Triumphant steps into colonies of cure

Updated on: Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Long before man learnt the complexities surrounding microorganisms, they had roles in processes such as baking, brewing, and preservation of food. As a consequence of developments in microbiology, they found diverse applications as in the production of amino acids, antibiotics, and chemical feed.

New developments in molecular biology and genetic engineering have helped in solving several long-standing problems.

Agriculture, animal husbandry, and medical therapy are some of the areas that have benefited much from the emerging trends in microbial technology.

Gifts of recombinant DNA techniques include crops free from diseases, production of hormones that enhance milk production, better animal vaccines, easier fermentation methods, and efficient manufacture of chemicals.

Though microorganisms have a role in causing diseases, they recycle elements in nature and degrade dead and decaying organic matter. They help in producing fertilizers, bio-control agents, organic acids, and so on.

Research in microbiology takes into account these opposing characteristics. Researchers seek the assistance of microbes in producing intermediates through “green” routes, thereby moving to the production of antibiotics. Green routes indicate reliance on biological rather than chemical aspects. Bacteria are sometimes referred to as scavengers in nature, since they degrade organic substances.

They help in handling industrial waste, including organic pollutants and harmful effluents. Detection of microbial pathogens in food is a significant preventive area in public health.

Even today, tuberculosis is a major killer disease in India. In 2009, out of the estimated global annual incidence of 9.4 million TB cases, 1.98 million were in India.

In other words, one out of five TB patients in the world is in our country. World Health Organisation reports the prevalence of TB in India in 2009 as 185 per lakh of population. The mortality rate is 24 per lakh.

Growth of drug resistance in the causative organisms is a serious problem. Strategies have to be evolved for arresting such growth for controlling the malady.

Diseases such as cholera, malaria, and HIV call for appropriate research to assist their prevention, control, and treatment. In the realm of agriculture, there are efforts to develop crops that resist “abiotic stresses” caused by extreme temperature, salt concentration, low moisture content in soil, photon irradiance, drought, flood, and so on.

To develop resistant crops, bacteria that survive in such extreme conditions have to be found. These are only some of the examples of microbial biotechnology making human living easier and better.

But the story cannot end here. A lot of new ground has to be broken in the hunt for new microbes and novel genes for effectively meeting serious challenges in modernising agriculture, ensuring better public health, and maintaining a safe environment. Emerging trends in probiotics (live microorganisms which confer a health benefit to the host) and biosensors (devices that detect physiological changes and use biological materials to monitor chemicals in a substance) are some of the many areas open for research and development.
IMTECH

Substantial research in these areas is being carried out at the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Sector 39A, Chandigarh – 160 036; www.imtech.res.in It is one of the youngest among the national laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, having been established in 1984. It carries out integrated research, development, and design in classical and emerging areas of microbiology. The areas covered also touch biotechnology and genetic engineering. IMTECH tries to optimise the existing microbial processes. It maintains gene pool resources and genetic stocks of microbial cultures and other cell lines. Another important area of focus relates to instrumentation and equipment development with special emphasis on the needs of microbial technology. It develops mathematical models for process parameters. The institute has capabilities for producing design and engineering packages for industrial plants.
Subjects of research

Biochemical engineering: fermentation-based process development

Bio-computing and mathematical modelling

Biosensors and nanotechnology

Cell biology and immunology

Exploration of microbial biodiversity

Genetics and molecular biology

Protein science and engineering

Infrastructure

The institute has a total built-up area of nearly 3.60 lakh sq.ft. In the fermentation segment, there are lab-to-pilot-scale fermenters of capacities varying from two litres to 1,500 litres for continuous and batch fermentation. There is adequate equipment for the following operations.

Studies on animals

Bioinformatics and bio-computing

Microbial type culture collection

Microscopy

Protein and DNA

Tissue and cell culture

Global collaborations

A notable aspect in the working of IMTECH is its strong links with a number of foreign countries in various projects. The countries include the U.S., Poland, Spain, France, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Russia, and Germany. This feature helps to provide rich global experience to research scholars. Further, the institute has professional connections with nearly three dozen leading corporate institutions in India. Research and development in the institute focus on industrial applications. The scholars who work on real-life projects get added confidence, as they find the fruits of their pursuit being used by professionals in the field. Some of the technologies transferred and made use of by industries are given below.

Bioconversion of Rifamycin B to Rifamycin S

Energy-efficient alcohol technology

Know-how for alkaline protease

Know-how for alpha amylase

Know-how for natural streptokinase, recombinant streptokinase, clot-specific streptokinase, immunosuppressive agent, recombinant staphylokinase

Know-how for urokinase

Microbial process for D-p-hydroxyphenylglycine

Development of a live, oral, recombinant vaccine for cholera (IMTECH, in collaboration with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases and the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, developed anoral recombinant cholera vaccine. This vaccine is the first of its kind anywhere in the world outside the U.S.)

Immunoinformatics software (IMTECH in collaboration with the bioinformatics company BioMantra launched an immunoinformatics software tool “VaxiPred” for computer-aided vaccine design. This new software tool helps in the prediction of vaccine candidates from a pathogen, thus reducing time in vaccine development.)

Triumphant steps into colonies of cure

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