Interviews of September 2016

3.9.2016:

Prof. Gouriprasanna Roy:

Asst. Professor at Shiv Nadar Univ, Delhi. Working on detoxification of heavy metals - like mercury, lead, arsenic, copper. Heavy metals act like soft acids. Mercury damages enzymes and proteins. Organic or methyl mercury is highly toxic. Methyl mercury cysteine is neuro-toxic. Body has several sulphur-containing proteins/thiols and heavy metals bind to these causing disruption. Mercury is a naturally abundant element. Mercury sulphide, mercury selenide more stable and slightly less toxic. Burning fossil fuels releases heavy metals like mercury and lead. Blood, nail and hair of people living near mining areas found to have high levels of heavy metals.

Current research work - ways to convert/recycle volatile mercury to insoluble mercury sulphide or mercury selenide and reduce synthesis of the more toxic and soluble methyl mercury.

Says that during his school days he was more interested in sports (football) than in studies. Obtained Honours degree in Chemistry from Calcutta. At IISc Bangalore, worked on anti-thyroid drugs for hyperthyroidism, drugs with less side-effects than existing drugs for this disorder. Completed PhD in 2007. Post-doctoral research on T-cells and their role in (treatment of??) diseases like multiple sclerosis, diabetes. Regulatory T-cells and effective T-cells. Effector T-cells may sometimes cause auto-immune diseases - researching on ways to make regulatory T cells help prevent effector T cells from causing auto-immune diseases.

Chemistry is an important part of life. Autism is a result of genetic and environment of factors. Autism caused by complex factors - not just environmental, but substantial correlation between heavy metal exposure and autism.

Currently there is no drug to treat heavy metal toxicity. Wants to discover/develop drugs to treat heavy metal toxicity.

10.9.2016:

Prof. Vd. (Vaid) Kartar Singh Dhiman:

Director General, CCSRAS (Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences), a council under ministry of AYUSH. Hails from a remove village in Himachal Pradesh. Authored several research papers, especially on (Ayurvedic treatment for?) eye diseases. Says that his father's last wish was that one of his sons should be a doctor. Says his father's illness impelled him to become a doctor. His father's doctor visited the village once a week, coming from a place in Punjab 70km away. Didn't have any idea of MBBS, BMS etc. for a long time, but worked hard to become a doctor. Post-graduation in ophthalmology from Gujarat (Medical?) University. Started as a medical practitioner but inspired by Ayurvedic texts which he believes were based on extensive research and experience, decided to shift towards research and evidence-based medicine. Started with a small experiment on dry eye and proved that dry eye could be treated using an Ayurvedic treatment written in 5th or 6th century, based on controlling tear evaporation. Another research project on treatment of glaucoma - mentions there is one type of glaucoma called normo-tensive glaucoma where pressure is normal but nerve damage still occurs. Will start a new division for eye research in Lucknow. 3rd disease which he says is considered untreatable by both Ayurveda and modern medical science is retinitis pigmentosa. However, Ayurveda says the progression of the disease can be arrested if treatment is started early - so if patient is diagnosed with this condition, please start on Ayurveda instead of coming to Ayurveda only after modern therapy has failed! CCRAS standardizes ingredients of Ayurvedic drugs. Oversees pre-clinical research. CCRAS also has a project to digitize ancient Indian medical manuscripts. Aims to modernize Ayurveda - ensuring that standard operational procedures are used in drug preparation and that the safety of these preparations are well analyzed before clinical phase; this also removes scepticism that Ayurvedic drugs may be unsafe due to presence of heavy metals. Purify ingredients

Medical fraternity has doubts over traditional medicine. Recent Nobel prize in medicine to a Chinese researcher was due to integration between traditional and modern systems. In India, for over 50 years even after independence, talk of integration was not even possible as modern researchers would not even listen to ideas of traditional systems. This has been changing in recent times and accelerated due to AYUSH.

Dr. TVV says China doesn't call its new discoveries as "Chines traditional" but just 'Chinese' - no glorification of tradition; focus is on medicine, not on system. Dr.Dhiman says the Chine Nobel prize winner read the Chinese manuscripts in detail, noticed that there was a mention of temperature under which decoction has to be prepared and established that preparing it at 50 deg. Celsius would prevent loss of essential ingredients which was happening earlier - hence was able to get the drug to be effective against malaria.

Ethical responsibility to disseminate knowledge free-of-cost. Seers have give 4 pramaaNaas.

17.9.2016:

Prof. Samit Chattopadhyay:
Director, CSIR-IICB (Indian Institute of Chemical Biology), Kolkata. Research specializations include chemical biology, canc. biology, immunological biology, developmental biology. PhD from Jadavpur Univ and post-doctorate from Univ of Connecticut and MIT. Says his final school exam results were very poor as he was going through troubled times in those days - had lost his father and a brother in the same year. But his eldest brother and some of his teachers motivated him to not give up and encouraged him to take up college education. Specialized in cytogenetics for his masters. Gene regulation in viruses intrigued him during his post-doctorate research. Was fascinated by the work of researchers like Hargobind Khurana and their dow-to-earth approach. Discovered a tumor-suppressant protein (regulator, gene??) while working in Pune. Says human cells have approximately 25000 genes. Of these, oncogenes are supposed to be in an inactive, "sleeping" state; but if these genes are awakened, tunour results. Says developing a treatment based on his regulator protein will be a better alternative to chemotherapy as the later causes DNA damage that destroys normal cells too thereby causing severe side-effects. Dr. TVV: Why is your protein not in market yet if it has far less side-effects? Reply: Protein is under pre-clinical trial and should go to clinical trial phase soon.

His institute is one of the oldest in India for biology research - established over 60 years ao, with roots going back to 1935. This institute was the first in the world to give the concept of oral vaccine - the institute was then doing research on cholera, leishmania. Dr. Samit has started "Translational Research of Universal? Excellence" - aims to recruit some of the best scientists and take research findings to the point of benefiting the society, a mandate of CSIR. Working on providing a low-cost kit for detecting leishmania (kala-azar). Says his institute has a rich legacy and continues to do excellent work on molecular biology ad small molecule development - it has developed 2 medicines - one for another, and another names Prostatin?.

Message to youngsters: Do not ever give up. Do not think anything (any finding) is small - some Nobel prizes have come as a result of seemingly small findings that turned out to have immense implications on further study.

24.9.2016:

Dr.Goutam Roy:
Director, NIRJAF (National Institute for Research on Jute and Allied Fibre). Institute does research on natural fibers except cotton - jute, flax etc. Inspired by Manna Dey, he aspired to become a singer. However, his academic excellence in textile technology and instrumentation. Has authored 27 text books on computer science (??). Completed masters in instrumentation. Developed 1st electronic fiber bundle strength tester. Prior to this, only mechanical instrument was used in his institute and those required manual intervention and calculation. He felt he could use his knowledge to improve the technique and with his senior's permission developed the electronic one.

Retting is the primary mandate of his institute, mainly the technology part. Inst. has developed several retting technology and these use less water and less or no manual labour. Developed a machine to which plants can be fed directly to extract fibres - applicable to plants like banana, pineapple etc. - this process does not require retting.

Plastic-like synthetic fibers do have some advantages but they are not bio-degradable.