India's Budding Scientists Successfully Map TB Genome

What happens when a group of 400 odd highly motivated young scientists get together to solve one common problem? - Possibly the impossible becomes possible, and meeting even the toughest of all challenges seems like a cakewalk.

Something similar happened when recently students from several Indian universities got together to map the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome (TB genome)- a challenge thrown to them by the officials of Connect 2 Decode (C2D) project, which again is a part of a large Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) project introduced by the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in September 2008. They got started, worked single-mindedly interacting completely though the Web, and completed mapping the genome within FOUR months! - A great feat indeed.

Mapping of MTB genome is expected to expedite the discovery of a new drug for TB, a disease which claims around 1.7 million people every year globally, one-fifth of them in India, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The TB bacterium has over the years developed resistance to the multi-drug regimen, currently being used worldwide to eliminate it. For the last five decades, there has not been any new drug discovery in this therapeutic segment, and big pharma MNCs had almost virtually given up on this issue.

Now, CSIR is hopeful that it may just roll out a molecule ready for clinical trials in just next couple of years. So, for the skeptics who have been doubting the potentiality of Indian young brigade in the scientific and academic sector, here's an eye opener. They have done it, and done it brilliantly. Kudos scientists!

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