Author: Biotech Express

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched by Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015. This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions. The parameters broadly cover “Teaching, Learning and Resources,” “Research and Professional Practices,” “Graduation Outcomes,” “Outreach and Inclusivity,” and “Perception”. NIRF is the first-ever effort by the government to rank higher education institutions (HEIs) in the…

Kutubuddin Mollaa and K C Bansalb aScientist, Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Odisha bFormer Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi The recent review article in ‘Nature Plants’ by Indian scientists and others (Molla et al 2021) covers both the base editing and the prime editing technologies in a concise yet comprehensive way and gives the current status of base editors and prime editors in plants, technological developments in the field and their biological applications for crop improvement. Traditional plant breeding has been instrumental in increasing the food production by developing improved crop varieties since…

Dr S Ramachandran was the Founder Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India from 1986 for seven years. He has done many pioneering works at the time and established DBT and various networks to promote biotechnology in India. Photo: Current PSA, G.O.I Prof K Vijayraghavan with Dr Ramachandran (on chair). Currently, it is very hard to find the information about Dr Ramachandran that has to be available for younger generation so to motivate and aspire from these early scientists and leaders who helped shape the situation of the country. Not much information was available on google too so after…

New research in the September 2021 issue of JNCCN — Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds that more than 80% of therapies tested in Phase III oncology trials did not achieve meaningful clinical benefit in prolonging survival. The researchers analyzed 362 industry-sponsored Phase III randomized trials in oncology from 2008 to 2017, and found that 87% were either false-positive or true-negative for meeting overall survival goals. More than half of the initially reported positive trials were found to be false-positive (58.4%) for overall survival, while the overwhelming majority of negative results were determined to be true-negative (with only…

The authors of a study comparing hydroxychloroquine and the antiviral agent favipiravir as treatments for COVID-19 have lost the paper after post-publication peer review determined that the data did not support the conclusions. According to the retraction notice: After concerns were brought to the Editors’ attention after publication, the raw data underlying the study were requested. The authors provided several versions of their dataset. Post-publication peer review confirmed that none of these versions fully recapitulates the results presented in the cohort background comparisons, casting doubt on the reliability of the data. Additional concerns were raised about the randomisation procedure, as…

SCHOTT is investing a total of 70 million euros in the expansion of its Indian tubing site in Jambusar, Gujarat, following several million investments in the last years, a statement from the company said. “Against the backdrop of the growth trend in the Indian pharmaceutical business and the pandemic, we want to commit to secure the supply of pharma glass,” explains Dr Patrick Markschläger, Executive Vice President, Business Unit Tubing, SCHOTT. “The increase of over 30 per cent in the facility’s overall Indian production capacity is at the same time a commitment to supporting the government’s vision of India becoming…

This article was originally written on online platform the wire and appeared on September 18, 2021. On August 4, 2021, Mohana Basu of The Print reported that almost a dozen papers coauthored by a scientist at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who was also an assembly poll candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the West Bengal assembly polls earlier this year, had been flagged for potential manipulation. The affidavit names Gobardhan Das as the plaintiff and Shekhar Gupta, Mohana Basu, Priyanka Pulla, Saba Naqvi and Twitter, Inc. as defendants. Eleven papers coauthored by Gobardhan Das, a professor of…

Partial SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early outbreaks in Wuhan were removed from a US government database by the scientists who deposited them.U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) sent a follow-up letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) demanding answers to questions that may shed light on data relating to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and NIH’s COVID-19 data retention policies. This push for answers comes amid reports that Chinese researchers requested some data be deleted from NIH-controlled databases. In part, the senators wrote “[o]n June 28, 2021, we wrote to you requesting answers…

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union Government to reconsider its guidelines that excluded suicides from Covid-19 death certificates. Justice M.R. Shah said that it is prima facie of the view that such suicide cases of Covid positive patients be treated as Covid deaths. The Centre assured the court it would re-examine the issue. The division bench led by Justice M.R. Shah and Justice A.S. Bopanna expressed satisfaction with the Centre’s decision on Covid-19 death certificates for granting compensation but said 3-4 issues need to be sorted including that of suicides of Covid positive patients which needed to be…

The award, that includes a $100,000 prize, celebrates those changing the reality of farming in Africa from a struggle practice to a business that lifts communities out of poverty. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has been awarded the 2021 Africa Food Prize, for work that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT, a CGIAR Research Center, is a non-profit, non-political public international research organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Between 2007 and 2019, ICRISAT led a…