Nobel laureate Doherty working on AIDS

Manipal (Karnataka), Mar 18: Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Charles Doherty, who had won the honour for his work on avian influenza virus on mice, today said he was presently working with a group of scientists on HIV/AIDS and immunological memory to try to understand memory.

Addressing a press conference, Prof Doherty, who was here to inaugurate the three-day Indo-Australian conference on Human Variation and Pharmacogenomics last night, said HIV was a hard structure and unless there was a breakthrough in the knowledge, it was difficult to find an effective vaccine to the killer disease.

As there was tremendous advancement in the field of biology and other branches of science, all branches needed to become multi-disciplinary to integrate for interaction and find solutions and improve knowledge, he opined.

To a query, Prof Doherty said the pyramid culture was not good for scientific research activities and researchers as it would not only prevent openness among the students, but also curtail creativity. Students in the United States were more open with their teachers, he pointed out.

The Nobel laureate said more and more awareness about traditional systems of medicine was coming up. Several herbal products have 'productive effects' quality. However, to understand these systems, lot of research and efforts were needed, he added.

Expressing deep concern over youths not being much attracted towards basic sciences, he said brightest students even in the US were unfortunately attracted towards investment banking and other branches of studies.

UNI