NASA launches probe to ‘touch’ Sun

Why in news?

NASA launched a $1.5 billion spacecraft toward the Sun on a historic mission to protect the earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms.

About Parker Solar Probe

• The unmanned spacecraft’s mission is to get closer than any human-made object ever to the centre of our solar system, plunging into the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, during a seven-year mission.
• The probe is guarded by an ultra-powerful heat shield that can endure unprecedented levels of heat, and radiation.
• The car-sized probe will give scientists a better understanding of solar wind and geomagnetic storms that risk wreaking chaos on the earth by knocking out the power grid.
• Parker Solar Probe will set its sights on the corona to solve long-standing, foundational mysteries of our Sun. What is the secret of the scorching corona, which is more than 300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface, thousands of miles below? What drives the supersonic solar wind – the constant stream of solar material that blows through the entire solar system? And finally, what accelerates solar energetic particles, which can reach speeds up to more than half the speed of light as they rocket away from the Sun?
• It carries four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and capture images of the solar wind.
• Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
• The mission is named for Eugene Parker, the physicist who first theorized the existence of the solar wind in 1958. It’s the first NASA mission to be named for a living researcher.

Benefits

• Knowing more about the solar wind and space storms will also help protect future deep space explorers as they journey toward the Moon or Mars.
• The spacecraft is protected from melting during its close shave with the Sun by a heat shield just 4.5 inches thick.
• The mission’s findings will help researchers improve their forecasts of space weather events, which have the potential to damage satellites and harm astronauts on orbit, disrupt radio communications and, at their most severe, overwhelm power grids.

Aspirin may help prevent HIV: study

•  An affordable, globally available drug — low-dose aspirin — could help prevent HIV transmission
• Researchers tested the effect of aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs on HIV target cells in a group of Kenyan women, who were at low risk for HIV.
• The study was published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society.
• They found that Aspirin was the most effective as it reduced the number of HIV target cells in the female genital tract by 35%.

Conservation of endangered species

Why in news?

Earth Sciences & Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan dedicated India’s only facility for conservation of endangered species. The Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), a dedicated facility of CSIR’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad uses modern biotechnologies for conservation of endangered wildlife.

Why we need to conserve endangered species

Despite being one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, nearly 14% of all species in India face serious threat of extinction. It is therefore, important to carry out conservation breeding and assisted reproductive strategies for conservation and management of threatened species.

Conservation efforts

• Long-term storage of gametes, primary cells and tissues collected opportunistically from threatened species could be an important step in establishing genetic resource for reproductive technologies in conservation breeding programs.
• CCMB scientists in collaboration with Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad have now rescued Indian Mouse Deer from extinction through successful conservation breading programme.
• Careful study of the reproductive behaviour, hormonal cycle and genetic testing of breeding individual led to dramatic increase in the number of Indian Mouse Deer from a few animals to now more than 250 animals.
• This successful conservation breeding program has brought this day that the Indian Mouse Deer can go to its native wild – Amrabad Tiger Reserve, approximately 200 km from Hyderabad.

CCMB-LaCONES

CCMB-LaCONES is the only laboratory in India that has developed methods for collection and cryopreservation of semen and oocytes from wildlife and successfully reproducing endangered blackbuck, spotted deer and Nicobar pigeons. Through this work, it has established Genetic Resource Bank for Indian wildlife

Wildlife Genetic Resource Banking (GRB)

• Wildlife Genetic Resource Banking (GRB) is the systematic collection and preservation of tissues, sperm, eggs and embryos, genetic material (DNA/RNA).
• It is one of the promising options for future species management of threatened populations that also extends the reproductive life span of individuals beyond their life and prevents the loss of valuable individuals to the gene pool.
• Additionally, by creating cell banks with a variety of different tissues can be useful for other scientific studies such as genetic characterisation of species, zoonotic disease investigation and medical research.

Benefits

• This facility would increase the collection of genetic resources from wildlife through collaboration with zoos in India.
• It would also facilitate exchange of genetic material between the Indian zoos for maintaining genetic diversity and conservation management made accessible to scientists and wildlife managers for implementing conservation programs.

PEGylated Streptokinase

Why in news?

A new Clot buster, PEGylated Streptokinase – a Novel Biological Entity developed by Dr. Girish Sahni, DG, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR and his team of inventors at CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH), Chandigarh is all set to revolutionize the treatment of ischemic strokes.

Facts

• Ischemic stroke is a condition caused by a dysfunction in the supply of blood to the brain due to emboli, thrombus or atherosclerosis occurring in cerebral arteries.
• Surprisingly, the prevalence of stroke is much higher in India than the West and about 87% of all strokes are ischemic strokes.

CSIR-IMTECH and Epygen Biotech Pvt. Ltd

• CSIR-IMTECH and Epygen Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, have entered into an agreement for the latter to develop PEGylated Streptokinase for treatment of Ischemic Stroke.
• Epygen is the first company in India with exclusive license of this Novel Biological Entity (NBE) thrombolytic protein for ischemic stroke.
• Epygen Biotech Pvt Ltd is a biopharmaceutical company, engaged in research and manufacturing of Therapeutic Proteins for Oncology, Cardiovascular and Immune disorders.

About PEGylated Streptokinase

• PEGylated Streptokinase, the novel recombinant protein Thrombolytic molecule has been precisely engineered through decades of research for enhanced proteolytic stability and extended plasma half-life, fibrin-specificity and associated clot specificity, with reduced immuno-reactivity which would be significant attributes with unmistakable clinical advantages such as reduced probability of hemorrhage over current treatment regimens of thrombolytic drugs for acute
• These are huge advantages with a potential to transform the way ischemic stroke, deep-vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and acute myocardial infarction are treated around the globe, especially in the developing world.