ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

and the National Research Centre Canada
respectively. The ongoing bilateral agreements and
collaborations have also been significant, with joint
projects being funded with Germany, Norway and
USA. Bilateral interactions have been initiated with
Sweden, Ukraine and EU. The multilateral
collaboration including cooperation amongst SAARC
countries were pursued.
Autonomous Institutions
National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi
The Institute continues to make inroads to basic
research related to the immune system with a
commitment that the knowledge gained would
contribute to newer and more effective ways of
addressing the health needs of the country. During
the year, more than 50 peer reviewed manuscripts
and 5 reviews have been published. There is about
25% increase in the number of original peer-reviewed
publications over the last year especially in high
impact journals that include: Nature Immunology,
Immunity, EMBO Journal, Journal of Clinical Cancer,
Cell Death and Differentiation, Journal of Biological
Chemistry and European Journal of Immunology etc.
The Institute continued with the concept of 'end-toend'
research in the biosciences and have signed
MoU with AstraZeneca India, Bangalore, and Cadila
Pharmaceuticals, Ahmedabad on a technology
related to novel molecules that inhibit Mycobacterial
FadD proteins and can have the potential as antimycobacterial
drugs.
National Centre for Cell Science, Pune
The Centre has emphasis on R&D activities in the
areas of cell biology including stem cell biology, signal
transduction, cancer biology, diabetes, infection and
immunity and chromatin architecture and gene
regulation. The national cell repository supplied 1154
cell lines 128 scientific institutions in India. Training
and teaching programmes were also conducted. In
the cell biology research, for the first time a nuclear
pore protein has been found to be associated with
interphase microtubules. A protein molecule from
perivitelline fluid of Indian horse shoe crab has shown
cardiac promoting activity. In stem cell research,
arachidonic acid (omega 6) and its metabolities found
to reduce apopotosis in CD34+ cells. The
differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into
dopaminergic neurons has been achieved. In
diabetes research, chick pancreatic β islets has been
found to be an excellent screening model for
physiological and pharmacological studies. In cancer
biology area, a distinctive nuclear-mitochondrial
mutational profile and varying stem cell dynamics
have been identified which seem to be associated
with tumorigenesis. As a potential therapeutic anticholesterol
agent, methgl- β-cycolodexterin in
combination with other cytotoxic drugs towards
reduction of drug dosage is being evaluated. Studies
on signal transduction revealed that cox-2 is a
potential agent for protate tumor suppression. In
infection and immunity studies, selenophosphate
synthetase gene has been cloned and characterized.
Successfully isolated and characterized dendritic cell
types 1 & 2. Genome sequencing of poxviruses and
herpesvirus showed that members of these families
encode structural homologs of human regulators of
the complement activation to mask themselves
against the hosts complement attack. Studies on HIV
biology indicate that Hsp40 as a crucial player in Nef
mediated enhancement of HIV gene expression and
replication. Leads from chromatin architecture and
gene regulation studies on HIV have advanced the
knowledge on mechanism of global gene regulation.
During the reporting period, 46 scientific papers were
published in high impact factor journals and 7 patent
applications have been filled.
Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics
(CDFD), Hyderabad
The Centre has been providing services for DNA
fingerprinting, diagnostics, new born screening and
bioinformatics based on modern high-technology
DNA-based methods of direct benefit to the public, as
well as in performing fundamental research of
international standards in frontier areas of biological
science. The Centre is providing DNA fingerprinting
services to various Government & Law Enforcement
Agencies and signed MoUs with State/Central
Forensic Science laboratories to popularize this
technology for the benefit of the society. There are
presently fifteen groups working on diverse research
areas related to genetics, molecular and cell biology,
13 An Overview