The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon begin collaborative research on maternal and child health in the defined areas such as neonatal sepsis, birth asphyxia and preeclampsia. Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome characterized by symptoms and signs of infection with or without evidence of accompanying bacteraemia in the first month of life. It encompasses various systemic infections of the newborn such as septicemia, pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, arthritis, and urinary tract infections.

The DBT and the ICMR have invited letter of intent from institutions in the areas of Biology of neonatal sepsis; Point of care low cost diagnostic kits for sepsis screens; Biomarkers for early onset sepsis; Multiplex PCR panels for detection of common pathogens; Rapid bacterial culture methods and antimicrobial sensitivity testing; Evaluation of adjunctive treatments for neonatal sepsis; Simplification of treatment of neonatal sepsis: evaluation of shorter antibiotic regimen; switching from intravenous to oral antibiotics; and Maternal determinants of neonatal sepsis.

Hypoxic ischemic organ damage can occur antepartum - prenatal asphyxia, intrapartum—perinatal (birth) asphyxia, or after delivery as postpartum asphyxia. Perinatal asphyxia (PA) occurring during the  parturition process is the leading cause of overall mortality due to hypoxic-ischaemic damage and long- term outcomes among those who survive like neurodevelopmental disorders, intellectual disability, developmental delay and epilepsies.

Letter of intent is invited in the areas of Low cost resuscitation kits; Efficacy of laryngeal mask airway for neonatal resuscitation; Development and evaluation of Low cost ventilators, infant warmers, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and pulse oximetry equipment; IEC material including video films to teach the resuscitation skills to grass root level workers, doctors, nurses, midwives etc; IEC materials for prevention of fetal asphyxia during labour; Accurate markers of intrapartum fetal asphyxia and neonatal blood biomarkers; Tools to accurately predict/prognosticate individual predispositions to or a progression of secondary complications in asphyxia affected newborns; Low cost cooling techniques to reduce the consequences of asphyxia; Development of low cost intuitive algorithms/techniques/devices to monitor labour progress which are of use to peripheral  health workers; Effect of labour induction and augmentation techniques on fetal oxygenation; Role of Caesarean section in mitigating the effects of intrapartum fetal asphyxia; and Determinants and risk factors of birth asphyxia.

Preeclampsia (PE), a multi-system disorder which affects 5-8 percent of pregnancies worldwide, is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. Although the primary mechanism of PE is still unknown, evidences suggest that it is associated with impaired placental function, inadequate trophoblast invasion, aberrant spiral arterial remodeling, and increased apoptosis of trophoblastic cells with extensive fibrin deposition in the placenta. Recent researches have helped in better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in pathological development of placenta in women with PE.

Several biomarkers including altered circulating angiogenic factors and proteins like placental growth factor (PlGF) and soluble fms-like tyrosinase kinase (sFlt-1) have been used as predictors or diagnostic tools for preeclampsia. Microarrays also offer the possibility to rapidly screen the placental transcriptome for up- and down-regulated transcripts in samples from preeclamptic women compared to healthy controls hoping that the resulting proteins are excreted in detectable amount in the maternal plasma. Urine is one of the fluids easily accessible for investigation. Urinary proteomics may be useful in identifying biomarkers for preeclampsia. Despite extensive clinical trials, till date, no therapeutic approaches are available for either treatment or prevention of preeclampsia.

The DBT and the ICMR have invited proposals frominstitutions in the areas of Point of care tests for pre-symptomatic diagnosis and monitoring at risk cases of developing Preeclampsia; Good quality, affordable, highly sensitive and specific physiologic and biochemical/ultrasound markers for predicting adverse feto-maternal outcome; Identify potential targets for therapeutic agents to regulate placental function, for prevention and treatment of preeclampsia; Development  and validation of innovative m-health solutions or algorithms for risk prediction in preeclampsia which will allow timely referral; and Determinants of adverse outcomes in preeclampsia.

The last date for submission for Call for proposals is 15th July 2016.