Muniasamy Neerathilingam, 43year-old, one hot day in the summer of 2013, took a break to quench his thirst. He walked out of his lab, purchased a tender coconut and sipped its sweetness…
“It’s so sweet, and Nature keeps the water so sterile…” thought Muniswamy. The idea got struck in his mind and refused to leave him. Munish, as he’s known, pay money for a few more coconuts and took them to his lab in the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) here.
His brain wave, meanwhile, shaped up. It struck him that tender coconut could be used as a medium to culture bacteria and develop protein, which forms the raw material for drug manufacturing.
Unable to contain the idea in his mind, he put to work three colleagues — Narendrakumar Sekar, Soumya Veetil and Sumukh Mysore — to test its viability. Next morning, Protein Technology Core (PTC) team of C-CAMP hit their Eureka moment.
A year later, after extensive tests and experiments, and publishing the discovery in renowned journals, Munish and his team are just a small process away from a global patent covering 180 countries that will make Bangalore and India, known only to be a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub, proud.”The credit must go to my team, I only thought about it but they worked really hard,” Munish told TOI. The team expressed that it could never have happened without Munish.
What the discovery means in real terms is: a new medium to develop raw materials for drugs at rates so economical it threatens to make traditional media like animal products and chemicals go out of the market.
“Traditionally, whether we slaughter an animal and culture bacteria, or use media like Luria Broth, which has a Nobel to its credit, several processes are involved in sterilizing the solution, to remove toxins and in some cases, there are traces of inducers. But it’s now proved that coconut water needs no sterilization, has no side-effects or toxins as it’s a natural product,” explained Munish, Director of PTC.
The processes he referred to involve a lot of cost. Doing away with these processes means the cost of drug making is reduced, making it more affordable.
“Many firms have shown interest. Negotiations are on with Kemin and we’re sure things will materialize soon,” Munish said. US-based Kemin Industries has already realized its potential and is in talks with the team to obtain a licence from them to start using tender coconuts to culture bacteria.