By KUMAR CHELLAPPAN
Chennai, April 17: Mythology speaks about devas (Gods) and asuras (devils) churning the sea for amrit that will give them immortality.
Today, scientists at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) are churning the oceans for drugs capable of fighting many terminal diseases, including HIV and cancer.
"The sea is a treasure house of healing," says Prof. Muthusamy Chandrasekaran, the Cuddalore-born bio-technologist at Cusat. Impressed by the systematic research done by Prof. Chandrasekaran and his team of young researchers, the ministry of earth sciences has approved a project for exploring the oceans for new drugs, in collaboration with the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) of the ministry.
"Watch out. You are in for big surprises. The next two to three decades will certainly be an era of marine biotechnology. We will rule the pharma world," says Prof. Chandrsekaran.
The professor has reasons to be elated. Samples of microbes, organisms, invertebrates and sponges collected by Sagar Sampada, the ministry’s 72-foot-long fisheries oceanographic research vessel (FORV), were tested at the hi-tech labs of Cusat. "We have found that the bio-active compounds extracted from these organisms have anti-cancer, anti-viral and anti-depressant characteristics. Firm conclusions will be arrived at once their structural studies are completed," says Dr Soorej M. Basheer, a leading member of the research team.
Instructed by the ministry, Cuddalore-based Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology (CASMB) has also been conducting research for developing drugs from the sea.
The scientist team led by director Dr T. Balasubramanian has already succeeded in extracting heparin from mollusc found along the east coast. Arguing that the sea is richer in bio-diversity than the earth environment, he says anti-cancer drugs have been isolated from toxic blue-green algae found in the South Pacific Ocean.
HOWRAH.ORG
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All faculties at Cochin University of Science and Technology are well experienced and all are got Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics. All faculties have permission for taking research scholars for research studies. Now there are approximately fifteen research scholars under different teaching faculties. Get Access to Ekeeda's Online Engineering Courses of Cochin University of Science and Technology
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