“Immunotoxins are chimeric proteins with a cytotoxic protein linked to a cell-targeting moiety such as a cytokine or monoclonal antibody. Immunotoxins offer means for selective targeting and elimination of cancer cells over-expressing specific cell surface receptors. After binding to target cells, these proteins are internalized by receptor -mediated endocytosis and cell death is induced by the toxin moiety.”

“I don’t consider myself qualified to say what the most important things are that have been discovered in the field of the Yeast genome and variations thereof. There are so many truly amazing discoveries that have been made or confirmed in yeast. However, it is clear that the recent changes to genomic technologies are enabling a rapid shift in the scale and types of experiments that are being undertaken. As such, I think that genomic scale studies will become much more common place and affordable over the next few years. These changes will mean that as biologists we have to adapt to a new way of designing and analyzing our experiments. As every generation repeats, the next few years will revolutionize the way we do science.”

“My current research interests include development of computer database on medicinal and aromatic plants of Jammu & Kashmir, Isolation & purification of proteins (enzymes and lectins) and screening of plants for their medicinal properties. The main emphasis is on understanding the etiology of esophageal cancer (EC) in Kashmir. The high incidence of the malignancy in the area and inadequate available literature to pin point the causative agents or processes warrant such type of research in the area. To achieve the goals I have been able to grab two research grants one from ICMR and another from World Cancer Research Fund.”

“Event though I am not a biotechnologist I would like to say that and I believe that the 21st century is the century of biotechnology or in a large perspective a century of life sciences. I would like to recommend the students to read the very famous futuristic work of Jermy Rifkin titled “The Biotech Century” and if you are a computer scientist then I would like to quote Donald Knuth who said that computer scientists have 500 years of work to do in biology.”

“Biological markers can impact all stages of cancer research, including screening and diagnosis, characterization of tumor subtypes, prognostic indicators, and markers of response or pharmacodynamic activity of drugs. Currently single feature biological markers are already in place in many cancer treatment paradigms. Thus, the use of biological markers is not a novel idea, although novel biomarkers are being routinely identified in the laboratory. The true impact of these markers however will depend on extensive validation, a field which has lagged behind. Essentially, the application of pharmacogenomics has improved our ability to identify potential biomarkers, but the number of these biomarkers being extensively validated is comparably low.”