IIT-Guwahati to have advanced cancer research centre

Guwahati, Sep 2: A centre to work on research related to advanced and affordable diagnostics solutions for non-communicable diseases, primarily cancer, will be set up at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati. The premier higher education and research institute has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Karkinos Healthcare Private Limited (KHPL) for the purpose, an official release said here on Friday.

The MoU was signed on Thursday on the occasion of the 29th Foundation Day of IIT-Guwahati. Under the agreement, a Centre of Advanced Research on Diagnostics in Cancer (C-CARD), the first of its kind in the country with an IIT, will be set up at the premises of the institute. It will be equipped and operated by KHPL.

The MoU was signed by Prof. T G Sitharam, Director, IIT-Guwahati, and R Venkataramanan, Chief Executive Officer, Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. Speaking on the occasion, the IIT-Guwahati director said, “We aspire to strengthen our Research and Development arsenal and C-CARD by KHPL is a step in that direction.

“In near future, we envision to extend this Centre of Excellence with the activities of Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute – the upcoming multi-specialty hospital at IIT-Guwahati to inculcate next-generation scientific and technological innovations in the area of healthcare.”

Under the MoU, both the organisations will collaborate on large-scale OncoDiagnostic services in conjunction with Assam Cancer Care Hospitals across the state to prepare a comprehensive cancer atlas for the Northeastern region. The C-CARD will also work towards the establishment of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) facilities to identify the India-specific hereditary origin of the disease.

Capability development on high-end data analytics using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques, high-quality informatics for research and development through comprehensive genomic landscape identification, capacity development through academic collaboration on clinical excellence, and partnerships with biotech and pharma majors will be other areas of collaboration as per the pact.

As a part of this initiative, in the near future, IIT-Guwahati and KHPL will also collaborate on research projects related to Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genomics, Proteomics, Diagnostics, Therapeutics, Bioinformatics, Data Science, Entrepreneurship Development, and other multi-disciplinary and translational areas.

Speaking at the programme, Venkataramanan said, Assam has made giant strides in cancer care under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.