**Author details**

Rajendra K. Bera

Address all correspondence to: rajendrabera@yahoo.com

Acadinnet Education Services India Private Limited, B/S1 Ganga Chelston, Munnekolala, Bangalore, India

## **References**

family history to correctly interpret genotyping results to provide personalised medical treatment. Indeed, they must go beyond and ask how a given genome copes with a dynamic environment. The magnitude of this task has propelled the convergence of life sciences with other fields, *e.g.*, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computing, engineering, social sciences, etc.

The scientific opportunities enabled by convergence—the coming together of insights and approaches from originally distinct fields—will make fundamental contributions in our drive to provide creative solutions to the most difficult problems facing us as a society. This convergence provides power to think beyond usual paradigms and to approach issues informed by many perspectives instead

Synthetic biology makes personalised medicine appear within reach in terms of developing personalized drugs and diagnostics, minimizing adverse drug reactions, and personalising treatments by enabling people to make personalized health decisions. However, to take research results from the lab to the patient's bedside, to the community (translational appli‐ cation) and finally make it accessible to every human on Earth is a colossal endeavour that calls for a very high level of convergence. The time has come for governments to frame policies that would enable the desired convergence. The U.S. government, *e.g.*, is discussing a "mod‐ ular" policy [69] with public participation. A module, *e.g.*, may include education, basic research, and infrastructure; another that promotes market-oriented innovation through R&D tax credit, intellectual property policies, etc.; and yet another for catalysing breakthroughs in such areas as clean energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing,

Genomics researchers are the new super-stars of science. A Thomson Reuters report provides a listing of authors who have written multiple highly cited reports and have thereby demon‐ strated their tremendous influence on ongoing research in their respective fields. Out of the seventeen hottest researchers a dozen belong to genomics [70]. Not surprisingly, the US sits atop the genomics-related patent filings heap, trailed by Europe and Asia, indicating the dominance of the U.S. both in research and its translation. [71]. An enigmatic world order is

Acadinnet Education Services India Private Limited, B/S1 Ganga Chelston, Munnekolala,

in search of new and innovative solutions. A recent NRC study notes [68]:

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226 Biotechnology

in the making.

**Author details**

Rajendra K. Bera

Bangalore, India

information technology, and space technologies.

Address all correspondence to: rajendrabera@yahoo.com


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