Department of Science and Technology (DST) funded 'A Science Initiative in Ayurveda' (ASIIA) project has completed 150 of the 300 human studies. The study, which focuses on the genotype and phenotype characteristics in human genes, is a two year patient assessment project to be held between 2008-10.

"Over the next few months, we need to select 150 patients and to get these numbers, at least 1,000 cases need to be screened," Dr. GG Gangadharan, joint director (Traditional System of Medicine), Foundation of Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) told Pharmabiz.

The key objective of the ASIIA project is to understand the core relation between ayurveda prakruti and modern genomics. The hypothesis is that modern medicine is now being developed to treat specific individual depending on the genotype and phenotype. According to our panel of experts representing leading CSIR institutes, ayurveda has developed this technique for personal treatment modalities over 1,000 years ago, said Dr. Gangadharan.

It was Prof. M S Valiathan, distinguished surgeon and renowned medical scientist, former vice chancellor, Manila Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal and founder Sri Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology at Thiruvananthapuram who insisted on the ASIIA project.

The study has associated a panel of research institutes coming under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). These include Foundation of Revitalization of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT), Bangalore led by Dr G G Gangadharan, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) department of Molecular Biology led by Dr Paturu Kondaiah, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) led by Prof Thangaraj, SDM Ayurveda College Udupi and Singhad College of Engineering, Pune, Department of Biotechnology headed by Dr Kalpana Joshi and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). Dr K Satyamoorthy, senior scientist, Centre for Molecular & Cellular Biology, MAHE will be coordinator of the project. The study proposes to comprehend the relationship of each dosha prakruthi to genotypes and phenotypes. Around 20 ml blood samples are drawn and these are analyzed by the teams at IISc, CCMB and MAHE.

A grant of Rs. 50 crore was disbursed by the Department of Science and Technology. The ASIIA project cell is being monitored by Dr S Chatterjee, principal scientific advisor to the Government of India.

The clinical screening is undertaken at Pune, Udupi and Bangalore. Recently the ASIIA project was evaluated by Prof. Valiathan. All the teams are on track under the study initiative.

The study is expected to be a landmark in ayurveda research as it will now provide a scientific guidelines to individualize the treatment, added Dr. Gangadharan.