CCMB working to make personalised medicine a reality

Noting that several other new technologies have also come up in recent years that could help make personalised medicine a reality, the director of the institute, Dr Rakesh K Mishra, said steps were underway to put them too into use. 

For instance, it is now possible to make cells produce bioactive products like insulin and deliver them to patients who do not produce enough of them in the form of patches. 

“The technologies are available. We just need to put them in place after obtaining appropriate approvals. Lots of activities are happening on this front”, he said. 

CCMB, he said, is looking to engage with clinicians and the industry in a big way, with them participating right from the beginning stages of research. 

“We want them to invest and be a partner in developing technologies. This will help accelerate research in industrial context. We will also gain a lot from their expertise in marketing and production,” Dr Mishra said. 

In this regard, he recalled how Shanta Biotech, one of the first major biotechnology companies in India had begun its journey from CCMB. 

The Institute focuses both on contributing intellectually as well as in terms of developing industry ready manpower. “We interact with the industry, find out what kind of manpower they require so as to design appropriate short term courses of one, two and six month duration. 

“In this programme, we focus on producing properly qualified technicians, technical officers and other manpower required by industries engaged in biology-related activities,” he said. 

The research institute has recently started a programme to expose students in medical colleges in Telangana on various aspects of medical research. The aim of the program is to foster collaborations between scientists and medical professionals in medical research.

Sunderarajan Padmanabhan (@ndpsr)