Education, Careers & Professional News
Biotechnology unravelling pathways to prosperity
Source
The hindu
Date
2005-03-23
Information
A whole lot of career opportunities is likely to arise in new biosciences and biology in the immediate future. The application of biosciences in various realms, including production of biological and biotech products, pharmaceuticals, food testing, and even criminal investigation, are steadily increasing. This would trigger off a demand for trained professionals and lead to a spurt in job prospects.
Considering the sheer size of biological resources, it may be assumed that cataloguing, characterisation and documentation are quite imperative and that these demand expertise.
According to a presentation made by Manju Sharma, former director of the Department of Biotechnology at `Prithvi 2005, the global ecological meet organised in Thiruvananthapuram recently, plant and agriculture-related activities, use of diagnostics in health care, industrial biotechnology, and environmental protection and biodiversity conservation also require trained professionals.
Teaching and training in biotechnology are the other areas where plenty of career opportunities are likely to come up.
Career prospects in the field of genetics may be that of genetic counsellors for clinical, teaching, administrative, commercial, private practice, and consulting environments. Geneticists in basic research, clinical geneticists and cytogenetic technologists would also be much in demand in the coming years, Ms. Sharma says.
Molecular geneticists and technologists are required for understanding the molecular basis of genetic diseases and to find out effective cure. Gene therapy, breeding of new plants and livestock are some of the emerging areas. The setting up of new institutions and centres of excellence would provide an excellent opportunity for young scientists and students to pursue research as a career. The biotech industry will become the single largest sector for employing skilled personnel. In bioinformatics, biological data and DNA sequence data are accumulating at a phenomenal rate. The main objective of the Human Genome Project (HGP) was to locate and map the entire lot of one lakh genes in human chromosomes. These techniques have been revolutionising medical and biological research and the findings will fundamentally change the way medicine will be practised in the millennium, says Ms. Sharma.
Biological data
Projects such as `Species-2000, a global plant checklist, information on release of organisms in environment and animal virus information are producing hard data at the species level in multimedia format. The rate of growth of biological data is estimated to be more than 200 million base pairs per year. The database content itself is doubling in size approximately every year. The number of characterised genes from a variety of organisms and the number of solved protein structures is also doubling every two years, she says.
Genetic data is fast becoming the major driving force in drug discovery, protein engineering, design of new molecules, and other related areas. Large stores of biological data are holding promise to serve as the `discovery super highway for innovation in biotechnology.
The Government also offers a number of training opportunities for young scientists. Collaborations with the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Russia, and training opportunities through United Nations organisations such as Food and Agricultural Organisation and Rockefeller Foundation would provide students exposure to a different culture of teaching and training.
The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi offers regular pre-doctoral fellowships that covers almost all aspects of biotechnology.