'Cell' publishes CCMB team's research paper

A research paper written by a team of scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on how genes express or suppress themselves, has been published in the prestigious international science journal, Cell.

The research paper, the first from CCMB to be published in the journal has been termed as path-breaking in terms of understanding of the science of RNAi, the biological entity responsible for 'gene silencing', and is considered useful in furthering research for the treatment of congenital birth defects.

The study titled, 'RNAi components are required for nuclear clustering of polycomb group response elements', was done by a group led by Utpal Bhadra from CCMB and Manika Pal Bhadra from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in collaboration with scientists at the Institute of Human Genetics in France.

Speaking to mediapersons, Lalji Singh, director, CCMB, said, "We are happy to share with you that an interesting research paper written by a team of scientists from CCMB has been published in a reputed journal."

Explaining some of the finer points of the paper published, Utpal Bhadra, scientist, CCMB and one of the authors of the paper, said, "The study's novelty is in understanding the process of organ development during embryonic development. Different genes contribute to development of different body parts, and identical genes come together if they need to be silenced."

Our study contributed to the understanding of the molecular determinants for the long or short distance interaction of these genes, which in turn are responsible for the gene to be active or dormant, Bhadra said. The study was funded by Human Frontier Science Program that funds research collaborations in G-8 countries, he said.