Department of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) today organized expert lecture of Dr. Shashi Kumar, Group Leader at ICGEB, New Delhi. The title of the lecture was “Synthetic biology for artemisinin biosynthesis and oral delivery of antimlarial drug”. The lecture focused on the mechanism of drug development through synthetic biology techniques using artemisinin, Artemisinin is naturally isolated compound from leaves of Chinese herb Artemisia annua and have the fastest parasite clearance times of all current antimalarial drugs along with their role as an anticancer agent. Dr.Kumar shared his research experience wherein they used intact plant cells for encapsulation of artemisinin so as to protect the drug from rapid degradation by the intestinal and hepatic enzymes and allowing the release of drug into the blood stream by gut microbes. Their research also included the use of tobacco plants for bio encapsulation with no noticeable toxicity in murine models. Dr. Shashi also emphasized on the futuristic approach of metabolic engineering and encouraged young researchers to explore the opportunities. The lecture ended with the vote of thanks by Dr. Narendra K. Bairwa, Assistant Professor, DoBT who had organized the lecture in the department. The lecture was attended by students and faculty members from the Department of Biotechnology.
