In a completely different approach to drug discovery, a team led by Dr. Samir K. Brahmachari at Delhi’s CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) has used a combination of approaches to predict potential drug targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the TB causing bacteria. The novel method not only helps in speeding up drug discovery by... Continue Reading →
IGIB team enhances the efficiency of DNA delivery into the skin for treating skin disorders
By pretreating the skin with silicone oil, a team of researchers led by Dr. Munia Ganguli from the Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) has been successful in delivering plasmid DNA into the skin with greater efficiency and without destroying the integrity of the skin. Unlike other enhancers currently being used, preliminary studies... Continue Reading →
Indian researchers find a new bacterial target for drug development
Indian researchers have found a new target that can potentially be used for developing new antibiotics that will be effective against many bacteria. The new target is made of two proteins — which form a complex that is responsible for the formation of biofilm — that perform very important functions and are critical for bacterial... Continue Reading →
Researchers from Indian national institutes publish in predatory journals
India not only publishes the most number of predatory journals in the world but researchers based in India are one of the biggest contributors to such bogus journals; an earlier study found that researchers in India accounted for 35 per cent of publication in bogus journals. Predatory journals very often trick authors into submitting papers,... Continue Reading →
Zebrafish provide insights into a rare human disease
Scientists from the Delhi-based CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology are a step closer to bringing hope to children born with a rare disorder — CHARGE syndrome — if the results seen in zebrafish are reproducible in humans. The results of a study were published on July 13 in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. About 1 in... Continue Reading →
Screening for rare genetic disorders becomes easier
Fast and accurate diagnosis of disease-causing mitochondrial genetic mutations is now possible thanks to automation of the entire process of data analysis and interpretation by a team of researchers at the Delhi-based CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. The comprehensive pipeline developed by a team led by Dr. Sridhar Sivasubbu and Dr. Vinod Scaria of... Continue Reading →
Why Indians, SE Asian Malays respond differently to some drugs
A couple of years after successfully mapping the genetic variants associated with differential responses to two widely used drugs — warfarin (an anti-coagulant drug) and clopidogrel (an antiplatelet drug) — in 2,000 people from Delhi, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab, Dr. Vinod Scaria and Ambily Sivadas studied the pharmacogenetic markers in a cosmopolitan population... Continue Reading →
