CONTENTS                                                  May-Jun 2001

IN THE NEWS
International experts to clone human being Ö Ranbaxy plans acquisition of biotech companies Ö Gene regulation consortium Ö Public sector must enter biotech field, says expert Ö Food genetics research centre Ö Assocham moots biotech fund and 10-year tax holiday Ö Biotechnology industry faces new challenges Ö Haemoglobin from alfalfa Ö Alliance to establish proteomic labs Ö New players in biotech field Ö Celera Genomics to sequence rat genome Ö Alliance to develop human antibody therapeutics Ö 'Lab or the Year' title for AstraZeneca R&D Boston Ö Supercomputer for proteomics Ö Gene patenting allowed in the United States Ö New project to catalogue and analyse human proteins Ö Mobile DNA lab Ö Biotech guidance draft

INVENTIONS/NEW PRODUCTS
Software for data analysis Ö New growth factor uncovered Ö Search engine for proteome mapping Ö DNA chips in bundled hollow fibres Ö Revolutionary system for cell culture Ö First gene mutation for schizophrenia identified

R&D IDEAS
Gene discovery Ö Structure of protein in DNA transfer unravelled Ö Tracing the source of water pollutants Ö Identification of asthma and allergic disease genes Ö Deltagen identifies potential genomic drug targets Ö Plant genomics project Ö Protein farming Ö Gene therapy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy Ö Biocatalysis project Ö Mouse cDNA library

MEDICAL BIOTECH
New gene delivery system Ö Drugs based on bioinformatics, genomics Ö Antibacterial biopolymers Ö New genes in E. coli O157:H7 Ö Genomic Biotech to launch DNA-profile cards Ö Candidate genes for diabetes Ö Gastrointestinal disorder genes identified Ö Vaccine prevents malaria from infecting mosquitoes Ö Staph vaccine effective in stopping infections Ö Screening 200,000 SNPs

AGRI BIOTECH
Japan launches project on rice genome simulation Ö New wheat varieties Ö Ashwagandha – new victim of Western patent policies Ö New gene to yield GM crops

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