The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cardiff School of Biosciences, UK, for cooperation in the areas of mammalian genetics, mammalian development, embryonic stem biology, mouse transgenic and gene knock-out technologies. During the on-going week long symposium on 'Current Excitement in Biology,' being held at CCMB as part of its silver jubilee celebrations, Prof. Martin Evans, Director, Cardiff School of Biosciences, and Dr Lalji Singh, Director, CCMB, signed the MoU between the two institutions.

Cardiff School of Biosciences is world leader in areas of transgenics, neuroscience, molecular cell biology and connective tissue research. Prof. Evans, the discoverer of mouse embryonic stem cells, who finds considerable common interest, said this interaction would benefit the progress of science in both these institutes. He said the agreement would provide an important platform on which to build further collaborations.

Recently, CCMB had set up a National Facility for Transgenic and Gene Knock-out Mice. In addition, there are several other facilities in the area of cell biology where sophisticated techniques such as proteomics, microarray, Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) and X-ray Crystallography are being used.

The X-ray Crystallographic unit was formally inaugurated by Dr Robert Huber, Max Planck, Institute of Biochemie, Munich, Germany, on Monday. Dr Huber's contribution for the structural work on the photosynthetic reaction centre, the first membrane protein structure to be solved, with Dr Johann Deisenhofer and in collaboration with Dr Hartmut Michel, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988.

Dr R Sankaranarayanan, who heads the Rs 3.2 crore crystallography unit, explained the working of the unit which was assembled by procuring equipment from the UK, Germany and Japan.

The X-ray Crystallography facility will be used to study the 3 dimensional structures of biological macromolecules like proteins and nucleic acid. The information thus unravelled will play a crucial part in the understanding of the functioning of cells in the human body. These leads will help in understanding the functions of genes and also in the structure-based drug design.

The week long silver jubilee celebrations began on Sunday with eight talks covering a wide range of topics. The talks included the one by Dr Lalji Singh. He described how repeats of simple DNA sequence regulate sex differentiation in higher animals and also human beings. Michael Edidin, Johns Hopkins, USA, talked on assembly of MCH molecules used by immune cells to recognise virally infected cells in the body.

G Padmanabhan, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, gave a brief on the potential for new drug targets coming out of the genome sequences of Myobacterium tuberculosis and Plasmodium falciparum. Amar Klar, NCI, USA, spoke on multiple epigenetic mechanisms in yeasts and Ronald Laskey of MRC in the UK, presented a talk on improved screens for cancer using a new DNA replication associated marker for diagnosing carcinomas. R Nagaraj, CCMB, looked at structural requirements for anti-bacterial activity of a host of membrane active peptides. Kunhiko Kaneko from Tokyo talked about the theoretical considerations on the robustness of development and the irreversible loss of multi-potency during cell differentiation.

Tamas Vicsek, Eotos University, Budapest, Hungary, after presenting his paper told newsmen that scientists had developed a simulated model on crowd behaviour. The findings would help police personnel control an unruly mob. He said the continued studies on crowd behaviour would pave the way for even predicting election results. Tamas Vicsek, who had come out with a computerised model, said the interpretation of collective human behaviour represented a great challenge for science.

CCMB would be celebrating the Founder's Day on Tuesday evening, November 26. President APJ Abdul Kalam will be the chief guest.