Legacy and celebrations of 200 years of Mendel and Mendelian Genetics
An Augustinian friar, teacher, mathematician and a citizen scientist at heart- Gregor Mendel's work described the principles of inheritance that still stand today.
This year, we celebrate 200th anniversary of Gregor Mendel’s birth.
Born on July 20th 1822 in today’s Czech Republic, Mendel is best known for discovering the basic principles of heredity through cross breeding and careful examination of over 10,000 garden peas (Pisum sativum) plants.
Through cross breeding of pea plants at the monastery, he decipher how certain traits, like the shape of peas and colour of the flowers, passed from one generation to the next. All of this was carried out when it wasn’t known that DNA is hereditary component of all biological phenomenon.
Today, Mendel is celebrated as the “father of modern genetics” and Mendel’s laws of inheritance together with the discovery of DNA and genes and Darwinian evolutionary theory has revolutionised genetics.
To celebrate his birth anniversary and his impact on our daily lives, our Chairman- Dr. Jayesh Sheth and our Head of Advanced Genomic Technologies Division- Dr. Harsh Sheth gave a live interview with the anchor Mr. Utsav Parmar from Doordarshan Girnar. You can watch the entire interview here in Gujarati.