State Government of Victoria,  represented by The Bionic Institute of Australia affiliated to the University of Melbourne, has now completed its first round of discussions with Indian healthcare providers and medical-science research centres like the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Indian Institute of Science, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi for collaborations in neuro bionics.

Melbourne is world’s seventh largest neuro science cluster after London, Boston and San Francisco among others. It is home to large neuro science scientific community with several research universities and not-for- profit medical institutes engaged in translating research into promising clinical applications. Incidentally, medical  products account for a significant chunk of Australia’s export.

Collaborations are important for science and critical for the commercialization of research. While it is far easy to be engaged in basic and applied research, its commercialization is difficult and hence State of Victoria which is home to 60 life sciences companies and leading science universities is now looking at potential global markets including India for opportunities where science-medico entrepreneurs and large healthcare providers could benefit from  innovations and inventions that could be a paradigm shift in treatment procedures, Prof. Robert K Shepherd, director, The Bionic Institute of Australia told Pharmabiz.

The Bionic Institute brought to the table of neuro surgeons, neurologists and scientists of NIMHANS, IISc and AIIMS neuro bionic technologies. These include neuro stimulators to help predict the onset of epilepsy. Now NIMHANS is keen on this technology going by its epilepsy treatment protocols accessed by scores of Indian patients. The reality is that one third of epilepsy patients do not have access to benefits of care, There is need for such know-how in the Indian healthcare space where patients could be forewarned of an seizure attack, he added.

Specifically with NIMHANS which has the expertise in both psychiatry and neurology research and therapy, we see the need for new technology applications in the areas of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson Disease to control tremors, besides provide newer insights on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), he said.

Indian research and healthcare providers have the expertise. However, there is need for advanced technology to ensure even better outcomes in neurology and psychiatry care. In fact Bionics Institute is also offering an invasive procedure to control severe pain affecting late cancer patients and has cochlear implants which has transformed sense of sound to profoundly deaf people.

It is engaged in phase I study since 2012 for bionic eye implanted in three patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited, degenerative eye disease for which results are promising.    Therefore, in our discussion, we have seen considerable interest evinced for all these technologies, Prof. Shepherd stated.

Further, State of Victoria is home to large number of science doctorate programmes. It is also expanding in the area of training and research in medical engineering. There is funding available under the Australia India Strategic Research Funding with a grant of Aus$ 20 million which helps Australian researchers to participate in scientific projects and workshops with Indian scientists. There are also local scholarships for overseas students with full fee waivers: Melbourne- India post graduate programme grant for Aus$ 3 million and Victoria-India doctors scholarship of Aus$ 2 million.