Bioinformatics data plays vital role: Kalam

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 21: Stressing that the convergence of Bioscience and Information Technology into Bioinformatics has given thrust to genomics-based drug discovery and development, President A P J Abdul Kalam said there was a growing need for new informatics tools to help manage the influx of data from genomics and turn that data into tomorrow's drugs.

''Bioinformatics data plays a vital role and is emerging as a business model for the medical and pharmaceutical sector. It has a major role in key areas such as gene prediction, data mining, protein structure modeling and prediction, protein folding and stability, macromolecular assembly and modeling of complex biological systems,'' he said during an Interaction with Siddha and Ayurvedic medical college students at the Santhigiri Ashram at Pothencode on the outskirts of the city.

Pointing out that the need of the hour was to evolve a treatment for diseases like HIV and HIV-TB combination, he said ''if Siddha and Ayurveda research and practice can give a solution, it is a great contribution to the world.'' Mr Kalam also called upon the Siddha and Ayurvedic professionals to proceed confidently and chart their own course in achieving excellence in their chosen field. ''Siddha and Ayurveda practitioners may carry out research to establish the special methods of evaluation needed for proving the efficacy of their products,'' ''We must realise that traditional medicine is similar to the genetically engineered medicines of the Allopathic system,'' he said and added that in the Western Ghats there was invaluable bio-diversity, which had been well documented.

Mr Kalam said the need of the hour was to network the existing facilities and expertise with commitment and conviction to augment and facilitate the pace of research and development in the field of Indian traditional medicine. ''Our country is rich in human resources, particularly of scientists, doctors, technologists and engineers. The basic infrastructure is available for advanced research.'' he added.

The President said that there were tremendous opportunities for technologists to work for the objective of ''Integrated Health For All'' in a mission mode approach.

Recommending to conduct a national conference on traditional medicine in which the traditional system practitioner of multiple systems of medicine could participate, he said, the conference could recommend the launching of a quality scientific journal for reporting research, development, production and proving of system and the clinical data for enabling sharing of knowledge by multiple institutions in different disciplines.

UNI