Biotechnology and Production of Anti-Cancer Compounds

This book discusses cancers and the resurgence of public interest in plant-based and herbal drugs. It also describes ways of obtaining anti-cancer drugs from plants and improving their production using biotechnological techniques. It presents methods such as cell culture, shoot and root culture, hairy root culture, purification of plant raw materials, genetic engineering, optimization of culture conditions as well as metabolic engineering with examples of successes like taxol, shikonin, ingenol mebutate and podophylotoxin. In addition, it describes the applications and limitations of large-scale production of anti-cancer compounds using biotechnological means. Lastly, it discusses future economical and eco-friendly strategies for obtaining anti-cancer compounds using biotechnology. 

Dr. Malik has obtained her doctoral degree in Plant Biotechnology from CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India in July 2009. She did Masters (Gold Medalist) in Honours Botany with specialization in Plant Biotechnology and Tissue Culture in 2001 from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. Her basic area of research is plant secondary metabolites and genetic manipulation and she did work on several medicinal plants. After her post-doctoral studies at Brazil, Czech Republic and United Kingdom, Dr. Malik has joined as a Professor in Biology at Biological and Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Maranhão, Sao Luis since February 2015. At present she is an active member of Post-graduate research program at UFMA and actively involved in research, teaching and supervising research students at UG/PG levels. She has been awarded as FAPEMA Junior Researcher grant in August 2015. To date, Dr. Malik has published more than 20 research articles in reputed journals, 2 book chapters and several abstracts in National and International conferences/symposia. She is editorial board member and reviewer of many International Scientific Journals.