Dedication of the Symposium to Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose

Acharya (Sir) Jagadis Chandra Bose, that is the way he was commonly known in Indian scientific community, was born in 1858. He had his early education in Physics at Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Cambridge. He generated the millimeter length electromagnetic field. The demonstration of wireless communication was made by him for the first time in the history of science. His design of the detector was used by Marconi to demonstrate radio communication. Beginning his career as a physicist of ingenuity endowed with the remarkable ability to fabricate his own instruments for the execution of his ideas, he used his extraordinary talents to demonstrate the response of plants to external stimuli. Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose was not only a scientist but also a visionary who thought well ahead of his time. His work vindicated the need to bridge disciplines in the quest for knowledge. It is this spirit of bridging disciplines that we endeavour to celebrate in this symposium, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Acharya Bose and 90 years of this Institute that he dedicated to the nation as a “Temple of Learning”. Acharya Bose, the doyen of modern science in India, if not of all Asia, left a large number of scientific legacies for posterity, the most important among which is Bose Institute. Founded in 1917, Bose Institute is one of the oldest institutions in India, dedicated to full-time scientific research in all aspects of natural sciences. Throughout the 90 years of its existence, the institute has endeavoured to uphold and take further ahead the objectives as laid down by the founder himself.

In its illustrious history, this year, 2008, constitutes a watershed event, when we are celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of our founder. This is the time to re-evaluate the legacies of Bose, so that they can serve as beacon of hope for the present and future generations. The symposium was intended to cover a somewhat broad range of topics in the area of Molecular medicine. It reflects our own areas of interest in recent years in keeping with the spirit of our founder, and areas of obvious importance in our quest to improve the quality of life on this planet.

Preface

International Symposium on “Perspectives of cell signaling and molecular medicine” was arranged at Bose Institute, Kolkata, India, during November 27–29, 2008, to commemorate the 90th foundation jubilee of the Institute and 150th birth anniversary of Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose, the founder of the Institute.

The newly created Division of Molecular Medicine has arranged this symposium in the particular area of science in view of the rapid expansion and interest of the scientists world wide. The molecular medicine is the branch of science that develops ways to diagnose and treat disease by understanding the way genes, proteins and other cellular molecules work. Molecular medicine is based on research that shows how genes, molecules, and cellular functions may become abnormal in diseases. The Scientific Programme of the Conference was divided into seven areas pertaining to molecular medicine, such as Signaling via ATPases, Cytokines and cell signaling in inflammatory diseases, Cell death and cellular homeostasis, Carcinogenesis and its management, Biomodulators in cell regulation and diseases, Tumor immunology, Immunoregulation and immunotherapy and Drug development against diseases and stem cell therapy.

We had participants from six countries excluding India who shared some of their latest work in the above-mentioned areas. Altogether, 116 papers were accepted for the conference of which 51 presentations was made in oral form. The scientific sessions were prepared such a way to project young researchers who have recently launched their careers as well as established experts, working in frontline areas across the globe in Biological and bio-medical sciences dealing with different diseases, their genesis, management, treatment and remedy. Among the participants, selected 13 expressed their interest to contribute their findings in the Special Issue on “Cell signaling and molecular medicine” . Each manuscript was peer reviewed by two independent reviewers in the areas which were subsequently revised/modified as per comments of the reviewers following guidelines of the Journal. I believe that the data presented here will be useful and interesting to the readers of Molecular and cellular biochemistry.