Author: Biotech Express

by Kamal Pratap Singh Charak, sometimes spelled Caraka, born c. 300 BC was one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in Ancient India. According to Charaka’s translations health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort and attention to lifestyle. As per Indian heritage and science of Ayurvedic system, prevention of all types of diseases have a more prominent place than treatment, including restructuring of life style to align with the course of nature and four seasons, which will guarantee complete wellness.…

Introduction The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Formerly known as Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, it was established on 16 July 1929 as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. The ICAR has its headquarters at New Delhi. The Council is the apex body for co-ordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. With 99 ICAR…

Introduction J.B.S. Haldane, FRS (5 November 1892 – 1 December 1964) was a British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist generally credited with a central role in the development of neo-Darwinian thinking. He was also one of the founders (along with Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright) of population genetics. British scientist J.B.S. Haldane was born John Burdon Sanderson Haldane in Oxford, England, on November 5, 1892. After studying at the University of Oxford and serving in World War I, Haldane began a prolific and varied career as a geneticist, biochemist, professor and writer. His work in population genetics, which applied mathematical systems…

Introduction Arabidopsis thaliana is a small flowering plant that is widely used as a model organism in plant biology. Arabidopsis is a member of the mustard (Brassicaceae) family, which includes cultivated species such as cabbage and radish. Arabidopsis is not of major agronomic significance, but it offers important advantages for basic research in genetics and molecular biology. Download Full Article PDF

Introduction The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. As early as in 1911, the Government of India set up the Indian Research Fund Association (IRFA) with the specific objective of sponsoring and coordinating medical research in the country. After independence, several important changes were made in the organisation and the activities of the IRFA. It was redesignated in 1949 as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with considerably expanded scope of functions.…

Introduction Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray (2 August 1861 – 16 June 1944) was an eminent Bengali chemist, academician and entrepreneur and the father of Chemistry in modern India.  The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured his life and work with the first ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe. He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India’s first pharmaceutical company. He is the author of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of Sixteenth Century (1902). Download Full Article PDF

Introduction Virus is an obligate intracellular parasite with a non-cellular structure composed mainly of nucleic acid within a protein coat. Most viruses are too small to be seen with the light microscope and thus must be studied by electron microscopes. In one stage of their life cycle, in which they are free and infectious, virus particles do not carry out the functions of living cells, such as respiration and growth; in the other stage, however, viruses enter living plant, animal, or bacterial cells and make use of the host cell’s chemical energy and its protein- and nucleic acid–synthesizing ability to…

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…

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose 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. Download Full…

Introduction 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 (μm) long and 0.5 μm in diameter, with a cell volume of 0.6– 0.7 (μm)3. History The genera Escherichia and Salmonella diverged around 102 million years ago (credibility interval: 57–176 mya), which coincides with the divergence of their hosts: the former being found in mammals and the latter in birds and reptiles. This was followed by a split of the escherichian ancestor into…