lectures, nobel laureates, stem cells

Nobel laureate David Baltimore was giving a lecture in the city and immediately i was sure i wanted to be there. The theme of his lecture was 'challenges in modern health care'.I am always eager for a chance to hear and meet up with achievers in any field and this particular event had an added incentive for me. It was in the field of life sciences and i wanted to grab any chance to have some idea of a subject from a nobel laureate. It is really the well learned who can make it simple to a novice, i guessed.I also wanted some talking point with yasas i guess.

The CLRI triple helix auditorium was full and i cooly walked into the invitees enclosure and sat comfortably.As it happened it was a challenge for the organisers to seat dignitaries who came in late and makeshift chairs were provided for them.

The lecture was very simple and clear to laymen like me for the first half. Later, he was addressing the serious students of his subject who were assembled in large numbers, so it went right above my head. But the point is, he was explaining the challenges in the entire process of drug delivery and how it easily takes a couple of decades from start to finish. I remember yasas telling me once, 'it is life and you cant speed up the process'. So it appears. Stem cells, proteins, molecule, cells, immuno suppressants and of course rna and dna were the words one heard continuously; and for an hour of lecture, English language was effectively reduced to these five or six words!

HIV and cancer and malaria/TB were the diseases that were challenging the medical/scientific community for a vaccine/cure/treatment, he said. He also mentioned that research on HIV was heavily funded by Gates foundation, as the US govt was against funding stem cell research. Maybe malaria and TB might not get much funding as they are tropical diseases and not much money for drug companies.

Came back with the feeling, ' katradu kai man alavu kalladadu ulagalavu'.