Update – April 2012
- Researchers identified a new species of earthworm in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar islands. The species was named Moniligasterivaniosi.
- NASA launched Rover, nicknamed Curiosity to explore the planet Mars.
- Astronomers found the fourth habitable planet outside our solar system called GJ667Cc. The planet is 22 light years from Earth.
- India’s indigenously developed micro-light pilot-less target aircraft Lakshya-1 was successfully test flown from Chandipur.
Stem Cells
- Stem cells are the building blocks of our blood and immune systems.
- They form the white cells (white blood corpuscles) that fight infection, red cells (red blood corpuscles) that carry oxygen and platelets that promote healing.
- Stem cells are present in our bone marrow and they generate new cells throughout our lives.
- Other than bone marrow, the blood in the umbilical cord also has stem cells (and this is why the reference to India’s childbirth).
- It can be also used as a source of cells for transplants quite like the bone marrow stem cells.
- The major advantage is that umbilical cord blood stem cells are easier to gather than stem cells from the bone marrow.
- They have the unique ability to regenerate/reproduce into over 200 types of tissues. Above all, such stem cells, collected from the umbilical cord of your child, can be frozen and kept in a bank, which can be used later.
Public stem cell bank
In Europe and in the United States many private stem cell banks like LifeCell operate as dual banks; that is as a private bank where individuals keep their stem cells by paying an amount, and also a public stem cell bank from where anybody can buy stem cells if they can.
LifeCell is India’s first such private stem cell bank, where you can store the umbilical cord of your child for a fee, for future use. They are planning for the first time in the country to have a public stem cell bank also.
Genetic Engineering
- It is a technique in which manipulation of genes in the form of fusions, deletions, inversions and transportation takes place.
- Gene splicing and Recombinant DNA technology are also forms of genetic engineering.
- In the Recombinant DNA technology, DNA of one organism is grafted into DNA of another.
Genetic Fingerprinting
- Genetic fingerprinting (also called DNA testing, DNA typing, or DNA profiling) is a technique used to distinguish between individuals of the same species using only samples of their DNA.
- Although two individuals will have the vast majority of their DNA sequence in common, DNA profiling exploits highly variable repeat sequences called VNT
- These loci are variable enough that two unrelated humans are unlikely to have the same e alleles.
- The technique was first reported in 1984 by Dr. Alec Jeffreys in UK.
- It is now the basis of several national DNA identification databases.
- It is fast becoming an established forsenic technique and has been used successfully as evidence in court cases.
- In India DNA finger-printing has been developed by Dr.Lalji Singh at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
