"Kalam wants India to launch proteomic mission to develop gene chip

President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday suggested that the national programme on proteomics should be accelerated with partnership from industries and Research & Development laboratories.

Inaugurating the Center of Excellence in Medical Bio-informatics jointly promoted by the Center for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Sun Microsystems and the Andhra Pradesh government in Hyderabad, Dr Kalam said proteomics research should be pursued as a mission mode project.

The proteomics resulting into a gene chip could become the future diagnosis and treatment regime for many diseases.

Also read: Kalam to open bio-informatics centre in Hyderabad

Expressing disappointment that India had missed the great opportunity in partnering the human genome project and thereby lost the utility of right type of data, he exhorted the Indian biomedical community to take the initiative to become a working partner in the proteomics project of gene characterisation.

Proteomics is the study of all the proteins expressed by the genome of a cell. It is the logical extension of genomics. Proteomics helps to understand the basic biological processes critical to normal cellular functions as well as the development of diseases.

The President suggested that the CDFD-Sun COE be aware of the progress made in the proteomics programme and understand the processes at the molecular level to achieve genetic characterisation leading to forecasting and diagnosis of the disease for adopting suitable preventive and curative measures.

He noted that the convergence of bioscience and IT into Bioinformatics had given the thrust to researchers for genomics-based drug discovery and development.

Dr Kalam observed that the gene chip could be used for finding the existence of genetic diseases including coronary artery diseases or neuro defects in a baby during a certain stage of pregnancy itself.

The COE should work with research centres for maximising the application of medical bio-informatics for diagnostics and determination of treatment regime, he suggested.