Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) will soon provide research-based stem-cell therapy to patients who have exhausted other treatment options.
With financial assistance from the Department of Science and Technology, the hospital is developing a 28,000 square-feet facility called Stem Cell/Bone Marrow Transplantation Centre, for conducting research on stems cells and later transplanting them into patients who signup for clinical trials. The hospital, with the support of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), has already outlined a few areas of research interest, including tissue regeneration and treatment of blood disorders.
Five proposals were presented before scientists of CCMB and clinicians of NIMS on Monday.
Stem cells transplantation is an established treatment for many disorders, including blood malignancies. Often, the procedure is cost-prohibitive in private healthcare, upping the risk of mortality due to unavailability of treatment. The new facility can support therapy of up to eight patients.
“Any project will only be taken up after obtaining approvals of ethics from the institute. The aim is to minimally modify stem cells to make them suitable for treatment, which is already established in India and abroad,” said the institute’s Dr. Ashwini Tandon, who is overseeing the development of the lab.
The facility’s prized possessions would be four pressure-controlled state-of-art ‘clean rooms’ that will facilitate research in highly sterile environment. Each of the patients undergoing trial will be housed in an equally sterile room with monitoring equipment.
“This facility is among the few of its kind in public and private institutions across the country. It is the only one of its type in the State,” said Dr. Manohar, the hospital’s director.
NIMS staff will be trained at CCMB and also work with them, utilising the clinical opportunities the hospital presents.
