The Hyderabad-based Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG), one of Asia's leading gastrointestinal and liver diseases care centre, has tied up with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) to initiate gastrointestinal and liver diseases research.

A MoU has been signed by the chairman of AIG, Dr Nageshwar Reddy and the director of CCMB, Dr Lalji Singh on Saturday which calls for initiating research in the areas of gene mutations that are region-specific, as per recent studies.

The research is expected to be co-funded by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council of Scientific and Industrial research (CSIR). In addition to these institutions, assistance from Technology Development Board (TDB) and Asian Healthcare Foundation will also be sought later. The research may be extended to stem cells and gene specific drug treatment and thus the partners are hoping financial tie-ups with pharma industry in the future.

The research would include studying gene mutations causing diseases in Indian population and understanding of which could help in improving treatment for various diseases. The joint research will be instrumental in knowing the genetic and biological basis of gastrointestinal diseases.

Pharmabiz has reported on June 9, 2004 that scientists from CCMB and a team of doctors at AIG have found the role of SPINK1 (serine protease inhibitor, kazal type 1; SPINK1) Mutations in chronic pancreatitis. The team of scientists at CCMB comprising Dr Chandak, MM Idris, KR Mani, S Bhaskar, Dr Lalji Singh came together with medical experts Dr DN Reddy and Dr GV Rao of AIG, undertook a study on a large group of patients with hereditary pancreatitis (HP) and non-hereditary pancreatitis (alcoholic chronic pancreatitis (ACP) and ICP) to determine if PRSS1 and SPINK1 mutations are associated with chronic pancreatitis in India.