Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) is discussing opportunities with Biocon Limited for the possible collaborative paths that could be taken to advance cancer research and technology transfer.

“Although this is still in the early stages, there is no doubt that Biocon will be the potential partners for us from India. These areas of collaborative work have not yet been identified. But the research interest is more general and we are looking to establish mechanisms for collaboration as opposed to specific aspects of partnerships,” Dr Tyler Jacks, director Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Cambridge, USA told Pharmabiz.

Dr Jacks was here in India at the Biocon Park to inaugurate the Tyler Jacks Auditorium followed by a symposium on Integrative Research in Oncology said that new initiatives in cancer research was baked by the expertise in science and engineering. “We are adopting multiple dimensions to address the challenges of the dreaded diseases which is impacting million in the US and globally. There are 1.6 million new cancer cases reported annually with 600,000 fatal cases. In fact the developing world which includes India has a huge problem to tackle the disease and prevent its spread. There could be more deaths caused by cancer than by tuberculosis, malaria and HIV,” he said.

“This is where we are looking at closely linking with Biocon which already has a significant oncology drug development programme in place,” he added.

Koch Institute is the face behind two leading cancer drugs research Gleevac which was manufactured by Novartis and Hercepten by Roche. Now Koch Institute is working on a new model for cancer research where engineering and systems biology will be integrated for discovery and solutions.

With Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a unit of global pharma major Johnson & Johnson, Koch Institute inked a pact to foster research and development of technology in diagnostics, biology of pre-malignancies, genetic models and profiles of tumour micro-environment.

“The partnership with pharma companies helps to bring together the best scientific talent in industry and academia to meet unmet medical needs in patients with cancer,” he said.

Therefore we are looking to establish connections in areas of common interest to take advantage of local development. In case of Biocon, its founder and chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has instituted the Mazumdar-Shaw fellowship, stated Dr Jacks.

“We are aware of the fact that MIT and Kock Institute have crucible and innovative ways of looking at problems solving and  addressing various challenges. Through this Fellowship Programme, we will be able to address the challenges here and would be easy to have linkages with India’s academia and research institutes which would help us to catalyse an ecosystem with a different approach. Koch Institute and MIT have a multidisciplinary approach to research and that really fits into the scheme of things for a county like ours. India has the engineering skills and is beginning to strengthen its capability in systems biology so that it would be the best way to integrate capabilities,” Shaw said.