Science and Technology › Biotechnology
Genomics, gene editing and cell therapy
Genomics and the therapies built on it: genome projects, gene editing, gene and cell therapy, stem cells and their regulation, epigenetics and the microbiome. Prelims has asked about the GenomeIndia Project and what somatic cell nuclear transfer is used for.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: the GenomeIndia Project
- Prelims 2020: germline editing and human induced pluripotent stem cells in a pig embryo
- Prelims 2017: what somatic cell nuclear transfer is used for
10 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Epigenetics
A gene is a stretch of DNA whose sequence of bases spells out one protein, and Mendel's rules have each of its two copies passed on unchanged and independently. A map of the chemical marks carried on the DNA of two mouse strains has now turned up more than 500 instances of inheritance those rules do not predict.
- A gene is felt only when it is read: transcription copies it into messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), and translation builds the protein from that copy.
- The marks mapped were DNA methylation, read across the two strains by nanopore sequencing.
- In some regions the methylation depended on the mouse's sex.
- Marks could copy from one gene copy to the other.
- Similar mechanisms may explain human conditions that resist standard genetic analysis.
11 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Proven stem cell therapies
Every proven use replaces a tissue with the same tissue, and each took decades of trials to reach the clinic. The list is short, and a good deal shorter than what clinics advertise.
- Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the bone marrow transplant, treats leukaemia, lymphoma, thalassaemia and aplastic anaemia.
- Limbal stem cells from the eye restore a cornea scarred by chemical burns.
- Cultured skin cells are grafted onto severe burns.
- Other conditions, neurological and degenerative disease among them, remain investigational, for an approved clinical trial only.
- No whole organ has yet been grown from stem cells for human transplant.
11 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Regulation of stem cell therapy
Research and the products sold as treatment fall to different regulators. The newest guidelines are a layer added on top of that division rather than a replacement for it.
- The National Stem Cell Research Regulation Committee oversees research using minimally manipulated stem cells.
- The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) regulates stem cell products as drugs, under the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019.
- The Health Ministry's Centre for Evidence Based Guidelines issued guidelines on stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine for 2025 to 2026.
- They join the National Guidelines for Stem Cell Research 2017, the gene therapy guidelines 2019, the haematopoietic cell transplantation guidelines 2021 and the cord blood banking guidelines 2023.
- India's first in human gene therapy trial was run by the Centre for Stem Cell Research with Christian Medical College, Vellore.
PIB, 11 Aug 2026: Regulation of stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine (opens in a new tab)