Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard J Roberts calls for more research in personalised medicine
19 June 2009
Starting as a small company without taking the help of investor but still undertaking focused research to generate revenue is a good approach for start-ups in Biotechnology, says Nobel Laureate Dr Richard. J. Roberts.
Delivering the highlight lecture on the second day of the ninth Bangalore Bio, organised by the department of information technology, biotechnology and science and technology, Dr Roberts highlighted the experience of his own company New England Biolabs, which started as a small research firm in a basement and today has become the world's largest source for recombinant and native enzymes for DNA technology.
Dr. Robert's discovery, that we can split genes revolutionised the thinking and led to therapies with recombinant drugs. Dr. Roberts precisely discussed on topics within the broad purview of Biotechnology.
"We still know very little about the biology and how mechanisms of life work," Dr. Roberts said. "So this provides us a huge opportunity to focus on the areas that humanity needs most. In fact, recession provides an opportunity to plan and consolidate better. But there is a lot to do in the area of personalized medicine."
Key thrust areas according to the Nobel laureate are - genetically modified foods, bio-energy, stem cell research, synthetic biology and personalised medicine. He lamented the opposition to genetically modified foods and questioned the basis for the opposition. When a plant breeder introduces hundreds of genes, about which we do not know, to produce hybrids, we accept it, but when a scientist works with just one gene, about which he knows, it faces opposition Dr Roberts said.
Commenting on Pharma industry in general, he said, "They are not really interested in curing the diseases, fearing they lose their future income. Instead, they offer only amelioration, in which case the patient needs to keep on buying medicines. Personalised medicine works differently, he aid, advising parma companies to take up specific drugs to phenotypes as this market is huge and the possibility of making profits is high.
