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02-08 Oct, 2012
small world
Breakthrough
Cracking the Gene Frontier
Lhendup Bhutia

In a first of its kind, a group of Indian scientists from across the country have decoded the entire genetic makeup of a bacterium without the help of any foreign scientists. What makes this project even more notable is that it might help create a strong tuberculosis (TB) vaccine.

Their subject was Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP), a soil-inhabiting bacterium considered friendly to humans but also, incidentally, the progenitor of the harmful TB and leprosy bacteria.

According to the scientists involved in the research, in various clinical trials, MIP has proven beneficial in the treatment of ailments like TB, TB-HIV, and different types of cancer. It is also used as a vaccine against leprosy. However, so far, no one had attempted to sequence its genetic make-up. “We were interested in this bacterium because of its beneficial properties, and also because its other variants cause tuberculosis and leprosy bacteria,” says Dr Anil Talwar, a professor at the Department of Biochemistry in University of Delhi, and one of the scientists involved in this research.

The research team was drawn from scientists at University of Delhi, University of Hyderabad, IIT-Delhi and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research. It was a six-year-long research project. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

The study is also expected to have benefits in the domain of public health. It will offer new insights into the evolutionary history of the bacteria responsible for TB and leprosy, and show the genetic story of how a harmless bacterial species like MIP underwent changes over a period of time to give rise to TB. The project has also led to the identification of a number of proteins that are responsible for the beneficial effects demonstrated by MIP. Many of these proteins are incidentally absent from the vaccine strain Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) that is used against TB. The scientists now plan to transfer these genes to BCG and test the resulting vaccine strain against both TB and leprosy. “If it works, that will be a massive plus for public health and disease control in India,” claims Dr Talwar.

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Take Two
An Atheist’s Prayer
Madhavankutty Pillai

Of all the festivals which insist on making you a participant even if you are an atheist, Ganesha Chaturthi is the most annoying if you are in Mumbai. (Though even in far off places like Kerala, which has little connect with this god, Malayalees are now joining the queue to drown him.) The festival goes on and on, for 10 days and sometimes more in some places. Streets disappear into pandals erected by the local mafia. The noise is impossibly scratchy and earth-shatteringly loud. And like all revelries, it is only cute for those who are part of it.

To anyone who says that we should be sensitive about religious sensitivities, the answer is, ‘When did we ever have a choice?’ Religious faith can be explained but this is still absurd. What sense does it make to stand in a queue for six hours to look at a Plaster of Paris sculpture that came out of a mould? Religion is superstition amplified and organised. The predicament of the human condition is that there is no route out of it. It is an evolutionary thing, a leftover from the time the brain wanted an illusion of control in a chaotic world. There are still bits of proteins inside your head forcing you to believe in gods and holy books. Even so, man has a choice to not be blind. In a sensible world, faith would be use-according-to-convenience. Like pain killers, when you sprain an ankle. Instead, if you keep popping pain killers daily, expecting that your ankle will never sprain, it’s textbook delusion.

Gods, even if they don’t exist, belong in a deep corner of the home and not on the street blocking traffic. But they will continue to be there because faith must co-opt. It is dependent on that fuel. All alone, you are a madman if you worship a tree. A thousand people, and you have a cult. A million, and you have a religion. If your numbers don’t keep increasing, divinity will wither away. Augustus, the great Roman emperor, was so great that after his death Rome made him a god. When the Roman Empire died, God Augustus also died. Millions of gods have likewise died. For a god to be immortal, he must be regularly on the streets canvassing.

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Besmirched
Tragedy after the Actor’s Death

Thilakan, one of the great character artistes of Malayalam cinema, passed away recently, and it immediately laid bare the hypocrisy among his peers. For some time now, he had been in conflict with the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) and Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA). It started when Thilakan flouted their directive to not work with a director they had banned. In turn, he found himself banned. Often, he was invited for compromise talks and then humiliated. He once had an open fight with actor-turned-minister KB Ganesh Kumar. The superstar duo of Mammootty and Mohanlal also conspired in between to keep Thilakan from getting film offers. But though he was in his 70s, Thilakan staged a comeback with an outstanding performance in Indian Rupee. After his death, you saw the very same people who had victimised him waxing lyrical on his talents and contribution to Malayalam cinema. Ganesh Kumar lamented that Thilakan’s demise was a huge loss. Mammootty was contrite and said he had lost Thilakan much before his death and was still unable to understand why. Mohanlal recalled how he learnt acting from Thilakan, but there were no words of repentance. Office bearers of AMMA and FEFKA kept away from obits in the media.

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02-08 Oct, 2012