With profound pleasure and pride GNOBB wish to felicitate Professor Dr. Kamal Chowdhury for the two recent awards he has been honored with for the academic year 2011 – 2012. The two awards are:The James Hunter Award for Excellence in Teaching (Professor of the year) and the other Attorney William H and Annette B. Johnson Endowed Faculty Award for Innovative Scientific Research (Researcher of the year. GNOBB wish him God Speed and many more years of fruitful research career. It is worth men

In the May 19 ScienceNews, partial success in the restoration of vision is reported in experimental rats through retinal implants. This experiment successfully carried out in rats may in the future lead to partial sight restoration for some blind people. With the help of a video camera fitted on to a specialized pair of goggles, computer images will be formed and processed. Lasers inside the goggles will send that information to photovoltaic chips implanted in the eye. This device is expected to

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from an autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing β cells. Currently, the only curative therapy for late-stage T1D is islet transplantation. Even under chronic immunosuppression the beneficial effect is temporary. Apart from a severe shortage of donor islets, there is chronic graft rejection. Recent researches have revealed that autoimmunity of induced mixed chimerism reverses new-onset and results in the elimination of insulitis. The latest findings reveal t

Biovision Alexandria 2012 was successfully held from 22nd to 25th April in Alexandria, Egypt. This year the theme of the conference was “New life sciences: linking science to society” . The conference was inaugurated by the Director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Dr. Ismail Serageldin, followed by a session with illuminating talks from Nobel Laureates Richard Ernst, John Marie Leahn and Harold Kroto where they emphasized the importance of linking science to society and responsibility of

Dear members We are pleased to note that the members have expressed their candid opinion about the new website. Of the nineteen votes cast, three have rated it to be excellent, five as good and two as bad. The remaining nine are of the opinion that it can be improved. Certainly the site can be improved but for that Webmaster needs feedback on which he can work. We are also curious to know why two members have rated it as bad. The very fact that members have the facility to vote is a defini

It is the dream Mustak Ibn Ayub of every brilliant student to get admitted in Oxford University to do Ph.D. (The degree is called D. Phil. at Oxford). Mr. Mustak Ibn Ayub, one of the most brilliant products of Dhaka University has achieved that extraordinary feat. He is the recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship that has made it possible for him to pursue his studies in Oxford University. Mr. Mustak has got admitted at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), Universi

The well-known GNOBB member Professor Ahmed A. Azad has published an article in today’s The Daily Sun. The following URL has been kindly provided by the author. If any GNOBB member wishes to make any comment on the article, he/she can do so in the GNOBB website subject to its approval by the moderator . http://www.daily-sun.com/details_yes_20-05-2012_Environment-friendly-strategies-for-long-term-energy-security_149_2_5_1_1.html

Dear GNOBB members, I have myself checked and found all the functionality of the website working fine. Some members initially sent their comments but now it’s quiet for the last few days. About use of PayPal, there is hardly any response after 8 members paid their annual dues. Now the new website has become user friendly.  Subject to Coordinator’s approval any paid member can comment on any posting,    post any exciting news in the field of biotechnology, update his

An article entitled, “The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution” has been published in Nature in its 31st May issue 48: 635–641. As many as 51 scientists under the Tomato Genome Consortium took part in this investigation. In this article a high-quality genome sequence of tomato Solanum lycopersicum has been compared with a draft sequence of its closest wild relative, S. pimpinellifolium and the potato genome  (Solanum tube

Furaneol and mesifurane are two important flavor compounds in strawberries as in many other fruits.  Strawberry varieties vary a good deal in their proportion as well as in their amounts during the ripening process. In the June 3, 2012 issue of Plant Physiology (pp. 851-870), Zorrilla-Fontanesi and associates published the results of their investigation on the analysis of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) fruit volatiles such as furaneol and mesifurane and identified genomic