The Hindu Business Line : Applied Biosystems ties up with NGO

In an Uttar Pradesh village, for four generations all the female members in a particular family have been born minus fingers and toes. In another instance, only physically-disabled children were born in several families for the last two generations in a different village.

The current scientific knowledge on the human genes and their role in diseases has no answers to these genetic problems, said Dr Lalji Singh, Director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), here.

The burden of genetic disorders in rural India is enormous and many of these disorders are also novel. This presents a challenge to scientists to understand the complexity and find affordable cures.

In an effort towards this direction, a partnership between a US-based profit driven company, Applied Biosystems and an Indian non-profit organisation, the Genome Foundation has been forged.

New partnership

The life science instrument major, Applied Biosystems, has donated one of its DNA sequencer machines to the Hyderabad-headquartered Genome Foundation, to undertake genetic studies.

The Rs 60 lakh machine can help the foundation’s efforts to reduce the huge burden of genetic disorders in rural India.

The Genome Foundation plans to use the genetic analyser to sequence each individual’s genome and detect any DNA mutations that might be linked to diseases, Dr Lalji Singh, who is also the Managing Director of the Foundation, told newspersons on Friday.

More Stories on : Health | Bio-tech & Genetics | Andhra Pradesh

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