Author: Biotech Express

An Indian paper mill featuring prominently in our recent investigation in Science and a companion piece on our website shut down its WhatsApp community six days after the stories ran, Retraction Watch has learned. The company, called iTrilon, used the messaging platform to hawk authorship of “readymade” publications to scientists “struggling to write and publish papers in PubMed and Scopus-Indexed Journals.” It claimed to have connections at journals that allowed the mill to guarantee acceptance of most of its papers. But on January 24, Sarath Ranganathan, iTrilon’s scientific director, deactivated the WhatsApp community he had been curating. “That’s big,” said…

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists has developed the first 3D-printed brain tissue that can grow and function like typical brain tissue. It’s an achievement with important implications for scientists studying the brain and working on treatments for a broad range of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. “This could be a hugely powerful model to help us understand how brain cells and parts of the brain communicate in humans,” says Su-Chun Zhang, professor of neuroscience and neurology at UW-Madison’s Waisman Center. “It could change the way we look at stem cell biology, neuroscience, and…

By Kamal Pratap Singh, Managing Editor, Biotech Express                                                                                        E-mail- kamal9871@gmail.com The ninth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF), four-day-long festival kickstarted at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI)-Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) joint campus in Faridabad, Haryana on January 17th 2024. The eighth edition of IISF held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The ninth…

In 2022, a Dutch scientist flagged duplication of text and signs of manipulation in images presented in a 2004 research paper co-authored by one of India’s leading virologists, Nivedita Gupta. On 26 May 2022, the peer-reviewed journal, Mycopathologia, retracted the paper, though at the time, Gupta denied the accusations, reiterating that her research was path-breaking. It was one of the first in India to document the spread of Candida infections in a burn ward, she said. The national and international science community waited to see what action would be taken. A day later, Nivedita Gupta was made head of virology…

by Seema Pavgi Upadhye In her speech for the 2024-2025 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke of “a new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry” to provide “environment-friendly alternatives such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-agri-inputs”. The announcement is part of a bid to have the bio-economy contribute $300 billion to the Indian economy by 2030, representing a jump of around ₹18 lakh crore in value from current levels, and $1 trillion by 2047. The products of the bio-economy also play key roles in India’s sustainability and ‘green’ economy targets. “The way to upskill India’s bio-science sector is to put…

Australian scientists have pinpointed likely ‘cells-of-origin’, the source cells that can grow into breast cancer, in women carrying a faulty BRCA2 gene who are at high risk of developing the disease. The WEHI-led study also showed these cells have potential to be targeted with an existing cancer drug to delay tumour growth, in findings that may lead to future preventive treatments for the disease. Women who inherit and carry a faulty BRCA2 gene have a substantially increased risk of developing breast cancer — approximately 70% of carriers will develop the disease over their lifetime. These cancers often occur at a…

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the commercial release of genetically modified insect-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, known as TELA maize. With this latest development, GM maize becomes the second food crop, after Bt cowpea, to be commercialized in the country. The approval was granted by the National Committee on Naming, Registration, and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds/Fisheries (NCNRRCVLF) on January 11, 2024, in Ibadan. The varieties approved are SAMMAZ 72T, SAMMAZ 73T, SAMMAZ 74T, and SAMMAZ 75T. The new varieties are drought tolerant and are resistant to stem-borer and fall armyworm, resulting in a yield advantage of…

Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director of Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) has been conferred with the “Vocational Excellence Award 2023-24” at a grand function organized by the Rotary Club of Pollachi in Tamil Nadu. Kumar has joined some legendary personalities such as Dr. K. Sivan, ISRO and Dr. M. Annadurai, ISRO, who were the previous recipients of this prestigious award. Dr. K Anand Kumar has played a crucial role in advancing India’s expertise in producing vaccines and biosimilars, ensuring that critical biologic treatments are more accessible to patients, both within the country and overseas. Dr. Kumar-led IIL has created a…

By Kamal Pratap Singh, Managing Editor, Biotech Express, E-mail- kamal9871@gmail.com About Dr Arvind Ranade Dr Arvind C. Ranade is the Director of National Innovation Foundation-India, at Gandhinagar since April 2023. Before joining NIF-India, he was an Executive Director of Indian National Science Academy(INSA) New Delhi. He started his career as a Scientist for Astronomy and Space Science Communication in VigyanPrasar, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India in 2004. He did his PhD in Astronomical Spectroscopy at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. He has contributed through research papers and research reports. He is actively involved in…

Elsevier’s Scopus database has paused indexing content from Sustainability, an MDPI journal, while it reevaluates whether to include the title, Retraction Watch has learned. Other MDPI titles were reevaluated in 2023, and its mathematics journal Axioms is no longer included in Scopus’ nearly 30,000 titles. Clarivate also delisted two MDPI journals, including the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, from its Web of Science index earlier this year, meaning those journals will no longer receive impact factors. Universities and funders use Scopus to create “whitelists” of journals in which authors are encouraged to publish, so removal from the…