Greetings to our Contributors and Readers,

We are happy to bring out this issue of Advanced Biotech which features 11 articles from various areas of Biotechnology. The articles include studies on utilizing microbes for biosorption of aluminium and mercury detoxification, the antibiotic activity of fresh water fungus Ingoldiella hamata, jute fiber softening by cellulose obtained from Aspergillus nidulans SU04, the growth effects of various water sources from Tamil Nadu on green gram (Vigna radiata L.),  characterization of an  alkaloid Palmitine from the calli cultures of Coscinium fenestratum L., Lipstatin from Streptomyces toxytricini (Nrrl 15443) and further downstream processing, Biofertilizer effects on the growth of Yercaud bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, targeting of FADD tumorigenesis biomarker by miRNA-05 downregulation in  rat hepatocellular carcinoma and thyroid adenoma tissues, biodiesel using Pongamia oil by immobilized Rhizopus oryzae, antifungal activity of Streptomycetes from marine sediments and prevalence of Cryptosporidium in diarrhoea.
Advanced Biotech heralds this New Year by welcoming a few new members into their editorial team. We are happy to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Gopalakrishna, Dr. Shaleesha Stanley and Dr. Asrar Sherif who are joining our editorial team of experts already comprising of Dr. Rajasekaran, Dr. V.R.Swamy, and Dr. Neeta D.Sinnappah-Kang.
Advanced Biotech announces Top 10 articles for the year 2011. We congratulate the Authors for their fine contributions and recognizable achievements. We are in the process of individual communications and also towards making these articles open access, to enable their greater visibility.

As previously announced, all arrangements for the 1st Advanced Biotech National Seminar on Research Methodologies are in progress. We are looking forward to meet all of you at the training center, TICEL Biopark, Chennai on 11th February, 2012 for this one day program. We thank all our esteemed guests who have kindly consented to share their expertise to the audience through their talks. All the relevant details are given in this issue as well as in our web-site www.advancedbiotech.in
In response to one most common query we get from our authors, we have taken a decision to host all 'Short Communications' and 'Full Length Articles' in a single 'Research Article' category from this issue. We are sure that this will be a welcome decision for our Authors.

The Advanced Biotech team thanks all our contributors and readers and Wish all of you A Great New Year 2012 ahead.

 

Dr. M. Ravi Ph.D., MNASc
Editor