BERHAMPUR: Still unexplored in the field of biotechnology, Orissa with its ample variety of flora and fauna, diversity in the human genetics with scope for discovery of commercially usable microbes can be the best place for future biotechnological exploration India, opined S. Sivaji, renowned biotechnologist and the deputy director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, at the Roland Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences on Thursday.

Speaking at a function organised by the department of biotechnology of the institution, Mr. Sivaji said research in the field of biotechnology is not new to Orissa as much work on genetic engineering was being done on paddy plant at the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. He urged students of biotechnology in Orissa to make the State a major hub of biotechnology through their research.

According to him one of the major fields of biotechnological research can be on the ethnic tribes of Orissa to find out their genetic links with other tribes of the country as well as abroad.

Elaborating the use of biotechnology in the present world, he said it had already become a part of our life although people do not realise it.

Microbes were being genetically engineered to kill pests and reduce them to non-toxic waste to reduce the chemical pollution caused by pesticides. Genetically foisted high yield breeds of crops have become a thing of general use.

Even for the humans, biotechnological research has surely increased acceptance level of medicines by the human body.

It was used to clone and purify the antigen that was used for the vaccine against hepatitis. Engineered micro organisms can be used for the biodegradation of the large quantity of waste generated by the modern world.

Gene therapy

But Mr. Sivaji felt the greatest dream of biotechnological research was gene therapy for the humans to eradicate genetic problems which was facing stumbling blocks in the form of questions of ethics and religious belief as it involves use of stem cells that emerge from the newly formed zygote. "The real challenge is how to manipulate the human genes without taking them out of the human body," he said. If the scientists were given a free hand to continue laboratory experiments on stem cells, the cure for many so-called incurable diseases would be found within next few years, he said.

But he was surely critical of the way the term biotechnology was being used to market products that have no relation with biotechnology.

He cited examples of vaccines being marketed as products of biotechnological research although their production process may not have delved into the field of genetic engineering.

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