Moumita Gangopadhyay, Author at Adamas University

A bridge between plant biotechnology with engineering and law: post-COVID-19 future of medicinal plant sector

Faculty member: Dr. Moumita Gangopadhyay, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Adamas University

Scholar member: Ms. Samanwita Das and Ms. Arunima Saha, Department of Biotechnology, Adamas University

Student members: Indrajit Ghosh, Surjayuti Paul, Dipanwita Palai, B.Sc. LLB, 2^nd Semester, School of Law and Justice, , Adamas University

The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), is one of the perilous global health concerns and worldwide panic since December 2019 and the reason is the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Meanwhile then till now, COVID-19 has spread all over the world covering every continent and the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 following the announcement of a worldwide pandemic from 11^th March 2020. Unfortunately, there are no specific treatments for this highly transmissible disease, though few old repurposing drugs are used by medical practitioners which showing many side effects on human health. From a research standpoint, researches are very curious about how to provide the best protection to the public before a vaccine can be produced available. Plants have offered an innumerable of possibilities to cure human diseases historically and its ability to treat can be drawn back to 6000 years. They also have tremendous metabolic potential, which has enabled the generation of medicinal compounds that have served to ameliorate symptoms of many diseases or to treat them, but many of which are still prevalent today. Henceforth, by repurposing these valuable Indian medicinal plants, more treatment options, and innovative preventive measures can be penned down for their role in combating this viral transmission. With the COVID-19 outbreak, to meet industrial demand the use of wild plants as herbal ingredients in the formulations for Traditional Herbal Medicine, as well as other herbal-based nutraceuticals all over the world, is expected to increase dramatically. Generally, these herbs are used for significant benefits for pre boosting our innate immune system which acts as potential arsenal if anyone encounters viral attack. Taking these herbs raw or as the formulated product improves various physiological activities including decreasing body temperature, cough and breathing difficulties, decreasing dosages of corticosteroids, improving the absorption of pulmonary infiltration, and improving quality of life.

COVID-19: why the sustainability of medicinal plants trade matters

In this overwhelming situation, the medical health emergency and unavailability of specific treatment protocol nowadays demand for medicinal plant possessing potentiality against COVID-19 is increasing worldwide due to growing recognition, being non-narcotic, no side-effects, a less expensive and less risk-prone route to drug development. The indiscriminate collection to meet ever-growing market demand has resulted in gradual disappearance from its natural habitat and at present, its number is highly reduced in the wild and enlisted as endangered species. Henceforth to save important genetic resources, there is no way but to produce the plant species out the site of their habitat. In this context, organized cultivation is a well-monitored area with suitable maintenance is the utmost prioritized research area today. The” greening” of this strategy is key to ensconce the long-term anointing of aromatic and medicinal plant species, that could build the basis of different medicinal formulations. Nowadays, current research focuses on the possible efficacy of herbal and ayurvedic medicines to support health care, but there is a lack of care to ensuring the sustainability of supply chains, providing the herbal ingredients, in particular those sourced from the wild. The future emergence of plant materials to support human health is dependent on prioritizing the sustainable use and conservation of their mother species in the long-term.

Interdisciplinary knowledge of engineering with plant biotechnology may find a possible solution

Medicinal plants that are under an organized cultivation system require more labor which faces a great challenge due to lockdown and maintains social distances. the plants that grown in the cultivation field are suffering from the lack of maintenance, i.e. they are not getting water which was sprayed regularly by the maintenance workers. If this situation doesn’t recover immediately or the lockdown continues, then plants will have to suffer a lot for this also. The farmers will not be able to take care of their plants, they won’t be able to provide fertilizers, water plants to protect them from harmful insects & bacteria. Ultimately, the production will be severely affected which ultimately affects human health as healthy raw materials only produce hygiene products.

Following are the putative solutions to meet with the aforementioned challenges:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE –Artificial Intelligence and Automationtechnologies can reflect a significant role in this context. It is useful for getting more production from the land during the time of using resources more sustainably, which can help farmers further, hence they can do monitoring of soil, plant, and the entire land. They can also provide data of the land to authorities that can help them predict the condition of plants and soil. AI systems can also help improve the irrigation quality and accuracy by detecting the diseases in plants, pests, and more.

Image Reference : https://www.slideshare.net/Student_Via/ai-in-farming

If we look into some recent reports we can see, Blue River Technology developed a robot called See and Spray, which uses computer vision technologies to monitor and preciously spray weedicide. Besides this, a Berlin-based agriculture technological start-up has developed an application, named Plantix, which uses image recognition to identify nutrient deficiencies and defects in the soil through images.

DRONES – Rapid advances in the spread of the technology are now paving the affordability of the drone which in terms fuelling an ever-widening range of current uses; including aerial mapping, plant health monitoring, Ariel sprinkling, etc. A recent report disclosed that, for the large-scale drone survey mapping, the eBee fixed-winged drone has been used. It is the lightest and most portable one, which helps to fly further and longer at the resolution.

SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEMS – Further, irrigation can be done by using some useful processes such as Ram Pump, agricultural sprinkler, Nelson irrigation, etc.

Image Ref: https://www.elprocus.com/?s=SMart+Iot

Several tech giants as well as start-ups are trying to fight agricultural & planting issues by creating irrigation and weather technology solutions. Microsoft precision planting, for instance, attempts to democratizing artificial intelligence worldwide.

Production and Protection of Medicinal Plants need bridging knowledge between Law and Plant Biotechnology

Endangered Plant Protection Laws of India has one of the richest, oldest, and most diverse cultural tradition deeply associated with the use of various parts of the medicinal plant for curing several diseases. Due to the growing demand of medicinal plant produce at national and international level made the availability of many species of the wild medicinal plant under the threshold of extinction. The adverse effect of various anthropogenic activities likes destruction and loss of forest habitat; overexploitation of forests for commercial purposes and illegal trade in precious medicinal plant produce made the present position very alarming.

Awareness about few important laws in medicinal plants are discussed as follows:

Forest Act, the Wildlife (Protection) Act: The enactment of the Forest Act, 1930 has commenced centralized and commerce-oriented management of natural resources, that strictly controls the ingress of local communities to forests. The Forest Act considers wild trees, timber, and forest produce as an important source of revenue. Along with it some important herbs and medicinal plants continue to be regarded as minor forest produce. The Government has wide powers to regulate the sale and removal of trees and forest produce. In addition to the exploitative scheme envisaged under the Forest Act, the ever-increasing and unbridled heartless exploitation of forest resources even after the colonial rule has been attributed to the implementation of misguided economic policies focussing exclusively on planning for productivity.

The Act is modeled on the lines of the central Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 which itself has borrowed the model of protected areas from the west. The worst effect of de-recognition of the local people and their traditional practices is that they have lost a considerable part of their very large store of knowledge related to wild biodiversity on the one hand while the population of certain species of wildlife has considerably gone down due to overexploitation, poaching, and habitat destruction.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild flora and fauna (C.I.T.E.S.): All CITES App I & App II plant species obtained from the wild is prohibited for export from India. Only cultivated/ artificially propagated plant species listed under App. II is allowed for export under cover of CITES export permit and Legal Procurement Certificate (L. P. C.) or certificate of cultivation from the designated authorities. Export of following vulnerable and endangered plant species requires ‘certificate of cultivation’ or Legal Procurement Certificate’ from the Forest Department’s entitled authorities as per MOEF circular dt. 4.10.2000.

Although, there is legislation enacted to protect the plant species available in India, very few people are aware of it. In “wildlife protection act 1972” itself there is a separate provision enlisted in schedule VI for plant species by Govt. of India. Besides the above, there are many laws in India for protection of wild flora out of which convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora & fauna (CITES); Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992; Export-Import Policy; Plant Fruit and seeds (regulation of import into India) order 1989 and convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are the main laws.

COVID-19 vaccine development: research and job opportunities in Biotechnology

Scholar members: Ms. Sanjukta Dey, Ms. Samanwita Das, and Ms. Arunima Saha, Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Adamas University

General Introduction: COVID-19

The world health organization (WHO) was informed of the prevalence of pneumonia of a unique cause which was detected in Wuhan, China on the 31st of December 2019. Later scientists came to know that the causal organism was a new fatal virus strain of Coronavirus family, which was named SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) that causes a respiratory disease termed COVID-19 (Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019). Since then, COVID-19 has spread around the world covering every continent and the World Health Organization has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 following the announcement of a worldwide pandemic from 11^th March 2020. Treatment unavailability of this fatal coronavirus (COVID 19) has already caused more than 600,000 deaths and the curve is on the rise.

Figure 1: COVID-19 World Map by WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION MARCH 24, 2020, SOURCE: [ https://scitechdaily.com/covid-19-world-map-372757-confirmed-cases-190-countries-16231-deaths/]

Although few re-purposing old drugs are already used to prevent coronavirus presently, there is no specific promising treatment along with any vaccine for preventing COVID-19. Therefore, developing a dedicated vaccine has never been as dire a need as in the present time when the survival of the human race is in danger. It is a do-die situation – we come back with a glorious victory or we give in to COVID-19.

Vaccination: the only way to win the war against Covid-19

To understand how vaccine development can be a prospective area of research and can be a sector offering job opportunity we must first understand what is a VACCINE? As a kid, we have all been immunized with various vaccines. Vaccine and immune system are correlated (with the high association) and is used as a tool for fighting infectious diseases. To define a vaccine – it is a biological formulation of weakened microbes, its toxins and/or one of the surface antigens – anything which can elicit a weak immune response against the pathogen and /or antigen while giving our body the acquired immunity and preparing our immune system to fight future incidence of the disease. It can be used both as prophylactic (preventive) or as therapeutic (post pathology) and are undoubtedly one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Vaccination has helped us eradicate and/or fight deadly infectious diseases in the past. However, the unavailability of vaccines for the treatment of fatal diseases has caused problems and driven global attention towards the production of safer, easier, and more effective vaccines. There are three types of methods through which vaccines can be produced. They are the cell-based vaccines, the egg-based vaccines, and investigational-manufacturing systems based vaccine production. Traditional vaccines consist of inactivated or attenuated pathogens and are not entirely safe and may carry the risk of regressing to virulence, as well as other difficulties in terms of antigenic variability between species, low levels of immunogenicity and possible gene transfer to wild-type strains. Henceforth the greatest public health challenge of this millennium is to develop a safe, easy to manufacture and transport, and cost-effective vaccine to protect suffering mankind from this highly infectious and transmissible disease. Unfortunately, the researchers have little knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially into the specific effective molecular targets which are developing broadly and acting as the antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, the path for vaccine development will require extensive research work, not only in terms of efficacy but also safety. More than 90 vaccines are being developed against SARS-CoV-2 by research teams in companies and universities across the world. Researchers are tracing several different strategies, some of which haven’t been considered as the production method of a licensed vaccine before. For safety trials, some volunteers have been taken and they are subjected to the trials by injecting formulations conducted by six groups; others also have started testing in animals.

Mode of action: How Vaccine recognize and develop immunity, Source [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01221-y]

Vaccine development can be a job opportunity for students of biotechnology:

India is reorganized as a mega bio-diversity country and biotechnology offers opportunities to convert our biological resources into economic wealth and employment opportunities.

The Biotech Industry in India is witnessing a robust growth rate. The estimated valuation of the industry was at US$ 7 billion in FY15, which is expected to grow at 30.46 percent

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) to US$ 100billion by FY25.

In the present pandemic condition, the power of biotechnology can be used in industries that use biological systems for the production of useful entities like the production of new vaccines to eradicate the Corona virus. These recent job opportunities in industries can activate their working powers to produce new vaccines to eradicate the Corona virus. Students of biotechnology can avail of a variety of careers in the basic area of research and development of a vaccine, it’s production, clinical trials, and distribution of vaccine to the public. Students having biotechnology as their background study can attain the basic research jobs as resource person that focuses to understand mechanisms of increasing immunity to protect the people from the dreadful infectious virus. Biotechnology students can get medical training for understanding mechanisms in increasing immunity which will guide them regarding the development of vaccines for combating infectious diseases. Medical biotechnology offers many students an important chance for the Indian industry for establishing strong pharmaceutical sector, which helps in growing several small and medium biotechnology companies, with a large network of research institutes, universities, and medical schools for production of the low cost of products and their evaluation. Bioinformatics helps the students who hold out strong expectations of reducing the cost and time of development of new products such as new drugs and vaccines for controlling infectious diseases like COVID 19.

Join School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Adamas University: Be a COVID 19 Warrior

School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Adamas University has different biological sectors under its canopy catering to various specialized outcome-based education in biotechnology. Dreaming to be a global biotechnologist and securing a research-based job especially at this devastating situation when unemployment is a burning problem may come into a reality in the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology where eminent and qualified professors nurture and shape the students with academic knowledge and lab-based lessons. Moreover, with an efficient Placement Department and Incubation Center Adamas University provides Biotech students with curated placement options in established Biotech Firms and Biotech Startup Companies across the country.

Role of Artificial Intelligence to combat post-pandemic consequences in Agriculture

Student members: Anwesha Bose (Biotechnology, 3^rd year. Adamas University), Soumyajit Chandra (Biotechnology, 3^rd year, Adamas University)

The sudden outbreak of highly contagious COVID 19 has led humanity at stake. The high infectivity of the virus combined with high mutation rates has been the greatest hurdle for the scientific societies to discover a potent vaccine or drug for cure which makes the situation even more alarming. Many countries have declared lockdown to ensure safety to the citizens including the developing countries of the 3^rd world. But the post-pandemic situations will face a huge downfall in aspects of economy, agriculture, and industries. Situations may turn out to be even worse if the lockdown conditions continue for more months leading to the death of millions of people due to hunger and poverty. The biggest crisis will be faced by the poorer sections. Here a question arises, are we going to face famine shortly? We need to think of strategies to fight back the most undesirable consequences of this pandemic to save humanity from the danger of extinction. Artificial Intelligence can be an ideal solution for both keeping the agricultural productions unaffected along with ensuring minimal usage of manpower to ensure the social distancing and health security of the farmers.

The worldwide problem in open-field agriculture under lockdown condition: The current worldwide pandemic of COVID 19 is spreading at a rapid pace and have affected more than 200 countries worldwide killing more than 2.5 lakhs of people with more than a million people affected till date, since January 2020, when WHO declared it a global health emergency [reference: WHO situation reports]. Neither an absolute cure drug nor a vaccine has yet been developed to cure or prevent the disease which has led the affected countries to declare ‘Lockdown’ to ensure social distancing and to avoid mass infection. This bold step is quite appreciable but it has led to the serious downfall of the economy, agriculture, industry, and raised a question of food crisis to arise in the near future. Although at many places, agricultural activities are allowed that also raises a significant question of the health security of the farmers working in the fields

Representation of Different country-specific data of mortality rate with regards to number of COVID 19 cases per capita

Image source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business

Artificial Intelligence a new arena for continuing food production during lockdown condition:

Using an integrated approach of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Agriculture, popularly known as smart agriculture applied to conventional production systems as a solution to fight back the probable consequences of the pandemic as an alternative to manpower especially under lockdown condition where maintaining social distance is a prerequisite. We need automated systems for agricultural purposes to avoid probable food crisis in future and also ensure safety to the workers in the fields.

Image source: https://medium.com/neuromation-blog/ai-and-deep-learning-are-the-keys-to-unlocking-the-future-of-environmental-sustainability-345f93a57ec5

Putative solutions for overcoming this terrific medical emergency

We can think of a large scale semi-automated hydroponics set up as an alternative to conventional farming, which will require a lesser quantity of manpower and will be cost-effective. The setup will comprise of the following arrangements.

1) A dome-shaped greenhouse chamber (to avoid cleaning of dust particle from greenhouse surface which restricts sunlight)

2) A nutrient solution reservoir tank connected to the cultivation chamber through an automated electric valve.

3) Another valve to eliminate wastewater from the cultivation chamber.

4) DIY sensor-based monitoring of growth conditions, such as ambient temperature, water temperature; pH, Electrical conductivity, humidity and light availability and these can be controlled through mobile application.

5) Water Sprinklers can be introduced to maintain the temperature.

Diagrammatic representation of the probable setup for large-scale automated hydroponics

The proposed system can be used as an automated platform of large scale vaccine production using plant expression system. This will potentially help to combat the sudden surge of demand for COVID 19 vaccine as soon as it is developed. The system being semi-automated, it will use very little manpower and that also for planting and harvesting crops. As the system is planned to be developed in a very cost-effective way topped with extra advantages for using plants as a vaccine production system makes it available and affordable to even the poorer sections. These systems should be made much more available to the 3^rd world countries as they are facing the largest crisis in terms of economy, health, and industry.

Image source: Google images, search keyword: Artificial Intelligence for Environment

Prospect of Adamas University using as experimental platform for initiating such need based approach:

Here in Adamas University we have a unique chance of developing such unique ideas along with their implementation and establishing an entrepreneurial setup as here all the schools including school of life sciences and biotechnology, school of engineering and technology, school of law and justice, school of pharmaceutical technology, school of science, school of economics and commerce, school of social sciences, etc. are interconnected through knowledge fibers. Here we learn by exchanging and implementing our knowledge with each other with the guidance of our eminent and efficient faculties. Although now we are locked down in our respective homes we are working our brains out to think of ideas that can make the world live a healthy life with incomparable guidance and support from our teachers and mentors and we promise that we will make the world a better place to live.