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Chemical Biology Research in India

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Title Chemical Biology Research in India
 
Creator Selvi, B. Ruthrotha
Roy, Siddhartha
Kundu, Tapas K
 
Subject Structural Biology & Bioinformatics
 
Description Chemical biology, as the terminology suggests, is the intertwining
of chemistry and biology. However, the exact
definition of chemical biology has been constantly debated among
the researchers working at the interface of chemistry and biology.
One of the major differences between the closely related fields of
biochemistry and chemical biology is that the former is more
relevant to the actual physiological scenario, whereas the latter has
a synthetic feel to it. Thus, exploring biology with the aid of
chemical tools can be considered to be the main philosophy of
chemical biology. The science of chemical biology in the present
form is only about 2 decades old, and hence the successes and
failures in this area are more in the limelight than many other
fields of science. All over the world, there are active initiatives to
merge this new area of research into the scientific mainstream.
Universities such as MIT, Harvard, RIKEN, and McGill have
full-fledged departments dedicated to chemical biology. Perhaps
the earliest research institute in the world dedicated to chemical
biology was the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in
Kolkata, India. The 75-year-old research institute was reoriented
and renamed in 1982 to its present form to explore the chemistry
of life—with chemical and biochemical tools. In India, this
exciting area of research has spread beyond this institute, and in
this In Focus article we shall highlight the status of chemical
biology research in India with respect to its past, present, and
future. Although work at the interface of chemistry and biology is
widespread in India, we will largely focus on institutions that use
chemical tools to explore biology.
 
Date 2011
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.eprints.iicb.res.in/1232/1/ACS_CHEMICAL_BIOLOGY__6_(10)_982%2D986;2011[28].pdf
Selvi, B. Ruthrotha and Roy, Siddhartha and Kundu, Tapas K (2011) Chemical Biology Research in India. ACS Chemical Biology, 6 (10). pp. 982-986.
 
Relation http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cb2003708
http://www.eprints.iicb.res.in/1232/