Author: Biotech Express

In a bid to address widespread confusion in this regard, the WHO has assigned simple labels to key variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The World Health Organisation (WHO) settled on letters of the Greek alphabet to refer to the variants discovered in different parts of the world since the beginning of the pandemic. For B.1.617.2, the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India in October 2020, the WHO has assigned the name ‘Delta’. This means that the variant will now be referred to as the ‘Delta’ strain of coronavirus. Another strain (B.1.617.1) first found in India in October…

This year BRSI annual event too saw the effect of COVID pandemic as the physical presence of attendees was limited to few only following pandemic protocal but the event witnessed overall presence of more than 1000 attendees through online participation. The 17th Convention of the BRSI was held during April 4-8, 2021 at Jaipur. The event was jointly organized by the Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur; CDC India, Jaipur, Birla Institute of Scientific Research (BISR), Jaipur and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Uttarakhand in association with the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), The Institute of Chartered Waste Managers (ICWM),…

BRSI Annual Awards Winners 2020-2021: The winners of BRSI annual awards for the years 2019 and Fellows for the year 2020 were honored in the opening session of BSAEH-2021, Jaipur for those present in person and those attending online virtually. HONORARY FELLOW-2020: PROFESSOR V NAGARAJA Professor V Nagaraja is currently Honorary Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore (after serving as President, JNCASR). In his tenure as a faculty of IISc, he has been teaching microbiology and molecular biology and carrying out research in the areas…

Professor Ashok Pandey is currently Distinguished Scientist at the Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India and Executive Director (Honorary) at the Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability – India. His major research and technological development interests are industrial & environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences, focusing on biomass to biofuels & chemicals, waste to wealth & energy, industrial enzymes, etc. He has ~1450 publications/communications, which include 16 patents, 95 books, >700 papers and book chapters, etc. with h index of 107 and >50,000 citations (Goggle scholar). Professor Ashok Pandey, DPhil, FBRS, FNASc, FRSB, FISEES,…

The International Conference on Bioengineering Solutions for Healthcare, Food, Energy, and Environment was held during April 9-10, 2021, at Jodhpur. The event was jointly organized by the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur and the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI). The event took place in an online mode through the Webex platform. The conference organizing committee included Prof Santanu Chaudhury, Director, IIT Jodhpur as the conference Patron, Professor Ashok Pandey, Distinguished Scientist, CSIR-IITR, Lucknow as the conference Chair and Dr. Meenu Chhabra, Associate Professor, IIT Jodhpur as the convener. The conference proceedings included three plenary, four Keynote, eleven invited, and…

Mahin Khatami, a former researcher with the U.S. National Institutes of Health who has argued in print that cancer results from ‘dark energy’ and that the government and the pharmaceutical industry are collaborating in ‘scientific/medical Ponzi schemes’ to keep people sick, has lost a paper to retraction. Khatami, who did not respond to a request for comment, has published several other articles in CTM, including a 2016 commentary titled “Safety concerns and hidden agenda behind HPV vaccines: another generation of drug-dependent society?,” and a 2018 perspectives piece, with a co-author in Osaka, Japan, titled “Analyses of repeated failures in cancer…

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has sought fast-track approval for its vaccine in India. It is in talks with the Centre to roll out 5 crore doses between July and October this year, while asking for significant regulatory relaxations, according to PTI. It has told the government that the vaccine was suitable for everyone aged 12 years or older, and more importantly, can be safely stored for a month at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. Pfizer has told the government its COVID vaccine shows “high effectiveness” against the India-dominant variant of the virus.  It is ready to roll out five crore doses…

Our study reports that this process, while effective, may be missing out on crucial contributions from other viral proteins. To support this, we showed that when the virus’ nucleocapsid (N) protein is included during the process, the resulting viruses are significantly more infectious. The study design involved producing pseudoviruses that were enveloped by the spike protein, and also packaged a green fluorescent protein, which gets expressed when the virus infects a target cell. From an initial panel of twenty-four viral proteins of the SARS CoV-2, we individually generated pseudoviruses in the presence of each, and checked the infectivity levels. The…

Transparency International (TI) is the world’s leading non-governmental anticorruption organisation, addressing corruption in its many forms through a network of more than 100 national chapters worldwide. The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) for Governance, Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector was established in 2015 at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. Some of the observations are: 6 or 30% are being made by developers based in countries that do not align to best practice and require the reporting of clinical trial summary results within 12 months of trial completion. Clinical study reports are only…

Updated on 28 May, 2021 Following the controversial statement on allopathy, the Indian Medical Association’s offensive stance against Swami Ramdev continues. After complaints from the PMM and defamation case of 1000 crores, a complaint has been lodged against them in Delhi as well. A controversial video has surfaced of Baba’s in which yoga gurus react to the ongoing ‘Arrest Ramdev’ trend on social media, saying that ”Unka baap bhi arrest nahi kar sakta”. On behalf of the IMA, the Secretary-General, Dr. Jayesh Lele has filed this complaint. In the complaint given in Delhi’s IP State Police Station, IMA said that Swami Ramdev is raising…