Biotechnological applications of polar microbes have been identified as a key focus area. Further, as highlighted in a series of tweets by MoES, the proposed centre will be be expected to investigate the relationship between climate change and the emergence of infectious diseases, derive products from nature that could be valuable to the industry, identify compounds for purposes such as preventing infections, and explore novel molecules for commercial use.
The MoES-DBT collaboration will jointly identify more thrust areas over time.
Initially, researchers will file proposals to carry out research using the existing MoES polar stations. However, joint laboratories will be set up in the future so that researchers wont have to move samples to and from laboratories in India to carry out experiments.
We have been doing research in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Himalayas the three poles but unfortunately we have not had expertise in biological sciences. DBT has the expertise, so we want to work together, Dr M Ravichandran, director of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), told Swarajya.
Based in Goa, NCPOR is Indias premier R&D institution responsible for the countrys research activities in the polar and Southern Ocean regions. It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, which is the nodal ministry for polar research in India.
The focus of the MoES-DBT joint effort, Dr Ravichandran says, will be bioprospecting and microbiology research.
Bioprospecting is short for biodiversity prospecting. It is the systematic study of bio-resources, like plants and microorganisms, with the purpose of developing commercially valuable products for pharmaceutical, agricultural, and other applications and overall for the benefit of society.
The process of bioprospecting goes over the stages of sample collection, isolation, characterisation, and translation to product development and commercialisation, the United Nations Development Programme notes in its 2016 report on the subject.
Bioprospecting, when properly regulated, generates revenues that can be directly linked to the conservation of biodiversity and to the benefit of local communities, the report says.
With eyes on bioprospecting and other research in biology, India aims to add biotechnology muscle to the science it carries out in the polar region.
We want to encourage polar, cold-climate biotechnology study to strengthen the area of polar research, Dr Ravichandran says.
Research in polar biology has been underway at a small scale in India. The work is done by very few people and usually includes researchers from different universities and institutes whose proposals get accepted by NCPOR.
The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Wildlife Institute of India, Zoological Survey of India, and Banaras Hindu University are among the institutes that have carried out long-term programmes in areas like microbiology and wildlife ecology at the poles.
Much of the biology research over the last decade has involved the study of bacterial diversity and adaptability in snow and ice, both in terrestrial and marine environments in the region.
However, there is now a sense that India can do more in polar biology.
The regions around the North and South Poles north of the Arctic, or south of the Antarctic Circles, respectively are important natural laboratories for scientific research.
Much of the land and marine expanse within this region still remains unexplored and therein lies the opportunity for researchers to find answers to scientific questions.
Indias engagement with the polar regions goes back a long time. It began with the signing of the Svalbard Treaty in February 1920 to initiate formal ties with the Arctic. Getting started with the Antarctic region took longer, but began eventually when India launched its first Antarctic expedition in 1981.
Now, four decades later, India set off on its 40th scientific expedition to Antarctica in January 2021.
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Explained: India To Add Biotechnology Muscle To Its Polar Science Research - Swarajya
