HOUSTON:President of the Houston-based Genetics Foundation, Dr. Krishna Dronamraju, recently delivered the Darwin Lecture at Osmania University in Hyderabad. The topic of the lecture is the relationship between disease and evolution. Darwin himself proposed how natural selection acts as a selective agent for maintaining certain diseases and disabilities in human populations. Prof. J.B.S. Haldane pointed out long time ago that resistance to infectious diseases played an important role in human evolution. Certain genomes have survived this selection process. For instance, in several populations, resistance to malarial infection selects certain type of genetic constitutions and these are passed on to future generations. Unfortunately, some of those who don’t die from malaria die from other diseases, such as thalassemia or the sickle cell disease.
It has long been recognized that an important factor in human evolution is the struggle against infectious disease, and more recently, it has been revealed that complex genetic polymorphisms are the direct result of that struggle. As molecular biological techniques become more sophisticated, a number of breakthroughs in the area of host–pathogen evolution have led to an increased interest in this field. From the historical beginnings of J. B. S. Haldane’s original hypothesis to current research, this lecture evaluates infectious diseases from an evolutionary perspective. It provides a survey of the latest information regarding host–pathogen evolution related to major infectious diseases and parasitic infections, including malaria, influenza, and leishmaniasis.
Dr. Krishna Dronamraju is President of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston and a Visiting Professor of the University of Paris, France. He has been an Advisor to the U.S. Government’s Department of Health & Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Dronamraju delivering the opening address in Shanghai, China. Photo: Michele Wambaugh.
Dr. Krishna Dronamraju, President of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston, delivered the opening address at the Third Conference on Biomarkers and Clinical Applications in Shanghai, China. The conference was organized by the Shanghai Biotechnological Institute from 16 to 18 October. In a review of wide ranging list of Biomarkers and their Medical Applications, Dr. Dronamraju covered several important diseases such as many kinds of Cancer including chronic myeloid leukemia, melanoma, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, as well as multiple sclerosis, Down’s syndrome and many others. Biomarkers are genetic or physiological markers which can provide early indications of a disease, leading to the development of early treatment methods to prevent the development of a full blown disease. Biomarkers of many kinds are being discovered rapidly in recent years because of discoveries in molecular biology and medical genetics. Early detection and treatment are extremely important for the prevention of many types of cancer and other diseases. Biomarkers of many kinds include “Screening Biomarkers”, “Predisposition Biomarkers”, and “Prediction Biomarkers”, and many others.
Dr. Krishna Dronamraju is President of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston, and is a Visiting Professor of the University of Paris, France. He is the author of 20 books and over 200 research papers in Biotechnology. He was a member of the U.S. Presidential delegation to India in 2000, and has been actively promoting U.S.-India cooperation in Science and Technology.
Dr.Krishna Dronamraju (center) with members of the Third International Conference on Genomics and Pharmacogenomics.
HOUSTON: In his opening address to the Conference, Dr. Krishna Dronamraju reviewed the latest information on Human Gene Therapy. The earliest cases which were successfully treated were two young girls who suffered from the auto-immune disease, Adenosine Deminase Deficiency (ADA), which left them susceptible to various bacterial and virus infections. The pioneers who treated them successfully, in 1992, were W. French Andersen, W. Michael Blaise and Kenneth Culver at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Government, in Washington D.C. However, many attempts to treat genetic diseases since then have failed completely. Much of this work involved gene therapy for various types of cancer as I know from my first hand experience as a member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory committee of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. When one patient died in 1998 under experimental trials the U.S. Congress put a stop to all human gene therapy trials for a few years.
In recent years, new and more powerful methods have been developed which can edit the human genome, enabling us to delete or suppress certain disease causing genes or add new genes at will. This method, now called the CRISPR technology, has been used to correct such diseases as hemophilia and HIV, and offers great promise to treat other complex genetic diseases including many cancers in the future.
Dr. Krishna Dronamraju is President of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston, and is a Visiting Professor of the University of Paris, France. He is the author of 20 books and over 200 research papers in Biotechnology. He was a member of the U.S. Presidential delegation to India in 2000, and has been actively promoting U.S.-India cooperation in Science and Technology.
Dr. Dronamraju honored at the Science Congress by Hem Pande, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Chairman, National Biodiversity Authority, Government of India.
Biodiversity of our planet consists of the sum total of all life, including all species of plants, animals including humans, and various microorganisms, and microscopic life and all biota in their total genomic variants. Certain areas of planet earth are designated as Biodiversity “hot spots” – 35 areas qualify as hotspots. They represent just 2.3% of Earth’s land surface,but they support more than half of the world’s plant species as endemics — i.e., species found no place else — and nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species as endemics. A hot spot is irreplaceable. It must have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation. In other words, it must be threatened. Biodiversity hotspots are areas that support natural ecosystems that are largely intact and where native species and communities associated with these ecosystems are well represented. They are also areas with a high diversity of locally endemic species, which are species that are not found or are rarely found outside the hotspot.The current, planned or potential management activities in hotspots place the natural values at risk, and it is likely this risk will increase in the future in the absence of active conservation management. Because the natural values of hotspots are largely intact, undertaking action now to maintain these values has the potential to provide value-for-money in contributing to our efforts in biodiversity conservation.
Megadiverse countries
Seventeen countries have been described as being ‘megadiverse’. This group of countries has less than 10% of the global surface, but support more than 70% of the biological diversity on earth. The concept was first developed by Russell Mittermeier in 1988, as a way to prioritise conservation action. Based on an analysis of primate conservation priorities, 17 countries being identified, representing more than two-thirds of all (known) life forms and the majority of tropical rainforests, coral reefs and other priority systems. The results of the assessment were published in the Megadiversity: Earth’s biologically wealthiest nations.
They are:
Australia, The Congo, Madagascar, South Africa, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philipplines, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, United States, Venezuela.
Biodiversity Research Programme
The Biodiversity Research Program uses remote sensing observations and models to improve our understanding of biodiversity within the Earth system and its effects on the Earth system, exploring patterns of biodiversity extant upon the land and within the water using observations from satellites, airborne and seaborne platforms, and in situ surveys. These are ideally suited for detecting many of biodiversity’s patterns, especially at the ecosystem level, but also at finer levels such as species and communities. It is important to understand the geophysical and ecological processes that result in the patterns of biodiversity our observations detect. Understanding these processes takes observations, although some of these observations may be at finer spatial scales than available from satellites. It also requires models; essentially simplified representations of our knowledge of how certain systems work that in turn allow us to test the validity of this knowledge. Process-oriented research offers the additional benefit of connecting the Biodiversity program to the activities of other Earth Science programs, such as efforts to track the biogeochemical cycling of important elements like carbon or studies of the water cycle.
The following questions are important: What drives the diversity of life on Earth? How is this biodiversity changing and why? What are the effects of biodiversity on other components of the Earth system? Why do organisms and ecosystems exist where they do? What are the consequences of land cover and land use change for human societies and the sustainability of ecosystems? What are the consequences of climate change and increased human activities for coastal regions? How will carbon cycle dynamics and terrestrial and marine ecosystems change in the future?
Dr. Dronamraju is President of the Foundation for Genetic Research, Houston, and Visiting Professor of the University of Paris. He is a former advisor to the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Department of Agriculture, Washington,D.C.
