HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Bio-technology is increasingly used inagriculture, medicine, environment, and food, including Vietnam, according toDr Dang Thanh Dung of the Ho Chi Minh City Open University’s bio-technologyfaculty.

He told Viet Nam News: “The country faces a challenge in solving the issue ofwaste, including the huge volume of plastic.”

Bio-technology could be used to produce alternative products to replace plasticand reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture, he said.

In medicine, it is widely used in diagnosis, he said.

“I am doing research into a new enzyme system for programmable RNA cleavage,”he said, adding that it would be useful in cancer treatment.

Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, is one of the three major biological macromoleculesthat are essential for all known forms of life.

Dung presented his research yesterday at the International Conference onBiology organised by his university.

Several other scientists from Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Vietnam alsopresented their bio-technology applications.

Vandna Rai of the National Institute for Plant Biotechnology in New Delhi,India, shared her research on identification of genes for salt-tolerance rice.

Scientists from Thailand said their research could be applied to develop a newdiagnostic test and species-specific anti-leishmaniasis drugs. It would alsoassist successful monitoring and control of this disease in their countries andneighbouring regions, they added.

Leishmaniasis is a sandfly-borne disease caused by the protozoan leishmaniaparasites in tropical and sub-tropical areas. – VNS/VNA