Gene-based drugs to cure chronic diseases in 10-15 years: Kurukshetra University professor

KURUKSHETRA: A professor of Kurukshetra University (KU) was selected to deliver the platinum jubilee lecture in chemical sciences at the 104th Indian Science Congress at Tirupati from January 3 to 7.
Every year one researcher is selected from across India to deliver the platinum jubilee lecture and the honour went to KU’s professor Pawan Kumar Sharma this time.
KU vice-chancellor Kailash Chandra Sharma congratulated Prof Sharma for the recognition.‘Impending paradigm shift in drug design and discovery’ was the subject on which Prof Sharma expressed his views at the science congress.
Talking to TOI, he said the present day medicines provided only relief, but did not tackle the root cause of the diseases. “In the coming 10-15 years, we may overcome these problems and would be able to eradicate the chronic diseases with the development of gene-based medicines,” he said.
He said traditional medicines, plant extracts and allopathy medicines were being used currently but the cutting-edge research was progressing in another direction.
“In the next 15 years, drug design and discovery platforms will change altogether. Allopathy medicines just take care of the symptoms, but may not eradicate the disease completely. In the coming 15 years, 20-25% of the medicines are expected to be developed on the platform which will be based on DNA/RNA,” said Prof Sharma.