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Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, the informal, go-getter, new secretary of India's Department of Biotechnology does not sound like your typical bureaucrat. Over cups of black coffee under a pleasant winter sun — no messy files, no bulky reports and no secretaries in sight — he talks of drastically overhauling India's science funding machinery and some more.
New biological approaches are increasingly becoming an alternative to small drug molecules in medical treatment of diseases. Varun Kesherwani takes a look at how one such genetic therapy — the ShRNA approach by type II promoter — is opening up doors for complex medical problems.
It was World Diabetes Day on November 14. As India continues to house close to 17 per cent of the world's diabetic population, Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam argues that the 'early prevention' message should now be taken more seriously to nip an impending epidemic in the bud.