Indian Human Microbiome Project launched
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 02 2017:
For the first time in the North East, Indian Human Microbiome Project was launched at Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Takyelpat today.
Organised by IBSD and National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, the launching ceremony was attended by Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director of IBSD Imphal; Dr Shekhar C Mande, Director of NCCS Pune; Head, Drug Discovery Research Centre (DDRC) Dr Kanury VS Rao and Dr Yogesh S Shouche, Senior Microbiologist, NCCS Pune.
Addressing the gathering, Prof Dinabandhu Sahoo observed that with the increasing human population and urbanization as well as changing lifestyle and food habits, people across the world are facing new challenges in terms of their health and new types of diseases.
He stated that this will be a major global burden in terms of loss of productivity and increasing health costs in coming years.
Therefore researchers and big companies around the world are looking for new drugs to cure various diseases, investing billions of dollars.
It has been found that the micro-organisms mainly bacteria which are present in our body can be very good sources of new drugs which can cure several kinds of diseases, he stated.
The Professor asserted that the launching of the project is likely to provide fertile grounds for discovery of new drugs besides leading to a new understanding of the mutual relationship between humans and the associated micro-organisms.