Time to go home

I’ve started writing this final blog posting at 3:30 am in the Singapore airport. My five months in Kathmandu came to end yesterday (Jan. 9th). We’ve completed the first leg of our journey home, yet to pass through Tokyo, Minneapolis, and Detroit before landing in Maine. The weather forecast calls for temperatures as low as -19 F next week. Maine is welcoming us home as only Maine can.

I’ve tried to make all of my previous postings of general interest, knowing that I would bore most people if I only wrote about work. But my final entry will summarize what I actually did professionally in Kathmandu. Otherwise you’ll think that I just played tourist since July!

Although it wasn’t always possible (due to strikes or extended holidays), I tried to go into Biotechnology Department at Kathmandu University (K.U.) five days a week. I was responsible for teaching about 1/4 of the 3rd-year Recombinant DNA Technology course. I also taught 2/3 of a Masters-level Research Methods course. Both courses met twice a week for two hours each day.

I was asked to give several presentations. I talked about my redwood genetics work at K.U. and at Tribhuvan University (T.U.), and my spineflower genetics work at T.U. and the Center for Molecular Diagnostics-Nepal. I also gave a lecture on the use of RAPD-PCR at K.U. Since many Bachelors graduates in Nepal are eager to attend graduate school in the U.S., I gave a talk at the U.S. Educational Foundation and at K.U. on how to select and apply to U.S. graduate schools in biotechnology and related disciplines.
Biotechnology research is in its infancy in Nepal.

In order to get a feeling for where it’s at and where it’s going, I visited the Biotechnology Unit at the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) and the laboratories of Intrepid-Nepal/Center for Molecular Diagnostics –Nepal (CMDN). NARC is focusing on DNA fingerprinting methods to assess genetic diversity in important crops while Intrepid/CMDN is developing molecular diagnostics for diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. The Intrepid/CMDN laboratory is probably the best equipped in Nepal (comparable to good U.S. labs) while most others have minimal instrumentation.

The Molecular Biology Laboratory at K.U. is a teaching laboratory that some of the faculty use when the students are not there. The absence of a dedicated research lab and the long delay between ordering supplies from India and their arrival (often 2 months), made it difficult to get as much research done as I would have liked. Fortunately, I brought some equipment, reagents and supplies with me. I also ordered some PCR primers from a German company on my credit card that arrived by Federal Express in a week, much to the amazement of my Nepali colleagues.

The research collaborations I got going were:
1) DNA fingerprinting of Nepali potato varieties using microsatellite analysis.
2) Sex determination of lapsi, an indigenous fruit tree using RAPD-PCR analysis.
3) Identification of arsenic-resistant bacterial isolates from well water by 16S rDNA sequencing.
DNA fingerprinting can be used as a tool for potato breeding. The ability to identify female lapsi seedlings using molecular methods will help lapsi farmers increase the number of fruit-bearing trees that they plant. Arsenic toxicity in drinking water is a big problem in South Asia, so

understanding how bacteria become resistant to arsenic might lead to new water treatment methods. Assistant Professor Dhurva Gauchn, a plant biologist, will continue with the potato and lapsi work, while Sangita Shakya is doing the arsenic-resistant bacteria project in pursuit of her Ph.D. I’ll get the DNA sequencing done for her when I get home since they don’t have that capability in Nepal.

I’m very indebted to Janardan Lamicchane, my official host and the head of the K.U. Biotechnology Department. He bent over backwards to make my visit fun and productive. All of the faculty took me under their collective wing and made me feel like a part of their family.

I will come back to Nepal. I promise.