THE WAIT IS OVER

The Last Mile
IPW Team is pushing hard to finish the last mile of data QC before coming to the on-site phase at Teen Murti. The Team at this hour (11:14 pm) is sitting in the lounge of the Guest house concentrating on the task. They have shown unending commitment to finish this humongous task in such a small period of time!!!

Cheers to all the members who have made C2d possible!!!!

Many of the participants of Connect to Decode must be boarding trains today and tomorrow. Do take enough rest while in train. When you are at the onsite phase your PIs have plenty of assignments for you that might keep you awake almost the whole night during your stay. The IPW and TBGO team are working without a break to meet the schedule. This is probably the most intensive QC exercise you can come across. So its work time folks. But you bet, you are going to have a ball of a time. It will be one great learning exercise – for everyone- including the Connect to Decoders, the PIs, the organisers and the rest of us. All of us are eagerly awaiting your arrival. Buckle up for the fast drive!
---ZAKIR THOMAS

"TBGO" ON GO

The TB GO team has moved to onsite mode. A nerve centre has started functioning at the CSIR IGIB facility at Naraina. Yes, the same centre which sequenced human genome and the one which hosts the IT infrastructure of OSDD. Amidst the hum of the machines and scientists in their coats, a bunch of Connect to Decoders has moved in today to Dr. Vinod Scaria’s lab.

It is indeed an interesting lab. One which any bio-informatician would like to be part of. A series of servers lined up in a state of the art server room gives out a regular hum and lights go on and on. Few rooms away are state of the art sequencing machines. Adjacent to the server room separated by a glass, is a row of computers.

As you walk in a bunch of Connect to Decoders are already infront of the screens and immersed in working. They had just reached New Delhi railway station two hours ago. This is what is called hitting the ground running.

In the afternoon they had an unusual visitor. Jean Marie from UK who is writing a book on innovation in China, India, South Africa and Brazil was wanting to know about OSDD. What better way to know about OSDD but to speak to Connect to Decoders.

The GO team is here to do the last bit of QC. Or, may be, they will throw a surprise when you meet them. You don’t get a bunch of bright young minds and expect nothing, right?
-- by Zakir Thomas

BEST 13 OF IPW AT ONSITE PHASE OSDD

 

First Network

First Network
It is exciting and emotional to see the First Network that the IPW Team generated using Cell Designer for the first set of quality checked data !!! Samik from the Systems Biology Institute. Japan, has been interacting with the Team working from Delhi through Skype calls. Today we also interacted with The Chief Mentor and Project Director of OSDD through Skype and had interesting discussions on network analysis. Watch out for more...we are at it.
Posted by Anshu

Glimpse of onsite IPW team at C2D2010

 

Away from the buzz of Delhi, nestled among green trees frequented by birds, is CSIR's Human Resources Development Centre at Ghaziabad. HRDC is having a bunch of unusual group. Usually frequented by scientists and leaders of CSIR, is now the hub of Connect to Decode activity. Dr. Anshu Bhardwaj has quietly started the onsite phase of Pathway Annotation project. Her handpicked team leaders are quietly doing the Quality Control (QC) check of the data annotated by the team.

C2D Programme Update

We have just updated the Programme for C2D10. We have added a few more speakers and workshops that we feel the C2D team would enjoy.

The Programme details are also available at the C2D10 Website at URL: http://c2d10.osdd.net/programme
by Dr. Vinod Scaria

Zakir Thomas"Audacity of Hope"

Friday, March 26, 2010
Audacity of Hope
Connect to Decode onsite phase is just two weeks away! I cant wait to meet the heroes who have been so far contributing online. The work done so far is impressive. But to me more impressive is the process of collaboration and the lessons learned in organising such hugely collaborative programme. You have demonstrated that OSDD can handle huge volumes of data.
More than that, you have announced before hand that the results will be made available in the open to the world on 11 April 2010. How many science projects do this? Of course, Space programme does it. The rocket has to blast off on the designated day at the appointed time. But how many science projects?
When we were discussing Connect to Decode, Dr. Sukanya Dutta asked: why are you all stretching yourself? 'Nobody works to a deadline in Science!' Well my reply to her was if we are to do what everyone does, then why OSDD? Yes, that is what sets OSDD apart. We do things differently. We do not tread the beaten path. It is a new way indeed.
Yes, your hard work demonstrates that OSDD is a new way of doing science!
Announce that the result of a project will be available on a date, even as the project is ongoing? Isn’t this the audacity of hope?!

With Regards
Zakir Thomas
Project Director, Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) &
Head DG's Technical Cell,
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Researchers Find Way to Kill Drug-Resistant TB Drug Discovery & Development - March 22, 2010

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found two novel ways of killing the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), a disease responsible for an estimated two million deaths each year. The findings, published in the March 21 online issue of Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to a potent TB therapy that would also prevent resistant TB strains from developing.

read the complete article here
http://www.dddmag.com/news-Researchers-Find-Way-to-Kill-Drug-Resistant-TB-32210.aspx

CUSAT joins OSDD as a Partner Institution

The Inter-University Centre for Intellectual Property Rights of CUSAT joins OSDD as a Partner Institution


One of the renowned Intellectual Property Law Schools of India, The Inter-University Centre for Intellectual Property Rights of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) has joined OSDD as a partner institution. This Inter University Centre will provide OSDD advice on Intellectual Property and on other legal matters.

President of India on OSDD

DECADE OF INNOVATION

LOK SABHA

President of India in her address to Parliament on 4th June 2009 mentioned that next ten years would be dedicated as a Decade of Innovation. Prime Minister of India in the 97th Session of Indian Science Congress held on 3rd January, 2010 at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala also mentioned in his speech that the Government has declared 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Innovations”. The main aim of this declaration is to develop an innovation eco-system in the country to stimulate innovations and to produce solutions for the societal needs in terms of healthcare, energy, urban infrastructure, water and transportation.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is promoting innovations through various schemes such as Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP); technology business incubators under Science and Technology entrepreneurship Development scheme; Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research; Innovation Clusters; Small Business Innovative Research Imitative (SBIRI); Biotechnology Industrial partnership Programme (BIPP); open source drug discovery (OSDD) projects and grass root innovations through National Innovation Foundation. Finance Minister in his budget speech on 26th February 2010 has announced increase of weighted deduction for expenditure incurred on scientific research and development from 150 per cent to 200 per cent by companies in an approved in-house research and development facility and weighted deduction for contribution to approved entities for the purpose of scientific research from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.

This was stated by Shri Prithviraj Chavan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in the Lok Sabha today.