Indian-origin scientists lead fundamental malaria discovery

WASHINGTON: A team led by Indian-origin scientists has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause the deadly disease.

The researchers led by Kasturi Haldar andSouvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseasesrevealed how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels.

Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell.

These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism.

However, the team discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action.

Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences.

Krishnu Palepu named global advisor to Harvard president

Krishna G. Palepu, Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for international development at the Harvard Business School, has been named senior advisor for global strategy to Harvard University president Drew Faust. He assumes the new position immediately.

"Professor Palepu brings a global background and perspective to his research and teaching at the business school and he played a key role in the work of the university-wide International Strategy Working Group convened last year to consider how to strengthen Harvard's international approach at the institutional level," Faust said in a statement.

Palepu, he added, "will be a critical contributor to the ongoing development of our global strategy."

"Harvard has among the world's strongest platforms for global teaching and research, built on deep regional and domain knowledge and the entrepreneurial energy of our faculty, students and staff," Palepu said in a statement.

"I look forward to working with (Faust) to craft a more coordinated and strategic approach to Harvard's international engagement, supporting the expertise and ambition of our community."

A top expert on global business strategy, Palepu has taught at HBS since 1983. With colleague Tarun Khanna, he recently co-authored "Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution," which explores challenges for multinational firms in emerging markets. Palepu teaches related courses in the MBA and executive education programs.

Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria said Palepu "has been one of the business school's most sophisticated, eloquent, and persuasive voices for a thoughtful strategy of global engagement. "He has substantively reshaped how we think about leadership in a global century, with tremendous benefit for how we do research, how we teach, and how we learn."

Besides working with the International Strategy Working Group, Palepu will help develop a more coordinated approach to international fundraising and engage Harvard alumni living abroad.

The Indian American academic has a Ph.D. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master's degree in physics from Andhra University and has done postgraduate work at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata.

Indian-American jailed for 20 years for money laundering

NEW YORK: An Indian-American entrepreneur has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using his perfume distribution business to launder millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. 

51-year-old Vikram Datta, who was found guilty in September last year on money-laundering charges, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court here. 

"Datta used his perfume business to remove the stench from Mexican drug cartel money, and now he will pay a steep price for his crimes,"Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said. 

She said the "sentence should make anyone think twice about getting into business with narcotics traffickers." 

Datta owned multiple retail perfume stores on the US-Mexico border and sold significant amounts of perfume to Mexican purchasers. 

As payment, he accepted millions of dollars in cash that had been generated from drug sales in the US. 

According to trial evidence, Mexican money exchange businesses purchased these "narco dollars" in exchange for Mexican pesos. 

The narco dollars were transported back into the US and used to purchase perfume at businesses, including Datta's, located in Laredo, Texas. 

In 2010, Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agents met Datta, who admitted that he was receiving "a lot of cash" from his customers on the border and that "it's all Sinaloa money," a reference to the Sinaloa Cartel, a major Mexican narcotics trafficking organisation. 

Datta also acknowledged that his business was "just washing the whole money." 

The DEA's analysis of financial records revealed that from January 2009 through January 2011, more than 25 million dollars in US currency was deposited in bank accounts controlled by Datta and his co-conspirators. 

Datta also frequently failed to file financial reports concerning cash transactions, which were mandatory for transactions totalling more than 10000 dollars.

Red wine researcher charged with falsifying data

A University of Connecticut researcher known for hyping the health benefits of red wine has been accused of at least 145 instances of fabricating and falsifying data with image-editing software, according to a three-year investigation made public by the university Jan. 11.

The researcher, Dr. Dipak K. Das, is director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Connecticut and a professor in the department of surgery.

Some of Das' articles, as many as 26 in 11 journals, have reported positive effects from resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine thought to increase longevity in laboratory animals.

The university said in a press release that it has frozen all externally funded research in the Indian American researcher's lab and will return a total of $890,000 in two new federal grants awarded to Das by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The university also said it has initiated proceedings to fire Das, who has tenure.

A special review board set up by the University of Connecticut allegedly found evidence of fraud in published papers dating from 2002 and in three grant applications. The findings of a 60,000-page report have been sent to 11 journals that originally published the articles for possible retractions.

The probe of Das began in January 2009, two weeks after the university received an anonymous allegation about irregularities in his lab. The U.S. Office of Research Integrity also told the university in 2008 about alleged fraud in a 2007 article in Free Radical Biology and Medicine and co-authored by Das.

The ORI is now conducting its own probe of Das' research, the university said. Other members of the CRC research team are also under investigation by the university.

"We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country," Philip Austin, interim vice president of health affairs at the University of Connecticut, said in a statement.

Das had not been reached for comment at his university e-mail by press deadline. Several reports said that he is in India. Das said in a letter to the university after being made aware of the report last May that he believes he is being singled out for blame because he is Indian American.

Das alleged in the letter that the accusations against him are part of an effort to rid the university of the "Indian community," since most of those being investigated are Indian American researchers.

"I became the Devil for the Health Center, and so did all the Indians working for me," he wrote. "The evidence for conspiracy and racial hatred is overwhelming."

Das also indicated serious health problems that he attributed to the investigation.

"If you remember, you handed me a report in an envelope [May 10] at 4:12 p.m. in your office," Das wrote to one university official. "As I was extremely sick and I had to undergo treatments until this week. Only yesterday, I got chance to open it, and found a 60,000 pages of electronic documents that need to be addressed within four days."

"As you can realize it is humanly impossible, and totally impossible for a man in my condition. As you know, because of the development of tremendous amount of stress in my work environment in recent months, I became a victim of stroke for which I am undergoing treatment. My right side is affected that restricts my mobility, I suffered several hemorrhages within my brain, and I have brain ischemia/scar, epilepsy and many other complications that prevent me working continuously."

"I consulted my physicians and lawyers and according to them just to read the document may need more than a year. Analysis of the document from the computer results in tremendous stress and likely to cause hemorrhage. The major problem is I don't even remember what happened approximately 10 years ago and who did what, as most of our original documents since 1970 [last 40 years] were confiscated/destroyed by the vice president of the Health Center..."

NutraIngredients.com reported Jan. 17 that they had reached Das in India, where he said he is hospitalized after suffering another stroke. He reiterated his accusations of racial bias and added that "six more Indians" are on the university's "hit list." The accusations, he added, "are all a bunch of lies and Indians are being framed. I happen to be the chief."

University of Connecticut spokesman Chris De Francisco said the university was aware of the racial accusations, but had no comment while dismissal proceedings against Das are underway. He confirmed that the investigation of other researchers in the lab is ongoing.

The review board in its report cited "a pervasive attitude of disregard within CRC for commonly accepted scientific practices in the publication and reporting of research data...Given the large number of irregularities discovered in this investigation...the (review board) can only conclude that they were the result of intentional acts of data falsification and fabrication, designed to deceive."

The alleged fraud involved images of "blots" obtained through gel electrophoresis featured in article figures, Medscape Medical News said. Most figures showed Western blots, designed to study proteins.

Using Photoshop software as a forensic tool, the review board determined dozens of images showed evidence of inappropriate manipulation by "photo imaging software."

The most egregious examples were pasted-up "artificial blots" that "bear no resemblance to any legitimate experiment" and represent total fabrications, the report said.

The report said there were also background erasures, image duplications and images spliced together. Splicing blot images is allowed, but researchers must detail such manipulations, a practice not followed by Das in his articles, Medscape News said.

The report said that as head of the lab and senior author of all but one of the articles, Das "bears principal responsibility for the fabrication and/or falsification that occurred."

The report quoted Das' response saying that he doesn't know who prepared the figures that appeared in the journal articles. It also said he has provided "no substantive information" that could explain the research irregularities.

Resveratrol Partners, a company marketing a resveratrol-based dietary supplement called Longevinex, said in a press release that Das "is attending a scientific conference in India and has not been able to respond to the allegations," Medscape News reported.

Resveratrol Partners' Web site highlights some of Das's studies on the cardiovascular benefits of resveratrol. The company's managing partner Bill Sardi said Das doesn't have any business dealings with the firm and other researchers have confirmed the value of Longevinex, Medscape News added.

The New York Times said last week that the charges, if verified, are unlikely to affect the field of resveratrol research, because Das' work was peripheral to its central claims, several of which are in contention.

"Today I had to look up who he is," David Sinclair, a leading resveratrol expert at the Harvard Medical School, told the Times. "His papers are mostly in specialty journals."

The development, however, could influence research grants. Das was able to get large awards despite the low visibility and lack of rigorousness of his research.

Renate Myles, a spokeswoman for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, told the Times that scientific misconduct "can go undetected for a length of time even under the most rigorous systems of research oversight and review."

The Times said that Das appears in 588 articles listed in Google Scholar, "though some may be by other researchers with the same name and initials."

Courtesy: Richard Springer

On Day 3, it was Oprah all the way at Jaipur Literature Festival

Oprah Winfrey greets the audience with a Namaste.

Jaipur, India January 22
Even as the fraternity of writers remained divided over Rushdie issue, an almost stampede-like situation diverted the attention of around 20,000 people who descended on Diggi Palace on Sunday morning.

They waited in queues for hours for security check, not to defend freedom of expression, but to have a glimpse of Oprah Winfrey, arguably the most popular media personality in the world. As they tried to capture her presence on their cellphones and tweet her smart quotes live, the organisers had a tough time controlling them and had to shut the doors of the venue to avoid a near stampede.

Even director, DSC South Asian Literature Award, Manhad Narula was left outside, trying to find a way to get in. Some girls lost their shoes, some fell down but no major damage was done. Many B-town celebrities also made their presence felt.

Dressed in a salwar kameez (typical Indian dress), Oprah Winfrey joined her hands in ‘namaste’ to greet a jam-packed front lawns of the Diggi Palace, and the crowd went wild. The woman who is said to be more popular and powerful than the President of America, and has inspired millions across globe with her rags-to-riches story, regaled the audience for an hour, with her extraordinary gift of the gab sprinkling it with humour and lot of profound words and messages. From expressing shock at Indians, for not obeying traffic lights, to delving into her life’s details, she did it all. Talking at length about her childhood, poverty, her school days, her grandmother, who raised her, Oprah said she empathises with women who undergo sexual abuse. Oprah had no qualms talking about her own abuse as a child and the effect it had on her, something she had written about in her best-seller books.

Never short of sense of humour, she took a dig at herself, for asking Abhishek Bachchan on her show, how on earth could he live with his parents as an adult? “After visiting him and his family in Mumbai, she said: “ I realised, how glorious this tradition is.” But the woman is also struck by paradoxes of the Indian society, “How can a society that shows such respect for parents and elderly can shun its women just because they lost their husbands?” she wondered while referring to the widows of Vrindavan.

Sharing the ‘power of vision’ that helped her support candidature of Obama’s presidential campaign, she said, the same power drove her to India. “I have a feeling this visit is going to turn me around,” she added.

“For 25 years, before speaking to people, I connect to god in silence, so that my job of a connector of people could be done. For all my one thousand shows, I have tried to know what is the truth behind an issue, I get energy out of the truth and i share that positive energy with people,” said Oprah.

“I tried to help women who suffered abuse to come out of shame, by sharing my own experiences. Though, my deepest regret is, I am not able to do enough to create understanding over this issue,” she asserted.

Oprah shared her successful story of introducing Americans back to books through her book club, which she started as an experiment, inspired by one of her producer’s love for books. It turned out to be such a success that when she recommended her viewers to read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, 8,00,000 copies had to be printed to meet the demand.

Spiritual Guru Deepak Chopra, author of 35 bestsellers, which are translated into 85 languages, spoke on the science of spirituality, by simplifying complex issues into ‘doable’ concepts. Chopra, who is also a doctor, has a global fan following among people who seek a better quality of life, of peace and joy.

Trying to Glimpse Oprah in Jaipur,India

JANUARY 22, 2012, 2:46 PM

Oprah Winfrey, right, with news anchor Barkha Dutt, left, during a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur, Jan. 22.

I’ve been expecting talk show queen Oprah Winfrey to land up in India for almost three years, ever since she mentioned the words “Taj Mahal” in connection with her new show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter.”

Judging by the events of Sunday morning at the Jaipur Literature Festival, it was a pretty eagerly awaited visit. By 11 a.m., the road leading to the Diggi Palace hotel, where Oprah was scheduled to speak 15 minutes later was sealed off, with a crowd pleading to get in. Half a kilometer down, there was another barricade. The front lawns, where she was to speak, had also been sealed off and people stood at every possible spot around the venue, with masses at the closed entry points. Soon, it was clear Oprah was finally on the stage, because of the extremely loud cheers and clapping.

Perhaps I could write a very short post, I thought. “Oprah came; I couldn’t get in.” Hmm, maybe not. I considered my options.

Associated Press

Oprah Winfrey dressed in a traditional Indian sari in Jaipur, Jan. 20.

A hefty gentleman who seemed to be in some position of authority and to have an eye on me, kept trying to persuade me to cease and desist from entering the venue and go watch it on television instead. I decided I was not above hopping a fence when work obligations called for it, especially since the sound was inaudible from outside. Just as I found a bit of wall where a quick visual forensic examination of the broken flowerpots on the other side revealed others had probably found their path to Oprah this way, the man next to me turned around – it was Hefty. “What are you doing?” he barked. “Er nothing, just standing here, listening,” I said meekly.

Moments later, he allowed a blond woman to jump over, telling the crowd she had a “family emergency.”

The organizers then suddenly opened the doors to allow those who had got their glimpse of Oprah and were done to leave, and let others in. I got my first look at Oprah, clad in a mustard kurta and pink chunni — on the Blackberry of a young girl who had photographed her on the large TV screens on either side of the lawn, and who claimed that Oprah was the only “good personality” on the entire festival schedule. Picture taken, she was trying to leave. Another young woman was trying to get in, but in the heaving crowd, had lost a shoe.

I made my way to a slightly emptier side of the lawn, and found the sound was still muffled, largely by the chatter of the audience. Many were engaged in cellphone conversations telling their friends outside the venue that they were inside the venue.

From the stage I heard these phrases waft, “To allow…woman of color…personal space…fantastic.”

Yes, it was Oprah.

Eventually I squeezed over to the other side of the lawn, where the terrace was relatively empty and the sound was better, people having completed their triumphant phone calls. A security officer was standing by two empty chairs and I sidled up to him. “Free?” I asked and optimistically though he said yes, but as I made to sit down he pulled the chair out from under me.

“My commanding officer is sitting here,” he said. Tut-tutting from a nearby woman persuaded him to relent.

So, what did Oprah think of India? Pretty much what you’d expect.

“India is a paradox,” she said, describing her trip as “the greatest life experience I’ve ever had.”

“You feel like you’re in the center of something greater and bigger than yourself,” she said, to applause. “Your humanity is being expanded in a way you just don’t feel or I haven’t felt in other places.”

She also made the observations that there were “a lot of Indians in India” and “My life is in the Taj Mahal.” Or perhaps she said “wife.” Or “knife.”

She told the audience that unlike the women of India, she was not the “marrying kind.”

“That would be very hard for me if someone were to arrange a marriage for me, although I think I’m too old,” she said. “Don’t you pass a point where nobody’s arranging anything for you?”

Much of the conversation with NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt centered around her childhood, growing up in poverty, her television show, and the school she set up in South Africa.

She told the audience she does intend to come back to India again, after some news reports suggested she had said this was “my first visit here and my last visit too” because of scuffles between her bodyguards and the crowd in Vrindavan.

Towards the end, she offered a little driving advice.

“You cannot text and drive in India when the people don’t obey the red lights,” she said. “Oh my gosh, it’s insane.”