TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. National Pension System Oversight Mechanism
2. New prototype developed to generate neurovascular tissues/organoids from 
autologous blood

1. National Pension System Oversight Mechanism

Syllabus: GS-2, Governance

Prelims: National Pension System

Context:

Review of Functioning of National Pension System Oversight Mechanism.

Details:

• The government established the National Pension System Oversight Mechanism in 2019 for each Ministry/Department under the chairmanship of the Financial Advisor of the Ministry/Department to ensure that the contributions of employees and the Government are credited without delay to the National Pension Scheme.
• Per the guidelines, the Oversight Mechanism Committee has to meet once every 3 months to review the progress.
• The Oversight Mechanism also has to ensure timely remittance of monthly contributions into NPS and redressal of grievances of employees covered under NPS.
• The departments/ministries also have to make 6-monthly reports on the implementation status of the NPS.

2. New prototype developed to generate neurovascular tissues/organoids from autologous blood

Syllabus: GS-3, Science and technology

Prelims/mains: Indigenous developments in science/medicine 

Context:

A new model for generating a mass of neurovascular tissues or neurovascular organoids/embryoids (NVOEs) from autologous blood can help in the investigation of impaired brain functioning and development by analysing neuroimaging (preclinical) scans, correlating with altered blood supply.

Background:

• The rapidly progressing field of neural organoids promises an improved understanding of brain development and functions, and also for the modelling of neural diseases, the discovery of new drugs, and the supply of surrogate sources of transplantation.
• Most such neuronal organoids are derived from genetic overexpression of embryonic/extraembryonic transcription factors, and they lack vascularization. 
  • Vascularization is the process of growing blood vessels into a tissue to improve oxygen and nutrient supply.
• Although a new approach of co-culturing blood vessel organoids with cerebral organoids was recently proposed, they lacked active blood flow and are very laborious and not cost-effective.

Present Study:

• Researchers at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, PGIMER, Chandigarh have come up with a prototype for the establishment and characterization of novel self-organizing neurovascular organoids/embryoids (NVOEs) entirely from autologous blood without any genetic manoeuvring or morphogen supplementation.
• This research can produce functional vascularised embryoids on its own and requires no guided patterning. 
• It is cost-efficient as it requires no specific differential media, growth factor or differentiating morphogens for culturing, but only autologous plasma and blood cells.
• The implications are vast for studying neurological (neurosensory/motor and neuro-immune) disease pathways, neuroregeneration, preclinical neuroimaging, and endogenous gene editing, and autologous immunotherapies for tumours, and autoimmune diseases.
• The research was funded by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF-erstwhile SERB).
• The prototype can help develop patient-specific embryoid models (precision medicine) for congenital neurosensory, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases like Autism, ADHD, ANSD, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. 
• It can also be used for deciphering genetics and neural circuits, testing drugs bypassing the blood-brain barrier, and identifying novel biomarkers for early neurological diseases.

Read previous PIB articles here.