The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has chipped in around Rs.94 crore funding for a new initiative by the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the area of chemical biology and molecular therapeutics in Bengaluru.

The collaboration with inStem - NCBS with the University of Cambridge in the UK will look at research in cancer and biomedical research.

The new initiative is the result of a collaboration that links Professors S Ramaswamy, K VijayRaghavan, Satyajit Mayor at inStem and NCBS in Bengaluru, with Professor Ashok Venkitaraman at the University of Cambridge in the UK. In fact, the project began in September 2011 when Cambridge University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz signed a memorandum of understanding with the inStem and NCBS. The inStem governing council is chaired by Dr M K Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology.

Although the financial assistance is from multiple sources, including the DBT will provide the funding to establish the initiative.

Researchers in the initiative will combine methods from genetics, chemistry, cell biology, biochemistry and imaging to understand the alterations in cellular systems that underlie human diseases, and identify ways to correct them using drugs. The initiative is expected to develop powerful new scientific approaches for the treatment of diseases like cancer, integrating expertise from the basic and clinical sciences in India. It will create a multidisciplinary environment for training young researchers and physicians in the translation of fundamental research to clinical application.

“The research will now improve our fundamental understanding of the cellular abnormalities that cause human diseases like cancer but also to translate this information for the benefit of patients, said Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, Ursula Zoellner, professor of Cancer Research, University of Cambridge and director, Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit.

Despite the comprehension of researchers in the genetic basis for human diseases, there have not yet been a commensurate increase in the translation of the knowhow to the development of new medicines. There is now a window of opportunity during which a strategic initiative to pioneer innovative new approaches in this area is likely to provide significant long-term competitive advantages to biomedical researchers in India, with important future benefits for the health, he added.

According to Professor K Vijay Raghavan, acting director of inStem and the director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine is now taking a new and adventurous path of collaborative to address the most challenging of biomedical problems. Moreover the NCBS-inStem campus provides an ideal intellectual environment for this collaboration with the University of Cambridge to succeed.

University of Cambridge and the Tata Institute, of which NCBS is a part, have known for major collaborations. Therefore we view this an important collaboration  as mutually beneficial as only the best in basic research is now viewed to address the key queries in the area of biomedical research, pointed out Sir Leszek.