NRG scientist Dr Sanjay Vashee, who helped create synthetic DNA, says he feels closely connected with the land of his parents.
Dr Sanjay Vashee, a Gujarat-origin scientist is one of the two Indian scientists, who were part of the 14-member team of the US J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), which recently hit headlines globally for its unique feat of creating a synthetic bacterial cell.
Vashee, who joined the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, US in 2003 as a senior scientist in the Synthetic Biology Group, said, "My connection to Gujarat is by ethnicity. I was born and raised in Zimbabwe, but feel closely connected with Gujarat, as my parents are from Gujarat."
Harping on the closer ties he has with Gujarat, Vashee added, "My wife Rita too is a Gujarati and her parents were too born and raised in Gujarat." Till date, Vashee feels an intimate bond with the state. She says, "I have aunts and cousins, who still live there."
Prior to joining JCVI, Vashee was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University-School of Medicine, where he was the first to characterise the DNA-binding properties of the human origin recognition complex, the initiator protein of eukaryotic DNA replication. Vashee holds a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master's degree in Chemistry from Western Illinois University and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.
"Our synthetic biology team has taken the first successful step towards making designer synthetic bacteria," informed Vashee's team mate, Dr Radha Krishnakumar.
A great admirer of Gujarat state, he is the second Indian scientist in the team and hails from Kerala. He said, "This was accomplished by writing a modified genetic code using the genome of an existing bacterium, (Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies capri) synthesising and assembling this new genome, and then transplanting the genome into a closely related bacterial cell (Mycoplasma capricolum)."
Vashee and Krishnakumar explain that this invention of the new genome which then replaces the DNA of the recipient cell, and converts into the new strain of bacterium that does not exist in nature, is at present in its basic stages. "But it will eventually allow us to create cells that have pathways built in to make bio-fuels, antimicrobial compounds and vaccines.
Our research will also help us to better understand the workings of a cell, and thus potentially harness more effectively what nature has to offer," states Radha.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}