Science Reporter, OCTOBER 201647

K.P. MADHU

Sanjay Mehta, winner of the technology entrepreneurship award 2017 from CSIR, voted scientist of the year 2018 by Time, has now been honoured as Farmers’ Friend 2019 by the All India Farmers Association. After the ceremony, the media-shy multi-trillionnaire gave an exclusive interview to your favourite magazine. Here are the excerpts:

(This is a fi c onal interview)KPM: You were a biochemist of considerable stature in 2016. Why did you leave your pres gious posi on in Cambridge and relocate yourself to India?

SM: I am s ll a biochemist. But now I can aff ord to have my own laboratory. (Laughs) Well, in 2012 when I took up the posi on in Cambridge, biochemistry was not really a booming science. Biochemistry’s golden age, people said, had already fi nished. And the fashion of the day was biotechnology. But I was interested in the biosynthesis of complex molecular structures. Not in biochemical pathways in metabolism – which was more or less clarifi ed.

A er my PhD, on microtubule synthesis, I shi ed my a en on to cellulose. A rela vely tepid fi eld in biology. Cellulose does not seemingly do anything much – unlike microtubules which act as scaff olding of the living cell and help in transporta on of materials within the cell. So, I was rather a lone wolf amongst the other scien sts there.

In the process of reading about cellulose, I came across some bit of Indian history. Something about Gandhi’s a tude towards co on touched me. You know, co on is mostly cellulose. It was on the same night that I was reading about Gandhi that I got the insight about growth of co on.

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Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 48

KPM: What was that insight?

SM: You know, co on fi bre – it is just a cell. Each fi bre is a cell – a dead cell.

The outer layer of co on seed – the epidermis – has many of these specialized cells distributed on it. They elongate and cover themselves with cellulose. Cellulose is a polymer. Repe ve sequences of glucose molecules strung together. When the cell elongates, cellulose is deposited on the surface parallel to the growth direc on, as a cell wall. Then inside the cell, more cellulose is synthesized and it is deposited in another direc on, in mul ple layers. This is what gives strength to the co on fi bre. When co on is picked from the fi eld, the fi bres will have some waxy coa ng outside and some remnants of the protoplasm inside.

My insight was about the possibility of ssue culture of these specifi c cells of the

co on plant. So, instead of wai ng for the co on plant to grow and give fl owers and then seed and then co on fi bres, I could short-circuit the process of growing co on.

KPM: Tissue culture?

SM: Yes. (Laughs) You know, at that me plant ssue culture had many well-

developed techniques. Using hormones and plant growth substances, one could get full-grown plants from small ssues. But growing a specifi c ssue – except the tumour like undiff eren ated growth – was not possible.

But in the late 1990s, molecular biologists had discovered that small pieces of RNA could be used to switch on or switch off specifi c genes. And by 2012 there was quite a bit of informa on available in databases. In fact, quite a few of my colleagues were working in the fi eld and I could not help ge ng exposed to the ideas from that fi eld. I had no ced a pa ern in the RNA codes for these switches. And this is what made me excited.

First I woke up my friend Kailash Dwivedi working in Mumbai at about 4 in the morning. He cursed me. (Laughs) And then I woke up my dad and told him that I was coming home. That I will be se ng up business. He was, for years, mad at me for pursuing my research instead of taking up the family business... (looks lost in memory for a few seconds).

KPM: So you came back to India just because of that insight?

SM: Mmmm? Yes. Anyway – It took three months to se le back in India. During that me, I took three trips to India… (Smiles

to himself). First the land and buildings for the lab-cum-produc on plant… (pauses). Funny, why I thought of a produc on plant than a factory. English is a funny language.

Any way, you could say that we were growing co on in a plant. Instead of growing many plants to harvest co on. (smiles)

Then I came again to put together the team. Kailash, me and six others. They started working immediately in a makeshi lab in my father’s garage. Of course, my father didn’t like it a bit – the thought that his son was s ll indulging in scien fi c experiments was irrita ng to him. But I reassured him that it was strictly for business. Mind you, at that me there was not a single Indian working on the problem. The main exper se was in Chinese hands.

By the me I relocated myself to Surat, my team had homed in on seven pieces of RNA that switches on the co on fi bre produc on, and switches off the other genes and some acetyla on and methyla on switches for modifi ca on of the RNA switches.

The problem then was the right sequencing of the applica on of these switches: what should we switch off and what should we switch on? We started ge ng co on fi bre cells from young epidermis from young co on seeds. But it was quite a mess. It never reached the minimum length of 3 cm that co on plants are known to give.

In fact, if it were not for the ini al success in ge ng the epidermal cells to specialize in producing cellulose in the specifi c manner seen in co on fi bres, our team would have split up. It took seven more months to standardize the procedure to make marketable fi bres.

In fact, the fi bres can go up to 6 cm and longer fi bres are preferred by industry.

Ini ally we thought that there might be a thermodynamic limit to the length of the fi bre. But when we looked at the cytoskeletal architecture, we realised that we could tweak it and make it longer s ll.

On the fi rst anniversary of my return, we were ready. Instead of harves ng a few thousand fi bres from a round seed, we were harves ng many thousand fi bres from a fl at surface! Quite heady days they were. (Smiles and shakes his head, as if remembering something)

KPM: What happened?

SM: We were drinking beer to celebrate the produc on of the 8 cm fi bres. Longer than what nature had ever produced. And my father walked in. He had never come into our makeshi lab earlier. And we were not expec ng him. So we had some anxious moments hiding the beer. (Shakes his head again and smiles). But he was more interested in the petri dish on the table. “Is this it?” he asked. “Yes, and be er than what is grown in the fi elds,” Kailash said with a hint of pride.

My father snorted. “Do you know how many tonnes of co on are exported from India?” My father turned belligerently to Kailash. Poor Kailash. Then he turned to me. “It took you one year to grow less than a gram of co on. When are you going into business? Or will you survive on your savings the rest of your life?”

He had invested in the land and the buildings for our lab-cum-produc on plant. But the survival of my team had come from my savings. And that was totally depleted. He knew that, I suppose. He snorted again, and turned to go. At the door he turned around and said to the others: “Your produc on plant is ready. When can you start produc on?”

KPM: So did you start produc on immediately?

SM: No. It took about 6–7 months more. (A fl ash of sadness fl its through his face) Those were tough days. Scaling up from the lab, the protocols to get a con nuous output…

My mother died. And that was tough on father. One of my team members had an accident and could not work anymore. But, in a way, it was also a very produc ve period for the team. We had standardized protocols for diff erent kinds of co on. And we had reasonable exper se in the gene cs of diff erent kinds of co on. In fact, we had

FICTIONOn the fi rst anniversary of my return, we were ready. Instead of harvesting a few thousand fi bres from a round seed, we were harvesting many thousand fi bres from a fl at surface! Quite heady days they were.(Smiles and shakes his head, as if remembering something)

Science Reporter, OCTOBER 201649

started playing around with the genes.On the day that the produc on plant

started func oning, my father came in again, unannounced into our offi ce. He said: “If you succeed in this venture, you will make a lot of farmers very poor. I hope you all know that.” And he le . Just like that. He knew that none of us had any answer.

KPM: Is that why you started working for farmers?

SM: Yes. In a way, that comment was just a seed, a beginning. Again, it evolved over two years. Struggling to keep a produc on plant running, 24 hours a day, day a er day, took a toll on all of us. We had designed the plant for a con nuous fl ow method. If there was any break in produc on, we had to set up everything again to restart it.

But we were earning quite a reasonable amount. It was diffi cult to conceive of any alterna ve. We had to keep it running. And then there were law suits on the use of co on genes. In fact, our produc on line was shut off .

KPM: The most famous case of intellectual property rights in 2017.

SM: Yes. Then on a trip to Geneva to resolve the case, I met Ramesh, this crazy guy from Hyderabad. He was going to an exhibi on on nano-robo cs. For 11 hours on the fl ight he kept me engaged in conversa on – almost a monologue – about the poten al of nano technology.

I called up Kailash and my father as soon as I landed. And that evening, Ramesh and I signed a contract.

You see, ll then, we were playing around with genes of molecular machines like Kinesins that run around on Tubulins and deposit carbohydrates in the right places to give us co on fi bres. We had not

thought of nanorobo cs to spin the fi bres into threads.

I knew that my father had been toying with the idea of microrobo cs for spinning in his factory for some years. And developments in nanorobo cs were poised just at that juncture where it could be challenged to meet the problem of harves ng the fi bre from our ssue culture substrate and also spin it in the process. We thought that these two separate processes from the industrial era could be perhaps be merged into one, with nanorobo cs. KPM: Is that the beginning of your associa on with farmers?

SM: No. At that me, it was only an idea of integra ng my business of co on fi bre produc on and my father’s business of spinning. But a er I came back, I spent three intense days with Kailash. He convinced me about the possibility of decentraliza on of produc on.

His point was that the produc on plant – which had stopped produc on – would be irrelevant with nanotechnology. He was also vehement that the con nuous fl ow method of produc on is unsustainable. And he brought out the possibility of franchising the technology with co on farmers. That way we won’t be stealing food from their families.

I could understand his logic. But I was not ready to deal with the business model.

KPM: So what did you do?

SM: I went to my father. Not at home. But at his offi ce. A er 17 years, his offi ce looked just the same.

KPM: You had not gone to his offi ce for 17 years?

SM: Not a er the li le disagreement we had about my plans to do research rather than business. Anyway. He listened very carefully. Nodded. And asked: “So are your robots ready?”

They weren’t. It was just an idea. “Come back to me when they’re ready,” he said.

It was the longest fi ve months of wai ng that anybody would have undergone. Actually, within two months Ramesh had come up with a nano-machine that could harvest co on fi bres from our fl at culture surface and another that could spin them into a thread. But integra ng the two systems took longer.

Meanwhile Kailash had led my team to work out a fi bre produc on system that could be stopped, without any need for technical exper se for restar ng it. We ran the integrated system in my father’s offi ce. It took only a corner of his table. He sat looking at the thread coming out. He had these huge noisy machines running in his factory. Here was a robot machine on a table-top enclosure that did the work of a machine that occupied a full room.

At the end of the half hour demonstra on, he sat back. “I won’t close my factory,” he said. “And you be er start running that produc on plant of yours again. I am looking for half of my raw material requirements from that plant.”

Even Ramesh who was always so bubbly, had no words. We were all stunned. My father smiled. He took out a fi le from his table drawers and gave it to Kailash. “Here is the detailed business plan. Study it and come back to me if you have ques ons. I would suggest star ng with 10 farmers. Study the results before going out for the full plan.”

Kailash took the papers. Later he told me that my father thought like a scien st and acted like a businessman. We studied the business plan. You see, the comment that my father made about the farmers becoming bankrupt because of our endeavour had created a big impact on us. And that is how we came into training and franchising. Training was on sustainable agriculture. Every me the threads were collected from farmers, we used it as an opportunity to run training workshops on diff erent issues related to farming.

Every village in India can become self suffi cient in terms of clothing very easily now – just as Gandhiji would have liked.

FICTIONEven Ramesh who was always so bubbly, had no words. We were all stunned. My father smiled. He took out a fi le from his table drawers and gave it to Kailash. “Here is the detailed business plan. Study it and come back to me if you have questions. I would suggest starting with 10 farmers. Study the results before going out for the full plan.”

Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 50

KPM: There are complaints about your poaching on people from agriculture extension.

SM: (Laughs). For a good cause. The extension workers were not given the facili es to carry out their jobs. They had no incen ves, no mo va on, no vision or mission. We gave them what the government could not.

KPM: There were some reports that you are hijacking universi es.

SM: Not at all. For decades, people have been talking about university-industry linkage. We merely took the ini a ve to make that linkage. Universi es that were struggling to do meaningful research for lack of funds, and for lack of vision, are now ge ng funds from our Founda on. Of course, we specify the problems. And it is not the problems are speci� c to the industries that we run, but also related to issues like food self suffi ciency in our villages.

KPM: So how does this journey from biochemistry to business and social work feel?

SM: I am s ll a biochemist. I am not a

businessman. My father is. And I am not a social worker like Kailash.

KPM: One last ques on: why are you so media shy? You insist on keeping TV and press photographers away from your award ceremonies. Why?

SM: (Laughs) I travel a lot in India. When I sit down to eat at a roadside Dhaba, I don’t want strangers coming to talk to me. Fame

has consequences. I prefer some solitude.

KPM: Thank you sir for the interview.

SM: Thank you, Madhu.

He pa ed me on my arm. And stood up.

I felt a pat on my arm again. And I woke up. My wife was pa ng my arm. “Get up, you are ge ng late,” she said.

Oops! I am s ll in 2016.

FICTION

Note: The interview is � ction. But the indicative references given below, are not. Future scientists and technocrats may like to read them and make this dream come true in the next � ve years.

Recent advances in understanding cotton � bre and seed development. Yong-Ling Ruan, Seed Science Research, 15(4), pp 269-280, 2005 Genetic Mapping and Comparative Expression

Analysis of Transcription Factors in Cotton. Xuemei Chen, Xin Jin, Ximei Li, Zhongxu Lin, PLOS ONE, May 6, 2015 MicroRNAs in cotton: an open world needs more exploration. Qinglian Wang, Baohong Zhang, Planta, June 2015, 241(6), pp 1303-1312, April 2015Global microRNA modi� cation in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Xie, Fuliang; Wang, Qinglian; Zhang, Baohong, Plant Biotechnology Journal, 13(4), pp 492-500, May 2015

Method for 3D � bre reconstruction on a microrobotic platform. Hirvonen, J; Myllys, M; Kallio, P, Journal of Microscopy, 263(1), DOI: 10.1111/jmi.12370 High-throughput sequencing-based genome-wide identi� cation of microRNAs expressed in developing cotton seeds. Wang YanMei et al., Science China-Life Sciences, 58(8), pp 778-786, August 2015

Starting with freelance science journalism in print media, in 1978, Mr K.P. Madhu moved on to script writing and directing for television, before returning to mainstream science communication in 1994. Now he conducts workshops on science for media people, and on communication for scienti� c people. He is currently Science Media Consultant with Current Science. Address: F-4/5, Mantri Avenue II, Panchavati, Pashan, Pune-411 008, Maharashtra; Email: kp.madhu2000@gmail.com