GARBH-INI - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: Indian
scientists find genetic markers linked to premature births
What's in the news?
● For
the first time in South Asia, Indian
scientists working in the Garbh-Ini programme, an interdisciplinary group for advanced research on birth outcomes,
have identified 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or genetic markers,
that have been found to be associated with preterm or premature birth.
Key takeaways:
● The
study, published in the Lancet Regional Health-South East Asia journal,
reported that five of these SNPs have been found to “confer increased risk of
early preterm birth (birth before 33 weeks)’’ and can predict premature births.
Garbhi-Ini:
● It
is an interdisciplinary research program in India that focuses on the advanced
research of birth outcomes.
● Garbh-Ini
is an initiative under the Department of
Biotechnology as a collaborative interdisciplinary programme, led by
DBT-Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), NCR Biotech
cluster, Faridabad, in collaboration with DBT-NIBMG, Kalyani, DBT-Regional
Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Gurugram Civil Hospital and other
organisations.
● The
program aims to use advanced technology
to improve maternal and child health outcomes and address the high
incidence of preterm births in India.
Genetic Markers:
● Genetic
markers are specific sequences of DNA
that can be used to identify an individual or a particular trait.
● Single nucleotide
polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common type
of genetic variation that occurs in the DNA sequence.
● SNPs
occur when a single nucleotide (A, C, T, or G) in the DNA sequence is altered.
● These
changes can occur in any region of the genome and can be used as genetic
markers to identify specific traits or disease susceptibility.