Oral Diseases (2011) 17 (Suppl. 1), 7–22 Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral and oropharyngeal region is the sixth most common malignancy in the world today. Despite numerous advances in treatment, long‐term survival from this disease remains poor. Early detection can decrease both morbidity and mortality associated with this neoplasm. However, screening for potentially malignant disease is typically confounded by difficulty in discriminating between reactive/inflammatory lesions vs those lesions that are premalignant in nature. Furthermore, the histologic diagnosis of dysplasia can be subjective and is thus prone to a considerable range of interpretation. Similarly, no definitive, validated criteria exist for predicting which dysplastic lesions are most likely to progress to cancer over time. Given this state of science, the presence of dysplasia can only be used to indicate that an oral lesion may have an increased risk of malignant transformation. Molecular biomarkers capable of identifying the subset of lesions likely to progress to cancer are required to eliminate this clinical diagnostic dilemma. The purpose of this review is to assess the current state of knowledge regarding genetic/epigenetic alterations observed in oral mucosal premalignancy. In addition, recommendations for future research studies directed at defining the predictive capacity of specific biomarkers in this modeling are presented.

India is at the 3rd position worldwide in terms of publication of scientific literature. However, in terms of productivity, it has been consistently failing to transform the research knowledge into industrial output. This study compares India with the leading countries to understand its lacuna in terms of R&D policy and outputs. Although scientific publications are regarded as the output of basic research, patent applications serve as a better indicator of the applied research. This paper assesses the important determinants for patent filings of a nation. It also focuses on the role of academia and industry collaboration in R&D and the productivity of a nation. We found that the higher the GERD (total Gross Domestic Expenditure of R&D) and the R&D personnel in a nation, the higher the patent filings of the nation. Moreover, we show that academia-industrial collaboration plays a key role in transforming basic research into real-world applications, as we illustrate the government's role in making necessary policies to make the collaboration successful. This paper highlights the significance of investing in R&D to improve the productivity of a nation, as also the need to design policies to strengthen the applied research environment by fostering solution-centric collaborations between academia and industry.