Quest For Knowledge

Dr. Ashok Palaniappan , a Senior Assistant Professor at SASTRA Deemed University, was one of the two  Principal Investigators  for the first SASTRA Team to participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition held at Boston in 2019. Join us in learning his experience as he walks through his iGEM journey. How did you come to know about this competition in the first place and what is “iGEM” about? P: iGEM is a prestigious competition that promotes the  application of the engineering principles to biological science . So, any reader in biotechnology would chance upon some reference to iGEM. I have known iGEM through publications and an earlier place I used to work at had a representation at iGEM. Also, many premiere institutes of India would participate in this competition. In fact, one of my professors in Anna University is a part of iGEM team of IIT Madras. So, I got to know about this competition by multiple avenues. In the year 2018 while I ...

Until a few hundred million years ago, our vertebrate ancestors were swimming (perhaps happily!) under water. They were well adapted to its environment. So why and how did they migrate and subsequently adapt to the terrestrial environment? As Adams mentions in his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, not many are convinced that this was a wise decision! Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans . Evolutionary biologists predict that this transition occurred at shallow waters, swamps or mangroves, where they were in contact with both water and land. Under water, the organisms were at competition for resources and at a risk of predation. Perhaps the yet unconquered by vertebrates land proved to be a rich niche with plenty of resources and little-to-no competition. Researchers speculate that ...