03rd May 2017, Editorial – The Hindu

GS II: Issues relating to poverty & hunger.GS III: Food processing and related industries in India – scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.

Powering Up Food

• Food fortification is relied upon my many countries to prevent malnutrition.
• The World Health Organisation estimates that deficiency of key micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A and iodine together affects a third of the world’s population.

What are micronutrients?

• needed only in minuscule amounts.
• produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development.
• As tiny as the amounts are, however, the consequences of their absence are severe.
• Iodine, vitamin A and iron are most important in global public health terms; their lack represents a major threat to the health and development of populations the world over, particularly children and pregnant women in low-income countries.

02 May 2017, Current Affairs – The Hindu

GS III: Science & Technology – developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

3D-printed cartilage may help treat osteoarthritis

• Researchers have successfully generated cartilage tissue based on patient’s own stem cells using a 3D bioprinter, an advance that could lead to new treatments for osteoarthritis.
• The research team was able to influence the cells to multiply and differentiate to form chondrocytes (cartilage cells) in the printed structure.
• Cartilage cells harvested from knee-surgery patients were manipulated in the laboratory and were rejuvenated to become pluripotent stem cells – cells that have the potential to develop into other different type of stem cells.
• The stem cells were then expanded and encapsulated in a composition of nanofibrillated cellulose and printed into a structure using a 3D bioprinter.