Global biotech hub

Stem cell research may be a boon for medical science, but it is not devoid of controversies. Recently a South Korean team announced that it had successfully managed to create patient-specific, tailor-made stem cells from cloned embryos. The cloned embryos have a greater chance of being accepted by the recipient’s immune system and may not be rejected immediately, claimed the researchers.

Therapeutic cloning involves taking a donor egg from which the nucleus has been removed and replacing it with the nuclear DNA material from the cell of another organism. This leads to blastocyst—a stage where an embryo has developed to around five days old. From this, embroynic stem cells are extracted and transplanted to grow into any of the body’s cell types and cure diseased tissues and organs. The Koreans claimed to have developed 11 patches of these cells which could potentially replace those damaged by spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Parkinson’s and other diseases.

In India, too, there has been increasing activity in stem cell research over the past few years in both the public and private sectors. Thanks to its liberal and supportive system. The draft guidelines for stem cell research (2004) by the Indian Council of Medical Research has allowed even research of those cells derived from foetal tissue. However, there is a need for a regulatory apex body for monitoring purposes.

The recent visit of Dr Ambumani Ramadoss, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, to the US has helped to explore possible avenues of cooperation between research centres in the US and India. Further the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) will train Indian scientists in the field of regenerative and stem cell research. The countries shall enter into a tie-up for training programme for the faculty, with specialists from India getting trained at (UCSF) as well as UCSF’s faculty-members training our scientists here. The tour is being projected as an important step in the formulation of a stem cell research policy in India. India’s other research

collaboration includes a MoU with the Ukraine Academy of Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Denmark. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi is another success story in stem cell research. For the past 18 months, they have been using stem cells derived from patients' bone marrow to treat cardiac problems in 35 people. India has more than 15 labs involved in this work with a total budget of Rs 50 crore with department of biotechnology. Of this, around 30 per cent is allocated for stem cell related study. So Dr Ambumani has rightly said India has a huge potential to become a global hub for stem cell research.

— balakrishnannair@expressindia.com