Scientist who developed India’s first indigenous vaccine dies at the age of 72.

Dr. M.K. Bhan addressing a Press Conference to apprise on the two significant R&D results emanating from DBT support, in New Delhi on May 31, 2012.

The scientist who developed India’s first indigenous vaccine dies at 72. He was born in 1947, the year when India got independence and he passes away on 26th January, when India was celebrating its 71st Republic day. He was destined to be part of the country’s history.

Maharaj Kishan Bhan is an Indian pediatrician and clinical scientist who developed the vaccine for rotavirus, the first indigenous vaccine produced in the country. He was born on 9th November 1947. He completed his MBBS degree from AFMC, Pune and M.D. Degree from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. As a faculty in AIIMS, Delhi he worked extensively on childhood diarrhea and nutrition. Childhood diarrhea is caused by rotavirus infection. The infection kills at least 100,000 children every year.
It was during his time in AIIMS, which helps him in making the first indigenous vaccine. While he was working on diarrhea and nutrition in AIIMS, he coincidently discovered a weakened strain of rotavirus from a child patient. That becomes his golden ticket. He isolated the strain and used it to develop a vaccine for rotavirus. He built teams and collaborated with a biotech company and work extensively during the whole process of clinical trial and the vaccine was later licensed to sell in 2014.

His tenure as a secretary of Department of Biotechnology, GOI
Maharaj Kishan Bhan also served as the secretary of DBT, Government of India from 2005 to 2012. While he was the secretary, he was involved in many endeavors. The most notable is the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), a center dedicated to vaccines and infectious diseases, pediatric biology, biodesign, and drug development. The THSTI is modelled the Health-Science-Technology (HST) program between MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It brings together all research institutions, teaching hospitals and universities in the Boston area to collaborate in solving human health problems. Engineers and scientists take their expertise from the lab to the bedside and bring back learning from the bedside to their benches. His idea was to link this to existing institutions such as AIIMS, IIT, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biology and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research.

Forbes called him India’s biotech messiah. As a scientist and administrator, he has contributed enormously to science and the people. His death is a great loss for the Indian scientific community and the people.

Comments

Our top Stories

Story of Kary Mullis, PCR inventor

'Sometimes a great idea comes to you when you are not looking for it' 'Science is subject to arbitrary fashion' 'Science grows like a weed every year' Kary Mullis at TED talk. Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR was born on 28 December 1944 in North Carolina, USA. His parents grew up in the foothills of Blue ridge Mountains. And they live near their grandfather’s farm. Kary Mullis was an eight-year-old boy when Watson and Crick published the structure of DNA in 1953. By the time Watson and Crick were awarded Nobel prize, Kary was still busy designing rockets in Georgia Institute of Technology. He was not interested in studying DNA at all. By the time he left Georgia Tech, biologists had already solved the genetic code. It was during his six years at UC, Berkley as a Ph.D. student that changes his mind. After six years at Berkley with a Ph.D., he headed to Kansas to become a writer. He quickly found out he was too young to be a writer and was poor...

RNA editing, CRISPR-Cas 13 provides herd immunity against dsDNA phage.

CRISPR-cas13: the only RNA editing CRISPR till date. CRISPR RNA targeting CRISPR-cas13 provides immunity against dsDNA phage without cutting the genome, unlike the other 5 types which work by cutting the genome. CRISPR-Cas13 works differently. It provides herd immunity to the bacteria. CRISPR-Cas13 There are six types of CRISPR in literature till now (1-6). CRISPR Cas VI is the only one that cuts the RNA. It cuts the RNA transcript complementary to the target sequence of the mRNA . After cutting the complementary RNA, it starts cutting all other mRNAs of the phage which Scientists called Collateral damage. This is the phenomena that provide Herd immunity. 3D structure of CRIPSR-Cas References: Cas13 Helps Bacteria Play Dead when the Enemy Strikes. Cell Host and Microbe . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2019.06.012 Follow and like Layman's Biology Facebook page for more news

Biodegradable burial pod turns your body into a tree.

Bretzel and Citelli with Capsula Mundi Model. Whenever a person dies, it is a burden for the family emotionally and financially. We spend thousands of dollars in funerals paying for the casket, flowers, and monuments. Environmentally, those caskets and monuments left behind an enormous carbon footprint. Recently, many people have begun to embrace the idea of green burials. People are environmentally more aware and there is a shift from cremation and the use of wood, the synthetic cushioning and the metals generally used in traditional coffins to green burial. Green burial is a method of burying the body in a wooden coffin without a concrete burial vault. The body along with the wooden coffin is degraded easily by the bacteria in the soil. This type of burial allows the graveyard to return to nature. Nearly 54 percent of Americans are considering green burial and 74 percent of cemeteries are reporting an increased demand for g...

Top 5 public companies working on gene editing.

Top 5 public companies working on gene editing . The ranking based on the revenues generated in 2018. 1. Sangamo Therapeutics: $84.5million This is an American biotechnology company. They apply cell and gene therapy to combat hemophilia and other genetic diseases. They base the company in California, USA. They develop Zinc Finger gene-editing technology. Clinical trials involving gene editing using Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) are ongoing. Sangamo therapeutics building 2. Horizon Discovery Group: $73.7m It is a gene-editing company that designs and engineers genetically modified cells and then applies them in research and clinical applications that advance human health. They used three gene-editing tools CRISPR, ZFN, and recombinant A deno -associated virus ( rAAV ). The company saw a 68% rise in revenue. The revenue was £58.7million and based in Waterbeach, United Kingdom. Horizon discovery group main building 3...

Science Stories

Search This Blog