Inauguration of Workshop on Bioinformatics for Higher Secondary School – Biology Teachers held during June 14-16, 2007.
Key note address - Dr. Arul Samraj, Coordinator, BIF, Madras Christian College________ More than a decade of concerted effort in research and development in identified areas of modern biology and Biotechnology have given the rich dividend of setting up of a separate Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1986 which gave a new impetus to the development of the field of modern biology and Biotechnology in India. The impact of the Biotechnology related developments in agriculture, health care, environment and industry, has already been visible and the efforts are now culminating into products and processes. The proven technologies at the laboratory level have been scaled up and demonstrated in field. Patenting of innovations, technology transfer to industries and close interaction with them have given a new direction to biotechnology research. Initiatives have been taken to promote transgenic research in plants with emphasis on pest and disease resistance, nutritional quality, silk-worm genome analysis, molecular biology of human genetic disorders, brain research, plant genome research, development, validation and commercialization of diagnostic kits and vaccines for communicable diseases, food biotechnology, biodiversity conservation and bioprospecting, setting up of micro propagation parks and biotechnology based development for rural areas, women of different States of India, etc. Necessary guidelines for transgenic plants, recombinant vaccines and drugs have also been evolved. A strong base of indigenous capabilities has been created. The field of Biotechnology both for new innovations and applications would form a major research and commercial endeavor for socio-economic development in this millennium. Emergence of Bioinformatics
Growth of Biotechnology has accelerated particularly during the last decade due to conduit breaking advancements in biology and new technologies that produce large high quality data. One such advancement is the high break-through of full genome sequencing projects, including human genome, have produced very large data. The analysis of such large data and extraction of knowledge from this data is possible only with the help of new algorithms intensive computer techniques. Thus biologists need to use almost every new technical development in Information Technology and Computer Sciences and intelligent application to solve complex biological problems leading the development of multi-disciplinary area called Bioinformatics.Bioinformatics has become a frontline applied science and is of vital importance to study new biology, which is widely recognized as the new scientific endeavor of the twenty-first century. The growth in full genomic sequencing, structural genomics, proteomics, micro-array etc. will be very slow without application of Bioinformatics. In fact usefulness of these areas to solve complex biological problems will be limited without Bioinformatics and consequently, very high importance to Bioinformatics.Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISnet) ------- A National Bioinformatics Network India was the first country in the world to establish in 1987 a Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) network to create an infrastructure that enables it to harness, biotechnology through the application of Bioinformatics. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has taken up this infrastructure development project and created a distributed network at a very low cost. BTISnet is today recognized as one of the major scientific network in the world dedicated to provide the-state-of-the-art infrastructure, education, manpower and tools in Bioinformatics.It must be noted that India is emerging as a key international player in the field of Bioinformatics; enabling a greater access to wealth of information created during the post-genomic era and catalyze the Country’s attainment of lead position in medical, agricultural, animal and environmental biotechnology. India would create a niche in Bioinformatics industry and would work to create Bioinformatics industry with a high turn over in the days ahead of us. Organization
The Bioinformatics program during the period has made excellent progress in terms of disseminating the up to date information resources to the researchers and the development of various bioinformatic tools for biotechnology and molecular biology applications. 26 new bioinformatic centers were established as a part of BTISnet and with these the network went up to 61 centres spread all over the country. These centers are established at various Universities, ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, DBT, DST, DAE and other Central & State Govt. supported laboratories. These centres have been networked through satellite communication systems by installing the latest computer and communication infrastructure available in India.
Emergence of a distributed network and database infrastructure in Bioinformatics
To fulfill the growing need of modern biologists & biotechnology industry R & D, the BTISnet works as a distributed database and network organization to provide an integrated information resource on all aspects of Biotechnology. Molecular biology data such as Gene Bank, Nucleic Acids and Protein Sequences, etc., are accessible over the network from worldwide resources in molecular biology. Important amongst these resources are the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the National Agricultural Library (NAL), the ICGEB, Trieste Bioinformatics resources and several other resources on the internet.
Development of databases/resource directoriesMore than 100 subject specific databases are currently available on the BTISnet. Each centre is responsible for developing a database in the identified thrust areas. Some of these efforts have received international recognition. For example, a major database on animal viruses developed by the center at University of Pune has been recognized by the Microbial Strain Data Network, CODATA, a Committee of International Council of Sciences on Data for science & technology and other international bodies.
Dissemination and usage of resourcesBTISnet resources are now being used by about 15,000 scientists of the country. Mirror sites established by BTISnet are also accessed by users from outside countries. The services include analysis of biological data, bibliographic references to published literature in biotechnology (including patent data), software development for computationally intensive problems in biology such as molecular modeling, genome analysis, protein engineering for rational drug design, etc. A printed directory of resources available at each center is also produced each year. The same directory is made available on the web of DBT (BTIS).A national Biotechnology server has been established with the domain address of www.btisnet.ac.in, that supports e-mail exchange by the scientific community in the country. DBT investigators’ mail server has been created as a part of BIOGRID to communicate transparently by the investigators. The e-mail address for this server is dbtinvestigators@dbt.gov.in.
Implementation of BIOGRID of India
Research in Biotechnology, which is highly knowledge and capital intensive, has generated a deluge of information during this first decade of the current millennium. To make use of this information effectively there is a need for high speed and large bandwidth network. Towards this end, DBT has successfully established a high-speed and high-bandwidth network in the form of Virtual Public Network (VPN) named as BIOGRID INDIA. Eleven nodes have been established in the first phase, which are actively pursuing bioinformatics activities such as human resource development and R&D in bioinformatics besides, dissemination of biotechnology information to researchers in the country. The nodes are interconnected through 2mbps dedicated leased circuit line at each location and 4Mbps Internet bandwidth shared from the central server by all the nodes. The BIOGRID allows exchange of database & software which have been created/acquired by the individual centers/nodes of BTISnet. This resource sharing helps in enhancing the value and usefulness of the BTISnet, the only true resource sharing network in India.BIOGRID will be useful in sharing teaching materials, to deliver lectures through video conferencing-virtual classrooms besides synergizing research in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. The mirror sites of internationally recognized genomic databases such as GDB, Protein Data Bank (PDB), Plant Genome Data Banks, Databases of European Bioinformatics institute (EBI) and public domain bioinformatics software packages are also available on the BIOGRID. The advantage of mirroring these databases in India is to provide unhindered mining of high quality data from well established primary and secondary information sources. Commercial software essential to carry out research & training in bioinformatics will also be made available through BIOGRID. The network would act as a knowledge pathway for discoveries in biotechnology and bioinformatics.
Training/Workshops/Long term courses in BioinformaticsA number of workshops and training programmes were conducted on the use of computers and databanks in modern biology and Biotechnology. Considering the importance of the subject, many Institutions and university Departments have introduced the Bioinformatics course in their existing post graduate programs in Biotechnology. There has been a sudden increase in the demand of such professionals by gene-hunting Companies. Many of the larger pharmaceutical companies are now seeing real value in gene mapping and sequence data and have started attracting experts from academic field. In light of these developments, the efforts to motivate many young Beginner-Biologists at the Higher Secondary level are likely to be rewarding towards Human Resource Development while generating employment opportunities. BIOINFORMATICS INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITY (BIF)Bioinformatics cannot be ignored by any Country/Institution/Department intending to remain up-to-date in the biomedical, biotechnological and agricultural sector. Countries like India must manage their own scientific data of indigenous biological species, local epidemiological data and biodiversity. These tasks require Statistics and Informatics experts to interact with biologists and use bioinformatics software. This will lead to development of capability to solve problems locally. To facilitate this process of bioinformatics/biocomputing, it has been envisaged by DBT to grant Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility across the country. It must also be noted that Madras Christian College is one among the 52 Institutions of the Country to receive this facility of which 6 are Colleges and the rest are Universities.
