National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune is developing a DNA chip, which would help identify and treat specific genetic disorders like Thalassemia. The three-year project to develop the chip was launched just two months ago with a grant of Rs 1 crore from the DST (Department of Science and Technology).

This was stated by NCL scientist Dr. Murli Sastry, while addressing media persons During the 'India Nano Summit 2003' at the MCCI (Maharashtra Chambers of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture).

Nano scale technology has its importance in various fields of science such as medicine and health care, agriculture and biotechnology, smart cards, cell phones, DNA computing amongst other areas.

Sastry said, "We are confident of completing the project by the year 2004 and this cheaper alternative to DNA sequencing could be used to treat India Specific genetic disorders such as hypertension."

Dwelling on the project further he said that the idea was to plant a chip into the body to treat ailments, which will not only reduce the cost of drugs production and enhance the level of automation, but also revolutionize medical science. He pointed out that India had leapfrogged in the synthesis of the nano materials amongst the global scientific community. "The others are still in the process of assembling," he said.

Gopal Patwardhan, Vice president and COO, Girvan Institute of Technology said that after IT and BT, this is an emerging area in frontier technologies and in near future lot of companies will be into the business of manufacturing tools needed to build nano-scale products.

Patwardhan stressed on the need of the availability of the skills to exploit the technology, "There is a need to modify the curriculum at the university level so as to produce manpower to use this technology," added Patwardhan.