Our Bureau

Bangalore , April 5

FOUR years after it came from the back stage of domestic labs, stem cell research in the country can look forward to some new lines of support.

The special national task force has proposed a sizeable `priority fund' of unmentioned size to finance research activities in this promising therapeutic area.

Dr D. Balasubramanian, Chairman of the National Task Force on Stem Cell Research, today said the ongoing stem cell programmes of the 15 labs have a total need for Rs 15 crore. They needed to be supported further with a priority fund from all possible private and public avenues.

The Task Force could be considering at least 30 per cent of the surplus from the Rs 500-crore biotechnology budget for the year. Dr Balasubramanian, who also heads the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute at Hyderabad, was speaking to the media during the eight-day Indo-UK workshop on stem cell research, which opened here today.

Stem cells are considered the next big marvel in modern therapeutics, ahead of or alongside gene therapy; institutes have reported results in treating spinal injury, diabetes, neurological problems, heart ailments, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases; or like L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, in curing blindness using stem cells.

CMC Vellore, AIIMS, Manipal Hospital, NIMHANS, National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science, PGI Chandigarh, Reliance Life Sciences and National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, are some of the bodies involved in stem cell research.

The Task Force is mooting stem cell city clusters that share facilities, ideas, clinical opportunities and business opportunities. The city clusters could be promoted at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vellore, New Delhi and Pune-Mumbai. Dr Balasubramanian said the Department of Biotechnology was finalising a stem cell action plan focussing on clinical applications.

Apart from the DBT and Indian Council for Medical Research, the defence research labs could be one of the drivers in the area. India was being sought after for both its clinical, research expertise and also as a bank of stem cell lines. While research was costly, its applications were not, he said.

UK collaboration

The British Government, which has advanced programmes role in the field, would actively collaborate and support Indian stem cell project proposals, according to the British High Commissioner, Sir Michael Arthur, who opened the workshop.

He said the UK was an early mover which had set apart a certain amount of its £2.5-billion biotechnology budget for the current year for stem cell research. There were also private and public resources such as the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, which have spent over £20 million on this area in the last ten years.

Indian stem cell scientists could tap its various mechanisms and could make their proposals in the various Indo-UK workshops that were being proposed, he said. He described the UK policy as being "pragmatic without being permissive".

Ever since the US Administration stopped funding embryo stem cell research in the US in 2001, India, along with Australia, Singapore, Japan, China and South Korea has been pitching for this new slice in the global biotechnology pie. The global revenue in stem cell and tissue engineering market is forecast to exceed $10 billion by 2013.

Leading British and national scientists including Dr K. Vijaya Raghavan, Director, NCBS, and Dr Azim Surani, Director, Cambridge Stem Cell Genetics Programme, are participating in the workshop.

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