ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

eing solved during this reporting period.
They are also using different molecular dynamics
tools for analysis, prediction, and modeling of protein
structures. These theoretical works are well
complemented by the Structural Biology group,
whose work has led to the crystal structures of
several important proteins from M. tuberculosis
being solved during this reporting period.
National Brain Research Centre (NBRC),
Manesar, Haryana
The National Brain Research Center (NBRC) was
established by this department in 1999 to provide
state-of-the-art facilities for a coordinated
multidisciplinary team of scientists to work in the
frontier areas of neuroscience. The mandate of
NBRC, a Deemed University is to create a “Centre of
Excellence in Brain Research” with state-of-art
facilities, evolve the center through a networking
approach and generate highly trained human
resource. Brain-related disorders represent one of
the major disease groups that affect the population
and cause a huge burden on the society. With
increasing life expectancy the world over, the
prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative
disorders such as Parkinson's disease would
contribute enormously to the years lived in disability.
Psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit
disorder (ADHD), depression and schizophrenia
also affect a fairly large percentage of the world
population. In spite of the efforts made in the last
decade, we are far from understanding the
mechanisms underlying this group of disorders. At
NBRC, an inter-disciplinary approach is adopted
towards achieving the objectives. The major areas
that have been identified for research include
computational neuroscience, system and cognitive
neuroscience, stem cell research, developmental
neurobiology and basic research towards
understanding of neurological and psychiatric
disorders. Since its inception NBRC has been
working steadily towards achieving its objectives and
translation of basic research and technological
advances into better diagnostic tools, cures and
therapies for brain disorders.
The year 2006-07 witnessed the growth of NBRC
and the campus at Manesar bustles with the
expanding student community. The interdisciplinary
Ph.D. and Integrated PhD programmes at NBRC
continue to attract students from a wide range of
disciplines including electrical engineers,
computational scientists, psychologist, clinicians and
biologists from all over the country. NBRC's
mandate to network existing neuroscience
groups/institutions in the country and promote
multidisciplinary research in neuroscience is also
being implemented and at present, the number of
networked centres across the country has grown to
47. The institute also continues to share its digital
library with the network centres.
The molecular and cellular neuroscience group is
actively engaged in understanding mechanisms
involved in the pathogenesis and progression of
neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's,
Alzheimer's and polyglutamine diseases using
cellular and animal models,. The molecular
mechanisms underlying the behavioral learning
deficit in neurodevelopmental diseases such as
Angelman's syndrome was investigated. Importantly,
the neuro-pharmacological effects of plants that are
used in traditional system of medicine for improving
higher mental function are being examined as
potential treatment for senile dementia including
Alzheimer's disease. The role of ubiquitin
proteasome system (UPS) in the pathogenesis of
various neurological disorders is being studied with
special reference to polyglutamine disease such as
Huntington's disease (HD) and spinocerebellar
ataxia type 3 (SCA3). The expression of expanded
polyglutamine proteins down-regulates NF-Bdependent
transcriptional activity. Oxidative stimuli
and curcumin enhance the mutant huntingtin
aggregation and mutant huntingtin-induced cell
death. The role of UPS in the pathogenesis of
Angelman mental retardation syndrome (AS), a
neurodevelopmental disorder is also being studied.
E6-AP (gene product mutated in AS) promotes the
degradation of p53 in the neuronal cells.
The studies carried out at NBRC on the Japanese
encephalitis virus (JEV) have demonstrated for the
first time that (i) JEV infection activates microglia
both morphologically and functionally, in vivo (ii)
infection leads to an elevation of proinflammatory
mediators; (iii) microglia are the predominant source
of proinflammatory mediators, and (iv) the cytotoxins
185 Autonomous Institutions