Bose Institute carrying out research on how to stop the growth of cancer cells

The Bose Institute is carrying out research work in its laboratory here to find out how cancer cells multiply and to stop the growth of cancer cells, its director prof Uday Bandyopadhyay said on Saturday. The Bose Institute was set up in 1917 by Sir J C Bose, the founder of modern science in the Indian subcontinent. It is Asia's first modern research center devoted to interdisciplinary research and bears a century-old tradition of research excellence.

Bandyopadhyay told reporters on the sidelines of the foundation day program here, that the institute believes in transferring the fruits of basic and fundamental research to the common people. "Our motto is to bring out research from the confines of the laboratory in the public domain so that it can be of help to the public. One of the important research works, being carried in our laboratory here, is to find out how cancer cells multiply and to stop the growth of cancer cells," Bandyopadhyay said.

He said once the molecules which can stop the growth of cancer cells can be identified by trials in hospitals, the next phase will be producing drugs. If the institute gets the patent there could be greater avenues in medicinal chemistry, he said.

However, to a question, Bandyopadhyay said it will be too premature to specify when the medicines with the cancer prevention molecule can be produced as research is a long- drawn process. "We have already got a faint impression of (the cancer-preventive nature) of certain molecules." "Research takes years before medicine hits the market. Medicines of flu, tuberculosis came to the market after research of 30-40-50 years by scientists all over the globe. It is too simplistic to give a time frame to research in basic areas," he pointed out. He said the Bose Institute, which is pursuing the dreams of scientist J C Bose for the advancement of knowledge and diffusion of knowledge, is also working on innovative technological research in the field of physics and sending the results to other leading labs in Germany, Switzerland and other parts of India.

Professor Subhas Kak, of Oklahoma State University, who delivered the 81st Acharya J C Bose Memorial Lecture at the Bose Institute here on 'Computation, Indian Scientific Tradition and Artificial Intelligence', told PTI on the sidelines, that Computers aided by AI will facilitate lots of decision makings that "is going to have great implications in society." He said Artificial Intelligence is creating capabilities in computers which will do things that human beings normally do. The 'Regents Professor Emeritus' of Oklahoma State University during his lecture dwelt on length whether computers can become as much conscious as human beings in the coming days and "I don't think computers will become conscious. On scientific grounds, computers will not be conscious but they will replace more and more human jobs." "We must do whatever is possible to create new kinds of jobs," he said.

Asked what he thought about alternative jobs Kak referred to tourism and exploring the cultural heritage of the country.