Excitement of biotechnology in the new economy (Review Paper)

Defence Science Journal

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw¹ 

[1] The Biocon India Group, Bangalore

关键词: Human genome;    Genomics;    Bioinformatics;    Biotechnology;    Pharmacogenomics;    High throughput screening;    Gene therapy;    Cloning;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Defence Scientific Information & Documentation Centre

【 摘 要 】

"Today the world economy is no longerdriven by material wealth but instead powered by intellectual wealth.Knowledge in the economic context translates to technology, of whichinformation technology and biotechnology are the prime drivers, Indiahas made it in information technology. but not yet in biotechnology. The exciting synergy between information technology and biotechnology inthe form of bioinformatics is paving the way for intellectual wealthcreation in the areas of health care (including pharmaceuticals), foodand agriculture. The race for discovering new lead molecules isfrenzied in the pharmaceutical arena,being mined by high throughputscreening techniques for newchemical entities. The Himalayan yew tree.for example, has provided a billion dollar cancer drug. taxol.Pharmacogenomics is providing ' a wealth of information pertaining todefective or missing genes-a newavenue for drug research.A new trendin bioinformatics is in silica testing, which involves computationalsimulation of in vivo and in vitro tests, providing betterpredictability of clinical trials. In gene therapy cloning andexpressing healthy genes is simple, but finding a mechanism to deliverthese genes into target cells is the difficult part.Promising methodsinclude virus as well as non-virus-based delivery systems. How Indianscan take advantage of the exciting opportunities in biotechnology? Onecan boast of a treasure chest of biodiversities-microbial, plant, animaland human, but it is largely unutilised. A large number of inbredcommunitiesin India are offering unique human genome pools for genomicstudies. We have the main ingredient for global success inbiotechnology-our scientific manpower. We need to harness this talent inan enabling business environment and a pragmatic, entrepreneurialmindset. "

【 授权许可】

Unknown