Redefining life through stem cells

Technology and biology are converging fast. The result will transform everything from engineering to art and redefine life. This enveloping theme for the session on "Frontier technology: Sowing the seeds for tomorrow" explored several opportunities around stem cells.

Dr Vishwanath R Lingappa, chief technology officer, Prosetta Corporation, addressed the reason for elusiveness of bioinformatics and also highlighted the limitation of high resolution structured biology. A quick mention of Prosetta's ambitious plans for India covered the inception of the animal facility center in Mysore and extension of conformer specific monoclonal antibodies.

S Abhayakumar, chairman, Lifecell, India, reflected on what and why is whipping up so much hope in the vast arena of stem cells. He also observed that the percentage research on stem cells is 85 whereas the application stands negligible (of the order of 0-1 percent) and India being host to maximum number of diseases is amongst the few countries to realize the potential of this concept. He also urged public-private partnership in the scope of research for stem cells. Abhayakumar added that he is confident that in five years "we will have cure for one or two near fatal diseases."

Dr Alok Srivastava, professor, Christian Medical College, also noted on the hope and reality around stem cells.

Dr Franck Molina, scientist with the Centre for Pharmacology and Health Biotechnology, France, analysed biodata integration problems and emphasized that systems biology should challenge ways of selection and development of new therapeutics and diagnostics.

The other speakers at the session were Dr Anupama Gaur, application support manager, Labindia Instruments, Umesh Pawa, national manager, Applied Biosystems, who spoke on Microseq microbila Identification system and Mass Spectrometry and iTRAQ reagent respectively.

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