Dronamraju named to USDA advisory panel
By ELA DUTT

Biotech expert is founder-president of Houston, Tx.-based Foundation of Genetic Research Krishna Rao Dronamraju, a biotechnology policy expert, says he feels energized by his new appointment on an important advisory panel in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He advises third world countries to fight to save their ownership of diverse species and go to courts to fight for patent rights and intellectual property.

Born in 1937 in Pitapuram, Andhra Pradesh, and educated at Andhra University in Botany, Dronamraju received his master’s in plant genetics from Agra University and his doctorate from the Indian Statistical Institute. He has written more than 12 books and the latest one on the anvil is on infectious diseases and human evolution, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

Dronamraju, 65, who founded and is president of the Houston, Texas-based Foundation for Genetic Research, has just been appointed to the Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board (NAREE).

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, making the announcement about the 11 new board members, noted, “Each brings diverse skills and fresh insights to help identify priorities and strengthen research, extension, education and economic programs at USDA.”

NAREE, which was established in 1996 and is composed of 30 members, advises the secretary, land, grant colleges and universities, and the House and Senate Agricultural committees and subcommittees on USDA research. The newly-appointed members will attend their first advisory board meeting Oct. 28-30 in Washington, D.C.

“I am starting a new career at the age people retire,” Dronamraju said in an interview with News India-Times. “I am going into a new application even though my initial degree was in botany. So I will be very comfortable in it and the U.S. government will be able to use my skill in biotechnology because I combine various fields.”
Born in 1937 in Pitapuram, Andhra Pradesh, and educated at Andhra University in Botany, Dronamraju received his master’s in plant genetics from Agra University and his doctorate from the Indian Statistical Institute. He has written more than 12 books and the latest one on the anvil is on infectious diseases and human evolution, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

He came to the U.S. in 1963 for additional training at Philadelphia’s Cancer Research Center and was also for some time at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland.

He is chairman of the Indo-U.S. Millennium Foundation, established after former President Bill Clinton’s visit to India, and says his objective is to extend cooperation in higher education between the two democracies. He continues to consult in biotechnology for the government of Andhra Pradesh, he said. He was recently elected Fellow of the North American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received a multiyear grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

From India, he received the Nayudamma Award, named after the former director general of the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, for his work in genetics.

“I am very happy about my new appointment to USDA because my last couple of books were on agriculture and intellectual property rights,” Dronamraju said. He considers himself somewhat of an expert on transfer of biotechnology between India and U.S. and several other countries. Genetic engineering has been very useful, Dronamraju believes. “A lot of the rumors of dangers of this are fear-mongering and totally unnecessary,” he contended.

Those that oppose genetic engineering are doing it more from a socio-political angle than through scientific examination, he pointed out. “It has done only good so far. Genetic engineering can actually help and create diversity. And like any new technology, it can be used for good and bad.”

Third world countries should protect their biodiversity and protect it by patenting it, he asserted during his interview. “Don’t sit and complain, I tell my friends in India. While some diversity patents may have been lost, even that is disputed,” he contended, pointing to the successful challenge of the Neem tree patent by India. “You don’t have to sit helplessly, you can go out and challenge these.”

He said biotechnology transfer between India the United States is taking place mostly at individual and group levels, and not so much at the governmental level until President Clinton set up committees. An independent in terms of his political leanings, Dronamraju said he wished these committees for cooperation had been set up long ago.

“India and the U.S. can cooperate is genomics, transgenic technology and many areas,” he said, noting that the genome project goes beyond human studies and includes even fields like malaria mosquito genes.
The federal committee he has been appointed to does not deal with biotechnology patenting issues or intellectual property per se. It is more concerned with food production and safety. “I am hoping my work will help all countries on how to use biotechnology to help food production.”