Research

A team of scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have discovered the three-banded rosefinch, a rare bird species, in the high- altitude coniferous forests of Arunachal Pradesh.

Made from vanadium pentoxide nanosheets, the new “nanozymes” work by mimicking the natural enzyme called glutathione peroxidase to help reduce oxidative stress levels in the host’s cells, which is required to keep the virus in check.

The Indigenous CSF Cell Culture Vaccine (IVRI-CSF-BS) developed by using an Indian field isolates has a huge export potential. Due to its very high titre (1×109.5 TCID50 / ml), the Vaccine can produce a large number of doses (60 Lakhs approx.) easily from only one 75 cm² Tissue Culture Flask. The country’s yearly requirement of 22 million doses can be prepared in just four 75 cm² Tissue Culture Flasks.

UNDP and Spices Board India are working towards integrating the Blockchain Traceability Interface with the e-Spice Bazaar portal developed by Spices Board India for connecting spices farmers with markets.Design of the Blockchain interface is expected to be completed by May’21. The project will be piloted with over 3,000 farmers engaged in chilli and turmeric farming in select Districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Researchers found that substituting a small part of the sodium in salt with potassium without altering the taste led to a substantial reduction in systolic blood pressure in these patients, supporting salt substitution as an effective, low-cost intervention for lowering blood pressure in rural India, says GIGH statement.

On further study, the researchers found that Polymerase GammaA in 50% of the tested adPEO patients was highly ubiquitylated. However it was possible to reverse the process of ubiquitylation either by removing MITOL itself or by genetically modifying the site Polymerase GammaA in adPEO patients that gets highly ubiquitylated by MITOL. Speaking to India Science Wire, the leader of the team, Dr. Sagar Sengupta, said, “It will be interesting to test in future whether the reactivation of Polymerase Gamma A can actually be carried out in the patients using mitochondrial genome editing techniques”.

The study, published in ‘EMBO Molecular Medicine, was led by Amit Singh, Associate Professor and Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Senior Fellow at the Department of Microbiology & Cell Biology and Centre for Infectious Diseases Research (CIDR), and Govindasamy Mugesh, Professor at the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.

he Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) in Bengaluru has developed five new chilli hybrids, which it says are resistant to the devastating leaf curl virus (LCV) that afflicts the crop.

In a new study geared in this direction, researchers at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc)’s Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) and collaborators have demonstrated that the venom of Russell’s vipers was dramatically different in composition and toxicity based on geographical location, though the commercial antivenom treatment for Russell’s viper venom works as marketed for most populations of this snake, except the ones in North India.

The wireless product called Giga Mesh could enable telecom operators deploy quality, high-speed rural telecom infrastructure at 5 times lower cost. Rural connectivity customers and defence customers who have already signed up for pilots will soon witness the demonstration of this product by Astrome.