Thiruvananthapuram: Scientists in the country are crying for more funds. A scientist from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, R.B. Subramanian, told DC that the central government has drastically cut funds for scientific research, especially pure science. "The government feels that little has come out of basic science research. But basic science research is the foundation on which applied research comes out. Now the outlook of the government has changed, and as a result, the funds have been drastically reduced," he said.
He was here to attend 'National Seminar on Insights into the Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Chemical and Biosciences' at the Government Arts College. The seminar concluded on Wednesday. He says, to some extent, the government's decision to invest in applied research is justified. "We have been researching for 50 or 60 years. When we compare ourselves with western countries, we have not been able to bring out many products. How long will we go on saying that we are doing basic research? The time has come now to deliver," he said.
His research on reducing the side effects of a drug used to treat blood cancer was not much affected. "We are not solely dependent on the government. Even private companies have given funds to us. We are working in an area where funds is not a big issue. However, when we compare, we feel that earlier we used to get funds much easier and more frequently when the previous government was in power," he says.
They worked with the commercially available L-Asparaginases, enzymes used to treat blood cancer. Their work's significance comes from the fact that it is a drug which is present in the treatment regime of various types of blood cancer. Moreover, some of the side effects of the drug, like clotting of blood and change of sugar level, are fatal.
By the time, they compared L-Asparaginases from various sources including plants and e-coli, and altered the protein structure to figure out the side-effect causing amino acid eventually; ten years had passed. "We had more failures, before eventually having a success," he said.
