own application forms prescribed by DST and A*STAR. Indian applicants for funding should submit completed application form and all relevant, clearly labeled attachments in a single email to the email address: rajivarc@nic.in to reach by 5:30 pm on 15th November 2013. An email acknowledging receipt of the application will be provided to the applicant in 3-5 working days. They are also requested to send three hard copies to DST by 20th November 2013. It should be ensured that application with identical title has been submitted by his / her Singapore counterpart scientist with A*STAR by due date. Singapore applicants are required to apply electronically via the Integrated Grants Management System (https://igrants.a-star.edu. sg/) by 15 November 2013 17:00 (Singapore Standard Time) Applications received after the due date will not be considered for funding. Proposals which have only been received in either Singapore or India, but not both, will not be evaluated or considered for funding. Only applications endorsed by the research office or its equivalent at higher education or research institutions will be accepted. Both DST and A*STAR will not accept proposals from individuals without the appropriate endorsement from his/her employing organizations. This is to ensure that organizational support is clearly associated with the proposed research plan.

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Bioconferences

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Bioconferences

2nd

Asian Congress on Biotechnology

New Delhi, India

- Bioprocessing for Sustainable Development

December 15-19 (Sun-Thr)

2013
Asian Congress on Biotechnology (ACB) is being organized by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi under the aegis of Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB) (www.afob.org). The purpose of ACB-2013 is to bring together leading professionals from academia, industry and government to discuss and develop breakthrough technologies for global sustainability and to foster collaborations.

Organizing Chairs
Prof. Virendra S. Bisaria
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

TECHNICAL SESSIONS (tentative) - Agribiotechnology - Animal Biotechnology - Bioprocess Engineering - Biocatalysis and Biotransformations - Biofuels - Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering - Biorefinery - Biosensors - Downstream Processing in Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology - Food Biotechnology - Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics - Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology - Nanobiotechnology - Plant Biotechnology - Project Engineering - Recombinant Therapeutics and Medical Biotechnology - Resource Base and Sustainability - Bioindustry Forum (CEO Forum) - Young Scientists and Students Forum

Prof. Subhash Chand

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Organizing Secretary Generals

Dr. Amulya K. Panda
National Institute of Immunology Delhi

Dr. D. Sundar

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Organized by
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Under the aegis of

Asian Federation of Biotechnology

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Bioconferences

Beneficiary Name: BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus MODE OF PAYMENT Beneficiary Account Number: 30803684122 Indian Delegates: Demand Draft/Multi-city Crossed Cheque in favour of Director, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, payable at State Bank of India, Goa. IFSC Code: SBIN0010720 International Delegates: Online transfer to be made to State Bank of India, SWIFT Code: SBININBB229 Commercial Branch, Vasco da Gama, using the following details: Remarks: TSICON 2013

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Emerging Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology

January 8-10, 2014, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Department of Chemistry, IIT Delhi is pleased to announce that a satellite symposium of ICS-27 titled Emerging Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology (ETGG-2014) is being organized at Delhi during 8-10 January, 2014. The symposium aims to cover all aspects of carbohydrates including chemistry, biology, technology and other industrial applications. Many renowned scientists from various countries and India have kindly agreed to deliver lectures in the symposium. The organizing committee cordially invites all scientists/research scholars engaged in research related to carbohydrates to participate in this International event. The symposium would provide an ideal platform for personal introduction, scientific exchanges and academic interaction amongst the delegates.

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Bioconferences

ISGH conducting International Conference of Human Genetics

Indian Society of Human Genetics was established in 1973, ISGH has been rendering its services for the cause of growth and dissemination of knowledge of human genetics in global perspective in India. The Society conducts annual meetings, symposia and workshops to promote awareness of the current developments in the field among society, government and academia. It also, publishes the Indian Journal of Human Genetics, news-letters, books and proceedings regularly.

ISGH conducting 2014 International Conference on Human Genetics at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Ahmedabad, India, from 22nd - 25th January, 2014.
This conference is aimed to bring together internationally and nationally renowned scientists to discuss the latest developments, trends, technologies and clinical applications in various areas of human genetics. Furthermore, various workshops will be accomplished by eminent scientists on subjects such as FISH, flow cytometry, array-Comparative Genomic Hybridization, UCSC and Ensemble genome browser, PCR for early career researchers.

How to Register:
For ISHG members Rs.4000 (upto 15th sep 2013), Rs.4500 (16th sep to 2013 to 15th jan 2014 ) & Spot registration Rs.5000. For Non-ISHG members Rs.4500 (upto 15th sep 2013), Rs.5000 (16th sep to 2013 to 15th jan 2014 ) & Spot registration Rs.5500. For Ph.D students (Ph.D & M.D) Rs.3000 (upto 15th sep 2013), Rs.3500 (16th sep to 2013 to 15th jan 2014 ) & Spot registration Rs.4000. For Science students (B.Sc & M.Sc) Rs.2000 (upto 15th sep 2013), Rs.2500 (16th sep to 2013 to 15th jan 2014 ) & Spot registration Rs.3000.

For Registration Enquiries:

Email: secretariat@ishg2014.org Landline: +91-79-26921414 / +91-79-26302414 Fax: +91-79-26921415 / +91-79-26302419

3rd International Science Congress

8th - 9th December 2013 at Karunya University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
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Tamil Nadu agricultural project uses radiation to increase yield

CHENNAI: To ensure higher yield in crops, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in collaboration withBhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, is working on eight agricultural projects.

Plants and crops like rice, soyabeans, black grams and green grams are exposed to radiation treatment and a variety of mutations are in the testing and trial processes. The ongoing projects are funded by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, K B Sainis, Director, Bio-Medical Group, BARC, said on Wednesday at a scientists-media interaction organised by the Press Information Bureau ( PIB) on "Radiation and Quality of Human Life". Experts from BARC made presentations on nuclear agriculture, radiation processing of food and agricultural commodities, and the medical application of radiation and its health effects. Radiation and radioisotope technologies playing a major role in maintenance of health and quality of human life was also in focus. The TNAU-BARC project is about subjecting plants and crops to radiation via gamma rays to give it a genetic variability that can target specific requirements such as increased yield and disease resistance. For instance white ponni rice that is widely consumed has short comings that it is a tall plant variety. The project requirement is to make it a shorter variety, to prevent it from falling and the variety will also be made to mature early. "Basmati rice and red rice, which are tall, low yielding and old varieties can be mutated to short varieties", explained Suresh Bhagwat, scientist and former head, Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, BARC. The soybeans project's aim is to reduce an anti- nutritional factor that is found in high levels in the form of phytic acid. Green gram is being treated by radiation to improve its disease resistance. Black gram is under treatment to see if it is suitable for situations like rice fallows and modification of starch properties is being done in tapioca. Using radiation induced mutations in crops will have three over- arching traits in its variety crops. One is the "lodging resistance" through which crops will be dwarfed to become sturdy and prevent it from falling and they will be made to mature early. They will also be thermo-tolerant plants. "We are using mutational breeding to enhance crop productivity through these projects", according to K Ramasamy, vice chancellor, TNAU. Nuclear agriculture will also help delay fruit ripening and prevent pre-harvest crop loss.

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Genetically modified foods and the great Indian hypocrisy

I wont stir the curd. For, some curds are so hardened in texture that stirs dont work. Its like throwing pebbles in a mighty ocean where ripples dont matter. The GMO furor has been one such. Ever since the first Genetically Modified organism (GMO) got implemented in 1996 and GM foods slowly made their way into commercial markets, controversies have raged like a hurricane let loose. Debate is an understatement here. There is no standard podium to stand and argue. Papers, counter papers, organizations, counter organizations are spewing venom at each other with unbridled ferocity. Freedom of thought is one thing. But lawless freedom can never be the norm. More so in scientific pursuit. Its healthy and just to have a million opinions. But when facts become tampered we are in trouble. On one hand, we have the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidences, airing the same conclusion: that consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques. On the extreme other we have advocacy groups like Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Organic Consumers Association, and Center for Food Safety bellowing concerns that potential risks to health and the environment relating to GM have not yet been adequately investigated. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine goes a step further. According to their own research evidences several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system. Caught in the crossfire of such ridiculously contradictory scientific and pseudo-scientific evidences, the common man and woman walk headless. They have absolutely no clue where to go, whom to go, what to or not to eat. In other words, the quintessential question goes answered. Whos going to educate the public? An absurd situation where the very beholders of all these experiments are kept in the lurch. Japan makes a point here. According to the Consumers Union of Japan truly independent research in these areas is being systematically blocked

by the GM corporations which own the GM seeds and reference materials. Indeed, independence in research has been studied by a 2011 analysis into conflicts of interest which found a significant correlation between author affiliation to industry and study outcome in scientific work published on health risks or nutritional assessment studies of genetically modified products. A glorious example comes from Dr. Miller, physician and molecular biologist from Stanford University's Hoover Institution who hails Indias hypocrisy. According to him and I quote Such discrimination has several root causes. They include the political influence of environmental activists and a deep-seated distrust of industry. But this flies in the face of existing scientific consensus, if activists and bureaucrats ever bothered about that. Excellent comments. But why doesnt he see the same reasons with the European Union reluctant to adopt the same GMOs? The fact that he was the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology is of course another matter! This brings us to India and her stand on these issues. With the big bellied bio tech industries prophesying that world hunger would be eradicated once GM crops and food consume the earth, India jumps in for the easy fix. Completely ignoring the fact that as far as India is concerned the problem lies not in the production but in its distribution. India has enough food grain almost two-and-a-half times the required buffer stock and yet 200 million Indians go hungry. The Agricultural ministry argues that the ground reality is that during the last decade, area under cotton cultivation (approx. 12 million hectares, of which 90% is under Bt cotton) and productivity of cotton has gone up significantly". I am not refuting these statistics. Yet beneath the talkative assurances lies the overhanging silence. Why completely ignore the logistics of the European Union and other countries and not employ more patience before dumping genetically tampered foods on its citizens? What not have independent research methodologies to address the pros and cons of GMOs? How about reaching out to the community a bit more than handing out the usual olive branch? Science in the hands of politics and economics has always been the sheep before the shepherds stick. When it comes to human health, exceptions have to be made.

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Allahabad University professor bags National Academy of Sciences award

A zoology professor of Allahabad University, UC Srivastava has been chosen to receive this years annual award of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad.
ALLAHABAD: A zoology professor of Allahabad University, UC Srivastava has been chosen to receive this year's annual award of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad. The Academy has decided to award nine scientists. The names of the recipients were finalised by a panel of eminent scientists, including top physicist and former Union minister MGK Menon and noted space scientist and former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangam recently. Professor AC Banerji Memorial Lecture Award (2013) had gone to Pankaj Shantilal Joshi of department of astrophysics and astronomy, TIFR, Mumbai while Meghnad Saha Memorial Lecture Award (2013) has been awarded to Bimla Buti, director, Centre for Science and Society, New Delhi. Professor NR Dhar Memorial Lecture Award (2013) has been given to Dr S Swaminathan, head, polymer chemistry division, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune while Anupam Varma, advanced centre for plant virology, division of plant pathology, IARI, New Delhi, has been chosen for Dr BP Pal Memorial Lecture Award (2013). The NASI had awarded Dr P Sheel Memorial Lecture Award (2013) to Prof Balram Bhargava, department of cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi. Prof BK Bachhawat Memorial Lecture Award (2013) has gone to Dr Amit P Sharma, group leader, structural and computational biology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. The lecture award in biodiversity (2013) has been given to Pramod Tandon, Centre for Advanced Studies, department of zoology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Archana Sharma Memorial Lecture Award (2013) has been awarded to Chandrima Saha, director, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. "The Memorial Lecture Awards carry a cash award, a gold medal and a citation. It would be presented at the chapter of the NASI located closest to each of the recipient. The 'NASIReliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Awardees (2012) for Application Oriented Innovations covering both physical and biological sciences and the 'NASI-Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award (2012)' would be presented during NASI's 83rd annual session to be held at Goa between December 5 and 7, 2013," said NASI general secretary Krishna Misra. The NASI young scientist platinum jubilee award (2013) for electronics, computer science and engineering has been conferred on Goutam Kumar Paul, assistant professor of computer science AND Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Subimal Ghosh, assistant professor of civil engineering, IIIT-Bombay, Mumbai. For chemical sciences, the award would be given to Debabrata Maiti, assistant professor of chemistry, IIT-Bombay and Dr Santanu Mukherjee, assistant professor of organic chemistry, IISc, Bangalore. In the field of earth science, mathematics and physics the award would be given to Suvrat Raju, reader in physics, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR, Amit Kumar Agarwal, assistant professor of physics, IITKanpur and Malali Sampoorna, reader, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. In the field of bio-medical, molecular biology and bio-technology, the award would be given to Biman Behari Mandal, assistant professor of biotechnology, IIT-Guwahati, and Rajnish Kumar Chaturvedi, scientist, Division of Developmental Toxicology, Systems Toxicology Group, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow.

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LATEST RESEARCH
Administering Natural Substance Spermidin Stopped Dementia in Fruit Flies
Sep., 2013 Age-induced memory impairment can be suppressed by administration of the natural substance spermidin. This was found in a recent study conducted by Prof. Dr. Stephan Sigrist from Freie Universitt Berlin and the Neurocure Cluster of Excellence and Prof. Dr. Frank Madeo from KarlFranzens-Universitt Graz. Both biologists, they were able to show that the endogenous substance spermidine triggers a cellular cleansing process, which is followed by an improvement in the memory performance of older fruit flies.
Aggregated proteins are potential candidates for causing age-related dementia. With increasing age, the proteins accumulate in the brains of fruit flies, mice, and humans. In 2009 Madeo's group in Graz already found that the spermidin molecule has an anti-aging effect by setting off autophagy, a cleaning process at the cellular level. Protein aggregates and other cellular waste are delivered to lysosomes, the digestive apparatus in cells, and degraded. Feeding the fruit flies spermidin significantly reduced the amount of protein aggregates in their brains, and their memories improved to juvenile levels. This can be measured because flies can learn under classical Pavovian conditioning and adjust their behavior accordingly. In humans, memory capacity decreases beginning around the age of 50. This loss accelerates with increasing age. Due to increasing life expectancy, age-related memory impairment is expected to increase drastically. The spermidine concentration increases with age in flies as in humans. If it were possible to delay the onset of age-related dementia by giving individuals spermidin as a food supplement, it would be a great breakthrough for individuals and for society. Patient studies are the next step for Sigrist and Madeo.
Reference: Restoring polyamines protects from age-induced memory impairment in an autophagy-dependent manner. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3512

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Latest research Sep., 2013 It's hard to fully understand a mental disease like schizophrenia without peering into the human brain. Now, a study by University of Iowa psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen uses brain scans to document how schizophrenia impacts brain tissue as well as the effects of anti-psychotic drugs on those who have relapses.

How Schizophrenia Affects the Brain

Andreasen's study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, documented brain changes seen in MRI scans from more than 200 patients beginning with their first episode and continuing with scans at regular intervals for up to 15 years. The study is considered the largest longitudinal, brain-scan data set ever compiled, Andreasen says. Schizophrenia affects roughly 3.5 million people, or about one percent of the U.S. population, according to the National Institutes of Health. Globally, some 24 million are affected, according to the World Health Organization. The scans showed that people at their first episode had less brain tissue than healthy individuals. The findings suggest that those who have schizophrenia are being affected by something before they show outward signs of the disease. "There are several studies, mine included, that show people with schizophrenia have smaller-than-average cranial size," explains Andreasen, whose appointment is in the Carver College of Medicine. "Since cranial development is completed within the first few years of life, there may be some aspect of earliest development -- perhaps things such as pregnancy complications or exposure to viruses -- that on average, affected people with schizophrenia." Andreasen's team learned from the brain scans that those affected with schizophrenia suffered the most brain tissue loss in the two years after the first episode, but then the damage curiously plateaued -- to the group's surprise. The finding may help doctors identify the most effective time periods to prevent tissue loss and other negative effects of the illness, Andreasen says. The researchers also analyzed the effect of medication on the brain tissue. Although results were not the same for every patient, the group found that in general, the higher the anti-psychotic medication doses, the greater the loss of brain tissue. "This was a very upsetting finding," Andreasen says. "We spent a couple of years analyzing the data more or less hoping we had made a mistake. But in the end, it was a solid finding that wasn't going to go away, so we decided to go ahead and publish it. The impact is painful because psychiatrists, patients, and family members don't know how to interpret this finding. 'Should we stop using antipsychotic medication? Should we be using less?'" The group also examined how relapses could affect brain tissue, including whether long periods of psychosis could be toxic to the brain. The results suggest that longer relapses were associated with brain tissue loss. The insight could change how physicians use anti-psychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia, with the view that those with the disorder can lead productive lives with the right balance of care. "We used to have hundreds of thousands of people chronically hospitalized. Now, most are living in the community, and this is thanks to the medications we have," Andreasen notes. "But antipsychotic treatment has a negative impact on the brain, so we must get the word out that they should be used with great care, because even though they have fewer side effects than some of the other medications we use, they are certainly not trouble free and can have lifelong consequences for the health and happiness of the people and families we serve."

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Learning a New Language Alters Brain Development

Aug. 2013 The age at which children learn a second language can have a significant bearing on the structure of their adult brain, according to a new joint study by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -- The Neuro at McGill University and Oxford University. The majority of people in the world learn to speak more than one language during their lifetime. Many do so with great proficiency particularly if the languages are learned simultaneously or from early in development.
"The later in childhood that the second language is acquired, the greater are the changes in the inferior frontal cortex," said Dr. Denise Klein, researcher in The Neuro's Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and a lead author on the paper published in the journal Brain and Language. "Our results provide structural evidence that age of acquisition is crucial in laying down the structure for language learning."

The study concludes that the pattern of brain development is similar if you learn one or two language from birth. However, learning a second language later on in childhood after gaining proficiency in the first (native) language does in fact modify the brain's structure, specifically the brain's inferior frontal cortex. The left inferior frontal cortex became thicker and the right inferior frontal cortex became thinner. The cortex is a multi-layered mass of neurons that plays a major role in cognitive functions such as thought, language, consciousness and memory.

Using a software program developed at The Neuro, the study examined MRI scans of 66 bilingual and 22 monolingual men and women living in Montreal. The study suggests that the task of acquiring a second The work was supported by a grant from the Natural language after infancy stimulates new neural growth Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and connections among neurons in ways seen in ac- and from an Oxford McGill Neuroscience Collaboraquiring complex motor skills such as juggling. The tion Pilot project. study's authors speculate that the difficulty that some Age of language learning shapes brain structure: A people have in learning a second language later in life cortical thickness study of bilingual and monolingual individuals. Brain and Language, 2013; DOI: could be explained at the structural level. 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.05.014

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Multiple Mutations Often Needed to Make TB Bacteria Drug Resistant

Sep. 2013 Tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance is not an all-ornone phenomenon, according to new research from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Rather, TB-causing bacteria often accumulate mutations in a step-wise fashion, with the initial mutation having minimal impact but poising the bug to later develop high-level resistance upon acquisition of other mutations. The study appears in Nature Genetics .

The anti-TB drug ethambutol blocks bacterial genes required for synthesis of the bug's protective cell wall. Several mutations in these bacterial genes (collectively called the embCAB operon) have been identified in drug-resistant strains of TB, and single mutations are widely thought to confer resistance in one fell swoop. But not all bugs carrying embCAB mutations become ethambutol-resistant and not all resistance strains contain these mutations, suggesting that the story is much more complicated.

binds to the enzymes, potentially limiting the amount of drug that can bind. However, the Rv3806c mutation alone only modestly increased drug resistance. But when combined with other mutations, it generated high-level ethambutol resistance. Surprisingly, they also discovered "synonymous" DNA mutations (ones that don't change the amino acid sequence of the resulting protein) in a related protein called Rv3792 that also contributed to drug resistance. Alland's group suggests that bugs with single mutations, for example those in Rv3806c and Rv3792, represent a pre-resistant state, in which the bug is poised for full-blown drug resistance upon the acquisition of a 'second hit' mutation. Identification of patients infected with 'pre-resistant' bugs may allow doctors to increase drug dosages or alter treatment strategies before full-scale drug resistance develops.

David Alland, director of the Center for Emerging and Re-Emerging Pathogens at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and colleagues had previously shown expressing single embCAB mutations in drug sensitive bugs rendered them only slightly more drug resistant than normal and failed to explain full-blown resistance. The group now identifies new mutations that contribute to drug resistance, with the level of resistance depending on the unique combination of mutations in a given Referrence : bacterial isolate. Evolution of high-level ethambutol-resistant tuberculosis through interacting mutations in biosynthetic One of the newly identified mutations -- in a bacte- decaprenylphosphoryl--D-arabinose rial gene called Rv3806c -- ramps up production of a and utilization pathway genes. Nature Genetics, 01 substrate used by the embCAB-encoded enzymes to September 2013 DOI: 10.1038/ng.2743 generate the bug's cell wall. This excess substrate then

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Unusual Mechanism of DNA Synthesis Could Explain Genetic Mutations

Sep, 2013 Researchers have discovered the details of how cells repair breaks in both strands of DNA, a potentially devastating kind of DNA damage

When chromosomes experience double-strand breaks due to oxidation, ionizing radiation, replication errors and certain metabolic products, cells utilize their genetically similar chromosomes to patch the gaps via a mechanism that involves both ends of the broken molecules. To repair a broken chromosome that lost one end, a unique configuration of the DNA replication machinery is deployed as a desperation strategy to allow cells to survive, the researchers discovered. The collaborative work of graduate students working under Anna Malkova, associate professor of biology at Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Kirill Lobachev, associate professor of biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was critical in the advancement of the project. The group's research was scheduled to be published Sept. 11 in the online edition of the journal Nature, with two graduate students, Sreejith Ramakrishnan of IUPUI, and Natalie Saini of Georgia Tech, as first authors. Other collaborators include James Haber of Brandeis University and Grzegorz Ira of the Baylor College of Medicine. "Previously we have shown that the rate of mutations introduced by break-induced replication is 1,000 times higher as compared to the normal way that DNA is made naturally, but we never understood why," Malkova said. Lobachev's lab used cutting-edge analysis techniques and equipment available at only a handful of labs around the world. This allowed the researchers to see inside yeast cells and freeze the break-induced DNA repair process at different times. They found that this mode of DNA repair doesn't rely on the traditional replication fork -- a Y-shaped region of a replicating DNA molecule

-- but instead uses a bubble-like structure to synthesize long stretches of missing DNA. This bubble structure copies DNA in a manner not seen before in eukaryotic cells. Traditional DNA synthesis, performed during the S-phase of the cell cycle, is done in semi-conservative manner as shown by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958 shortly after the discovery of the DNA structure. They found that two new double helices of DNA are produced from a single DNA double helix, with each new double helix containing one original strand of DNA and one new strand. "We demonstrated that break-induced replication differs from S-phase DNA replication as it is carried out by a migrating bubble instead of a normal replication fork and leads to conservative DNA synthesis promoting highly increased mutagenesis," Malkova said. This desperation replication triggers "bursts of genetic instability" and could be a contributing factor in tumor formation. "From the point of view of the cell, the whole idea is to survive, and this is a way for them to survive a potentially lethal event, but it comes at a cost," Lobachev said. "Potentially, it's a textbook discovery." During break-induced replication, one broken end of DNA is paired with an identical DNA sequence on its partner chromosome. Replication that proceeds in an unusual bubble-like mode then copies hundreds of kilobases of DNA from the donor DNA through the telomere at the ends of chromosomes.

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"Surprisingly, this is a way of synthesizing DNA in a very robust manner," Saini said. "The synthesis can take place and cover the whole arm of the chromosome, so it's not just some short patches of synthesis." The bubble-like mode of DNA replication can operate in non-dividing cells, which is the state of most of the body's cells, making this kind of replication a potential route for cancer formation. "Importantly, the break-induced replication bubble has a long tail of single-stranded DNA, which promotes mutations," Ramakrishnan said. The single-stranded tail might be responsible for the high mutation-rate because it can accumulate mutations by escaping the other repair mechanisms that quickly detect and correct errors in DNA synthesis. "When it comes to cancer, other diseases and even evolution, what seems to be happening are bursts of instability, and the mechanisms promoting such bursts were unclear," Malkova said. The molecular mechanism of break-induced replication unraveled by the new study provides one explanation for the generation of mutations.
1.Natalie Saini, Sreejith Ramakrishnan, Rajula Elango, Sandeep Ayyar, Yu Zhang, Angela Deem, Grzegorz Ira, James E. Haber, Kirill S. Lobachev, Anna Malkova. Migrating bubble during break-induced replication drives conservative DNA synthesis. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ nature12584

'Terminator' Polymer: Self-Healing Polymer That Spontaneously and Independently Repairs Itself
Scientists report the first self-healing thermoset elastomer that requires no intervention to induce its repair.
Self-healing polymers mend themselves by reforming broken cross-linking bonds. However, the cross-linking healing mechanism usually requires an external stimulus. Triggers to promote bond repair include energy inputs, such as heat or light, or specific environmental conditions, such as pH. Self-healing polymers that can spontaneously achieve quantitative healing in the absence of a catalyst have never been reported before, until now. Ibon Odriozola previously came close when his group at the CIDETEC Centre for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain developed self-healing silicone elastomers using silver nanoparticles as cross-linkers. Unfortunately, an applied external pressure was required and the expensive sliver component disfavoured commercialisation. But now they have achieved their goal to prepare self-healing elastomers from common polymeric starting materials using a simple and inexpensive approach. An industrially familiar, permanently cross-linked poly(ureaurethane) elastomeric network was demonstrated to completely mend itself after being cut in two by a razor blade. It is the metathesis reaction of aromatic disulphides, which naturally exchange at room temperature, that causes regeneration. Ibon stresses the use of commercially available materials is important for industrial applications. He says the polymer behaves as if it was alive, always healing itself and has dubbed it a "terminator" polymer -- a tribute to the shape-shifting, molten T-1000 terminator robot from the Terminator 2 film. It acts as a velcro-like sealant or adhesive, displaying an impressive 97% healing efficiency in just two hours and does not break when stretched manually. David Mecerreyes, a polymer chemistry specialist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, sees opportunities to use this elastomer to improve the security and duration of many plastic parts, for example in cars, houses, electrical components and biomaterials. 'The introduction of a room temperature exchangeable covalent bond in classic thermoset elastomers provides unique autonomous self-healing abilities without comprising the pristine material properties,' says Richard Hoogenboom, head of the Supramolecular Chemistry group at Ghent University in Belgium. 'Close resemblance of this novel self-healing thermoset elastomer with current commercial materials makes it highly interesting for extending the lifetime of such materials.' Future work by the group will concentrate on stronger polymeric materials as the current poly(urea-urethane) composite is relatively soft
The above story is based on materials provided by Royal Society of Chemistry.

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Stem Cell Reprogramming Made Easier

Embryonic stem cells have the enormous potential to treat and cure many medical problems. That is why the discovery that induced embryonic-like stem cells can be created from skin cells (iPS cells) was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2012. But the process has remained frustratingly slow and inefficient, and the resulting stem cells are not yet ready for medical use. Research in the lab of the Weizmann Institute's Dr. Yaqub Hanna, which appears today in Nature, dramatically changes that: He and his group revealed the "brake" that holds back the production of stem cells, and found that releasing this brake can both synchronize the process and increase its efficiency from around 1% or less today to 100%. These findings may help facilitate the production of stem cells for medical use, as well as advancing our understanding of the mysterious process by which adult cells can revert back into their original, embryonic state.
Embryonic stem cells are those that have not undergone any "specialization"; thus they can give rise to any type of cell in the body. This is what makes them so valuable: They can be used, among other things, to repair damaged tissue, treat autoimmune disease and even grow transplant organs. Using stem cells taken from embryos is problematic because of availability and ethical concerns, but the hopes for their use were renewed in 2006, when a team led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University discovered that it is possible to "reprogram" adult cells. The resulting cells, called "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPSCs), are created by inserting four genes into their DNA. Despite this breakthrough, the reprograming process is fraught with difficulty: It can take up to four weeks; the timing is not coordinated among the cells; and less than one percent of the treated cells actually end up becoming stem cells. Hanna and his team asked: What is the main obstacle -- or obstacles -- that prevent successful reprograming in the majority of cells? In his postdoctoral research, Hanna had employed mathematical models to show that a single obstacle was responsible. Of course in biology, Hanna is the first to admit, experimental proof is required to back up the models. The present study not only provides the proof, it reveals the identity of that single obstacle and shows that removing it can dramatically improve reprograming. Hanna's group, led by Dr. Noa Novershtern, Yoach Rais, Asaf Zviran and Shay Geula of the Molecular Genetics Department, together with members of the genomics unit of the Institute's Israel Structural Proteomics Center, looked at a certain protein, called MBD3, whose function was unknown. MBD3 had caught their attention because it is expressed in every cell in the body, at every stage of development. This is quite rare: In general, most types of proteins are produced in specific cells, at specific times, for specific functions. The team found that there is one exception to the rule of universal expression of this protein: the first three days after conception. These are exactly the three days in which the fertilized egg begins dividing, and the nascent embryo is a growing ball of pluripotent stem cells that will eventually supply all the cell types in the body. Starting on the fourth day, differentiation begins and the cells already start to lose their pluripotent status. And that is just when the MBD3 proteins first appear. This finding has significant implications for the producing iPSCs for medical use. Yamanaka used viruses to insert the four genes but, for safety reasons, these are not used in reprograming cells to be used in patients. This gives the process an even lower success rate of only around a tenth of a percent. The researchers showed that removing MBD3 from the adult cells can improve efficiency and speed the process by several orders of magnitude. The time needed to produce the stem cells was shortened from four weeks to eight days. As an added bonus, since the cells all underwent the reprograming at the same rate, the scientists will now be able, for the first time, to actually follow it step by step and reveal its mechanisms of operation. Hanna points out that his team's achievement was based on research into the natural pathways of embryonic development: "Scientists investigating reprograming can benefit from a deeper understanding of how embryonic stem cells are produced in nature. After all, nature still makes them best, in the most efficient manner."

Deterministic direct reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotency. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12587

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Shared Mechanisms in Fragile X Syndrome, Autism and Schizophrenia at Neuronal Synapses

Several psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and intellectual disabilities share the same brain cell abnormalities: the contacts (synapses) between brain cells are poorly developed and not functional. Claudia Bagni and her group associated with the VIB, KU Leuven, and Tor Vergata University in Italy, in collaboration with leading laboratories in the Netherlands, France, USA and UK have unraveled how a single protein (CYFIP1) orchestrates two biological processes to form proper contacts between brain cells. Importantly, the researchers identified various proteins that are important for the balance of the two processes and associated with several neurological disorders. Their study is published in the leading journals Neuron.
Claudia Bagni (VIB/KU Leuven/Tor Vergata-Rome): "These findings provide insights into the shaping of our brain and have important consequences for further studies of conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disabilities. This work has a substantial impact considering that 1 in 5 Europeans is confronted with one of these brain conditions ranging from mild to serious developmental disabilities. Synapses are essential for communication between brain cells Our brain contain more than 100 billion brain cells (neurons) that contact each other in the so-called synapses, the place where signals are passed from one cell to the other. Synapses are like small "relay stations" containing around 2000 proteins that need to be regulated in a very controlled manner. Any small dysfunction of this cellular area can result in a brain disease. Autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disabilities (Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Alzheimer Disease) are only a few examples of brain conditions that are linked to poorly functioning synapses. The Fragile X Syndrome Claudia Bagni and her team have pioneered the molecular studies on the Fragile X Syndrome, the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability. Patients often show autistic-like behavior, anxiety, aggression, hyperactivity and selfinjurious behavior. The condition is caused by the absence of the Fragile X Mental Retardation protein (FMRP) that is involved in supplying the correct building blocks for the synapse. Claudia Bagni's team had previously demonstrated that FMRP forms a complex with CYFIP1 to regulate this supply. Shaping our synapses Bagni's group has now identified a key function of CYFP1 at synapses. CYFIP1 orchestrates two biological processes: together with FMRP, it acts to regulate the protein supply at synapses and when bound to another complex (WRC), controls actin polymerization, a scaffold of brain cells. These findings lead to the "hub" model, in which the same complex, having CYFIP1 at the center, might be affected in apparently different diseases. A disrupted balance between the two functions results in abnormal contacts between brain cells. Silvia De Rubeis, Emanuela Pasciuto and Claudia Bagni (VIB/KU Leuven/Tor VergataRome) have exposed the molecular mechanisms that ensure that this balance is maintained. The important function of CYFP1 was underlined further by the discovery that many proteins that interact with CYFP1 were already associated with (hereditary forms of) brain conditions. The VIB scientists suggest that mutations in the proteins working together with CYFIP1 might perturb the balance of the interaction networks thereby triggering a spectrum of pathological processes at synapses that can lead to a broad range of clinical manifestations such as intellectual disabilities, autism and schizophrenia. This study offers new perspectives for a better understanding of these still not understood brain conditions. CYFIP1 Coordinates mRNA Translation and Cytoskeleton Remodeling to Ensure Proper Dendritic Spine Formation. Neuron, 2013; 79 (6): 1169 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.06.039

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Scientists Use 'Wired Microbes' to Generate Electricity from Sewage

Sep, 2013 Engineers at Stanford University have devised a new way to generate electricity from sewage using naturally-occurring "wired microbes" as mini power plants, producing electricity as they digest plant and animal waste.
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-authors Yi Cui, a materials scientist, Craig Criddle, an environmental engineer, and Xing Xie, an interdisciplinary fellow, call their invention a microbial battery. One day they hope it will be used in places such as sewage treatment plants, or to break down organic pollutants in the "dead zones" of lakes and coastal waters where fertilizer runoff and other organic waste can deplete oxygen levels and suffocate marine life. At the moment, however, their laboratory prototype is about the size of a D-cell battery and looks like a chemistry experiment, with two electrodes, one positive, the other negative, plunged into a bottle of wastewater. Inside that murky vial, attached to the negative electrode like barnacles to a ship's hull, an unusual type of bacteria feast on particles of organic waste and produce electricity that is captured by the battery's positive electrode. "We call it fishing for electrons," said Criddle, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Scientists have long known of the existence of what they call exoelectrogenic microbes -- organisms that evolved in airless environments and developed the ability to react with oxide minerals rather than breathe oxygen as we do to convert organic nutrients into biological fuel. During the past dozen years or so, several research groups have tried various ways to use these microbes as bio-generators, but tapping this energy efficiently has proven challenging. What is new about the microbial battery is a simple yet efficient design that puts these exoelectrogenic bacteria to work. At the battery's negative electrode, colonies of wired microbes cling to carbon filaments that serve as efficient electrical conductors. Using a scanning electron microscope, the Stanford team captured images of these microbes attaching milky tendrils to the carbon filaments. "You can see that the microbes make nanowires to dump off their excess electrons," Criddle said. To put the images into perspective, about 100 of these microbes could fit, side by side, in the width of a human hair. As these microbes ingest organic matter and convert it into biological fuel, their excess electrons flow into the carbon filaments and across to the positive electrode, which is made of silver oxide, a material that attracts electrons. The electrons flowing to the positive node gradually reduce the silver oxide to silver, storing the spare electrons in the process. According to Xie, after a day or so the positive electrode has absorbed a full load of electrons and has largely been converted into silver. At that point it is removed from the battery and re-oxidized back to silver oxide, releasing the stored electrons. The Stanford engineers estimate that the microbial battery can extract about 30 percent of the potential energy locked in wastewater. That is roughly the same efficiency at which the best commercially available solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. Of course, there is far less energy potential in wastewater. Even so, the inventors say the microbial battery is worth pursuing because it could offset some of the electricity now use to treat wastewater. That use currently accounts for about three percent of the total electrical load in developed nations. Most of this electricity goes toward pumping air into wastewater at conventional treatment plants where ordinary bacteria use oxygen in the course of digestion, just like humans and other animals. Looking ahead, the Stanford engineers say their biggest challenge will be finding a cheap but efficient material for the positive node. "We demonstrated the principle using silver oxide, but silver is too expensive for use at large scale," said Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, who is also affiliated with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. "Though the search is underway for a more practical material, finding a substitute will take time."

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Scientists Reveal How Beta-Amyloid May Cause Alzheimer's

Sep. 2013 Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown how a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, begins destroying synapses before it clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death.
Key features of Alzheimer's, which affects about 5 million Americans, are wholesale loss of synapses -- contact points via which nerve cells relay signals to one another -- and a parallel deterioration in brain function, notably in the ability to remember. "Our discovery suggests that Alzheimer's disease starts to manifest long before plaque formation becomes evident," said Carla Shatz, PhD, professor of neurobiology and of biology and senior author of a study that will be published Sept. 20 in Science. Investigators at Harvard University also contributed to the study. The research, conducted in mice and in human brain tissue, may help to explain the failures in recent years of largescale clinical trials attempting to slow the progression of Alzheimer's by pharmacologically ridding the brain of amyloid plaques. It may also point the way to better treatments at earlier stages of the disease. Beta-amyloid begins life as a solitary molecule but tends to bunch up -- initially into small clusters that are still soluble and can travel freely in the brain, and finally into the plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's. The study showed for the first time that in this clustered form, beta-amyloid can bind strongly to a receptor on nerve cells, setting in motion an intercellular process that erodes their synapses with other nerve cells. Synapses are the connections between nerve cells. They are essential to storing memories, processing thoughts and emotions, and planning and ordering how we move our bodies. The relative strength of these connections, moreover, can change in response to new experiences. Using an experimental mouse strain that is highly susceptible to the synaptic and cognitive impairments of Alzheimer's disease, Shatz and her colleagues showed that if these mice lacked a surface protein ordinarily situated very close to synapses, they were resistant to the memory breakdown and synapse loss associated with the disorder. The study demonstrated for the first time that this protein, called PirB, is a high-affinity receptor for beta-amyloid in its "soluble cluster" form, meaning that soluble beta-amyloid clusters stick to PirB quite powerfully. That trips off a cascade of biochemical activities culminating in the destruction of synapses.

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Shatz is the Sapp Family Provostial Professor, as well as the director of Bio-X, a large Stanford interdisciplinary consortium drawing on medical, engineering and biology faculty. She has been studying PirB for many years, but in a different context. In earlier work, Shatz explored the role of PirB in the brain using genetically engineered mice that lacked it. She discovered that PirB, previously thought to be used only by cells in the immune system, is also found on nerve cells in the brain, where it slows the ability of synapses to strengthen in proportion to the extent to which they are engaged, and actually promotes their weakening. Such brakes are desirable in the brain because tooeasy synaptic strength-shifting could trigger untoward consequences like epilepsy. In the new study, Shatzs team employed a different genetically engineered mouse strain whose genome contained mutant copies of two separate human genes. Each of these mutations is known to predispose individuals to Alzheimers disease. When both mutations are present in mice, which ordinarily never develop amyloid plaques, the result is abundant amyloid plaque deposition with advancing age, as well as an eventual decline in performance on various tests of memory. Ive always found it strange that these mice -- and, in fact, all the mouse models for Alzheimers disease that we and other people study -- seem not to have any problems with memory until they get old, Shatz said. These mices brains have high levels of beta-amyloid at a very early age. Shatz found herself wondering if there might be a more sensitive measure of beta-amyloids early effects on young brains. A study she coauthored in 2012 demonstrated that a particular mouse brain region, whose constituent synapses are normally quite nimble at shifting their relative strengths in response to early-life experiences, showed no such flexibility in young Alzheimers-prone mice. This suggested that subtle Alzheimers-related effects might appear far earlier than plaques or memory loss do. Now, Shatz wondered whether eliminating PirB from the Alzheimer's mouse strain could restore that flexibility. So her team bred the Alzheimer's-genes-carrying strain with the PirB-lacking strain to create hybrids. Experimentation showed that the brains of young "Alzheimer's mice" in which PirB was absent retained as much synaptic-strength-shifting flexibility as those of normal mice. PirB-lacking Alzheimer's mice also performed as well in adulthood as normal mice did on well-established tests of memory, while their otherwise identical PirB-expressing peers suffered substantial synapse and memory loss. "The PirB-lacking Alzheimer's mice were protected from the beta-amyloid-generating consequences of their mutations," Shatz said. The question now was, why?

Taeho Kim, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Shatz's lab and the lead author of the new study, advanced a hypothesis he had cooked up in 2011 while describing his research to a captive audience of one -- his then-4-year-old son, whom he was driving to the Monterey Bay Aquarium: Maybe PirB and beta-amyloid were binding. This might cause PirB to stomp on the brakes even more than it usually does, weakening synapses so much they could disappear altogether, taking memories with them. Further experiments showed that, indeed, beta-amyloid binds strongly to PirB. While PirB is specifically a mouse protein, Kim also identified for the first time an analogous beta-amyloid receptor in the human brain: a protein called LilrB2. In another experiment, Kim compared proteins in the brains of PirB-lacking Alzheimer's mice to those in the brains of PirBexpressing Alzheimer's mice. The latter showed significantly increased activity on the part of a few workhorse proteins, notably an enzyme called cofilin. Subsequent studies also found that cofilin activity in the brains of autopsied Alzheimer's patients is substantially higher than in the brains of people without the disorder. Here the plot thickens: Cofilin works by breaking down actin, a building-block protein essential to maintaining synaptic structure. And, as the new study also showed, beta-amyloid's binding to PirB results in biochemical changes to cofilin that revs up its actin-busting, synapse-disassembling activity. "No actin, no synapse," Shatz said. Kim's hypothesis appears to have been correct. Beta-amyloid binds to PirB (and, the researchers proved, to its human analog, LilrB2), boosting cofilin activity and busting synapses' structural integrity. Although there may be other avenues of destruction along which synapses are forced to walk, Shatz doubts there are very many. She said she thinks the direct participation of beta-amyloid -- as well as cofilin, so clearly implicated in synaptic breakdown -- suggests that this pathway is important. "We looked at human brains in this study, too, and we found that a similar derangement of cofilin activity is present in Alzheimer's brains but not healthy brains," she said. Shatz suggested that drugs that block beta-amyloid's binding to PirB on nerve-cell surfaces -- for example, soluble PirB fragments containing portions of the molecule that could act as decoy -- might be able to exert a therapeutic effect. "I hope this finding will be enticing enough to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that someone will try pushing this idea forward," she said.

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Scientific Societies Face 'Modern Challenges'

Sep, 2013 An article published in the September issue of BioScience highlights the challenges facing biological societies and offers insights for scientific societies to respond and adapt to the changing dynamics of 21st century science.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) surveyed 139 biology societies to better understand the composition of the biological sciences community and how this community has changed over time. Organizational leaders were asked about the size of their organization's membership over the last fifty years. The majority of the groups increased in size over time, but many societies experienced membership declines in the 2000s. Smaller scientific societies experienced more significant membership declines than larger organizations. The survey findings appear in "Dynamism Is the New Stasis: Modern Challenges for the Biological Sciences" published in BioScience. "There is compelling evidence that the landscape of how professionals and students interact with scholarly societies is changing dramatically," said Sheri Potter, the lead author of the article and Director of Membership and Public Programs for AIBS. "These organizations play multiple, critical roles in advancing science, but as largely unstaffed or minimally staffed, dues funded organizations, they depend on the ongoing voluntary commitment of individuals to achieve their mission. As individual needs and expectations change, societies must be prepared to change with them." AIBS Executive Director, Dr. Richard O'Grady said, "Past surveys conducted by AIBS highlight concerns from organization leaders about membership, funding, and journal sales, and also demonstrate the desire of individual researchers to belong to a professional organization in order to gain access to scientific meetings and to be part of the professional community." "AIBS has been actively studying the issues facing biology societies for the past few years so that we can understand needs and challenges," stated Susan Musante, an author of the article and AIBS' Director of Education. "We are excited to share our findings with the broader community and hope that it will generate dialogue both within and across organizations." 1.Sherri Potter et al. Dynamism Is the New Stasis: Modern Challenges for the Biological Sciences. BioScience, September 2013

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New Organism Discovered:

Finding Will Help Scientists Understand the Origins of Multicellular Life

Sep. 17, 2013 Researchers at the University of Arkansas have discovered and characterized a new organism that will help scientists understand the molecular mechanisms and ancestral genetic toolkit that enabled animals and fungi to evolve into diverse, multicellular life forms.

Jeffrey Silberman, a professor of biological sciences, isolated a new unicellular anaerobic eukaryote, and worked with former graduate student Matt Brown and others in the lab of Andrew Roger at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cananda, on the genomics and description of this organism, which they named Pygsuia biforma. Brown, now a biology professor at Mississippi State University, is the lead author of the study, which was published August 28 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biology). "The importance of this finding is that it helps us decipher how multicellularity evolved," Silberman said. "It demonstrates that some genes and proteins that most people think are specific to being multicellular in animals are already present in their unicellular relatives. It is as if the genetic toolkit for becoming multicellular was assembled and modified bit by bit in the single-cell lineages that share a common ancestry with animals." Silberman and Brown study the origins and relationships among single-celled eukaryotes, which have nucleus, amoebae and flagellates, some of which are parasites. Animals, plants and fungi are all eukaryotes; that is, they have complex cells with organelles such as a nucleus and mitochondria. Eukaryotes and humans have more in common than most people realize, Silberman said. Silberman and Brown perform comparative DNA sequence analyses of a type of eukaryote called protists to help find their particular placement or branch on the tree of life. By isolating formerly unexamined anaerobic protists -- a diverse group of unicellular microorganisms -- and looking at the independent ways they have formed different types of mitochondria, the researchers hope to reveal essential commonalities among all eukaryotes, perhaps even clues that explain their origin. Genomic analyses of single cell organisms that are specifically related to multicellular lineages often provide clues to understand-

ing the molecular mechanisms involved in the evolution of multicellular life. To characterize the new organism, which was collected from brackish sediment in Prince Cove in Marstons Mills, Mass., the researchers described the morphology and sequenced the protein-coding genes of the organism to construct a 159-protein matrix for phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetics is the study of the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. The researchers found that the organism resembled two types of a breviate, which is a unicellular eukaryote, but distinguished itself with its conspicuous, long flagella. Most importantly, the phylogenetic tree established the organism as a distant but unequivocal relative to a "supergroup" of eukaryotes that include fungi and animals. It provides a glimpse of the various components of cell-to-cell adhesion, which is a requirement for multi-cellular organisms. The organism also possesses components of the integrin-mediated adhesion complex, which in animals plays a key role in cell-to-cell signaling and adhesion to the extracellular matrix. The genus name for Pygsuia biforma is derived from part of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks sports cheer, "Wooo Pig Sooie," because it has a row of structures resembling the dorsal bristles of razorbacks, which are feral pigs. "Pyg" replaces "pig" as a play on the Latin Pygmae, a mythical race of pygmies, a reference to their small size, and "sui" replaces "sooie" for brevity and a reference to the animal family to which suids, the ancient biological family of pigs, belong. Consequently the genus name also means "little pig" in mock Latin. The species name, biforma, is derived from the presence two distinct cell forms that are observed in the life cycle.

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Scientists Who Share Data Publicly Receive More Citations

Oct. 2013 A new study finds that papers with data shared in public gene expression archives received increased numbers of citations for at least five years. The large size of the study allowed the researchers to exclude confounding factors that have plagued prior studies of the effect and to spot a trend of increasing dataset reuse over time. The findings will be important in persuading scientists that they can benefit directly from publicly sharing their data.
The study, which adds to growing evidence for an open data citation benefit across different scientific fields, is entitled "Data reuse and the open citation advantage." It was conducted by Dr. Heather Piwowar of Duke University and Dr. Todd Vision of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and published today in PeerJ, a peer reviewed open access journal in which all articles are freely available to everyone. The study examined citations to over ten thousand articles that generated new gene expression data, a quarter of which had data publicly archived in the GEO and ArrayExpress repositories. Papers with publicly available data received about 9% more citations overall, with the difference increasing over time. The researchers concluded that much of this citation difference was due to actual data reuse. "Professional advancement in science is still highly dependent on how well your paper gets cited, even in a field like genomics where the data underlying that paper may have far more scientific impact over the long term." said Dr. Vision, a biologist affiliated with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the Dryad Digital Repository. "Until the happy day when hiring and promotion committees catch up with how to value data sharing for its own sake, it is comforting to know that scientists can still receive credit for data sharing in a currency that counts." The researchers also mined the full text of articles for references to dataset identifiers in order to study trends in data reuse directly. They took the unusual step of discussing the obstacles they encountered in the paper. Dr. Piwowar, at the time of the study a postdoc with the DataONE project, said "We need more open and cohesive infrastructure to support collecting evidence about the process and products of science. This evidence is needed to inform important policy decisions. For example, data archiving requirements, infrastructure, and education should be informed by evidence about how data is and is not reused." The mined references revealed that scientists generally stopped publishing papers using their own datasets within two years, while other scientists continued to reuse their data for at least six years. It also showed that data reuse is on the rise. "Not only were the number of reuse papers higher," says Dr. Piwowar, "but analyses from 2002 to 2004 were reusing only one or two datasets, while a quarter of the studies by 2010 were using three or more." 1.Heather A. Piwowar, Todd J. Vision. Data reuse and the open data citation advantage. PeerJ, 2013; 1: e175 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.175

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Q.1 Genes not located within the nucleus are almost always located in the; (A) Cytosol (B) Cell membrane (C) Cytoskeleton (D) Organelles Q.2 A woman receives her " X " chromosomes from; (A) Her mother only (B) Both her mother & her father (C) Her father only (D) Extra-nuclear DNA in her mother's egg Q.3 Choose the correct set of matches between group I and group II Group I Group II P. one extra copy of chromosome 13 1. Edwardss syndrome Q. XO 2. Klinefelter syndrome R. XXY 3. Patau syndrome S. One extra copy of chromosome 21 4. Down syndrome 5. Turner syndrome (A) P-1, Q-5, R-3, S-2 (B) P-3, Q-5, R-2, S-4 (C) P-2, Q-1, R-3, S-4 (D) P-4, Q-1, R-2, S-5

MCQ - GENETICS

IIT JAM 2007

Q.4 The characteristic of mitochondrial genome is? (A) Intron free DNA (B) Repetitive DNA (C) Polycistronic RNA (D) Satellite DNA (CSIR DEC2010) Q.5 Cytological manifestations of crossing over during meiosis is visible as (A) Synaptonemal complex (B) Chiasma (C) Diakinesis (D) Sister chromatid exchange (CSIR 2004) Q.6 In mammals effective dosage of genes of two sexes is made equal by (A) Elimination of X chromosome (B) Hyperactivation of X chromosome (C) Hyperactivation of X chromosome (D) Inactivation of X chromosome

(CSIR 2004)

Q.7 Spontaneity of mutation means (A) Mutation in absence of exogenous mutagen (B) Mutation directly proportion to presence of mutagen (C) Mutation inversely proportion to presence of mutagen (D) Mutation at in appropriate time (CSIR DEC2010) Q.8 If an affected male marries a normal female they produce same number of affected and unaffected son and daughter then the disease would be (A) X - linked dominant (B) Autosomal dominant (C) Autosomal recessive (D) X linked recessive NCBS 2009 Q.9 Plasmid copy number achieved by plasmid encoded control elements that regulate the initiation of the replication step. For example in stringent plasmid protein Rep A dimerize and binds to origin of replication and do not allow replication more than once. What mutation may convert this stringent mode of replication in plasmid into relaxed one? (A) Over expression in repA protein (B) Mutation in repA gene in dimerization domain (C) Mutation in repA other than dimerization domain (D) Gain of function in recognization domain of repA (CSIR DEC2010)

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Q.10 A major deviation from Mendels laws occurs because of (A) Linkage (B) Mutation (C) Reversion (D) Complementation Q.11 The creation of mutations is called; (A) Evolution (B) Radiation (C) Mutagenesis (D) Salutatory changes Q.12 The substances, chemical, physical or biological, which brings about mutation are called as (A) Mutagens (B) Mutators (C) Metagenetic (D) Transmutators NCBS 2009 Q.13 The phenomenon in which one gene inhibits the expression of another gene is called (A) dominance (B) epistasis (C) penetrance (D) expressivity (IIT JAM 2011) Q.14 Galactosemia is a recessive single gene genetic disorder, caused due to the mutation in any one of the three genes involved in galactose catabolism. A family consists of 10 normal children with both parents suffering from galactosemia. This is most likely because of (A) epistasis (B) reversion (C) suppression (D) complementation IIT JAM 2009 Q.15 A mutation in the operator, which prevents the binding of the repressor resulting in the constitutive expression of the lac operon, is referred to as (A) semi-dominant (B) transdominant (C) Codominant (D) cis-dominant IIT JAM 2009 Q.16 Which one is not correct for recessive sex-linked inheritance? (A) Gene for eye color is present on X sex chromosomes (B) Y - chromosome is inert (C) Female can be homozygous or heterozygous (D) Sex - linked traits are more common in females as compared to males Q.17 If the genotypes Aa Bb Cc dd Ee and Aa bb Cc Dd Ee are crossed, what will be the proportion of AA BB CC DD EE genotype among the progeny (A) 1/32 (B) 1/64 (C) 1/256 (D) zero IIT JAM 2007 Q.18 The frequency of occurrence of a disease is one in a million individuals. This disease results from the homozygosity in a recessive allele. The population satisfies all the assumptions of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The frequency of the dominant allele and frequency of carriers of the disease respectively are (A) 0.9 and 0.19 (B) 0.09 and 0.019 (C) 0.999 and 0.0019 (D) 0.009 and 0.00019 (IIT JAM 2011) Q.19 Which one is not correct for Drosophila melanogaster? (A) XXY -- is fertile female (B) XO -- fertile male (C) XX -- is female (D) XY male Q.20 All alleles originate from; (A) Crossing over (B) Mutations (C) Gene flow (D) Non-disjunction

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