Among all IIT institutes , IIT Guwahati becomes the first IIT in the country to have a Centre for Advanced Research on Diagnostics in Cancer (C-CARD).
On the 29th Foundation Day of IIT Guwahati , the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati and Karkinos Healthcare Private Limited (KHPL) has signed an MoU for research collaboration on September 1.
Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director of IIT-Guwahati and R Venkataramanan, Chief Executive Officer of Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd has signed the MoU .
Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd will operate the centre at the IIT-Guwahati premises. The centre aims to work on research related to advanced and affordable diagnostics solutions for non-communicable diseases, primarily cancer, for patients across the country.
As mentioned in the press release of Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said during the MoU signing event, “IIT Guwahati aspires to strengthen its Research & Development arsenal and there is no better way to highlight the same in establishing C-CARD by KHPL, in the heart of our institute. In near future, we envision extending 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.” “I sincerely thank Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and the State Government for their trust in making IIT Guwahati as one of the major knowledge and technology partners in the immediate future,” added Prof. Sitharam during his address.
The MoU was signed as a part of the 29th Foundation Day celebration of IIT Guwahati in which both the signing authorities will collaborate on initiatives including:
• A large-scale OncoDiagnostic services in conjunction with Assam Cancer Care Hospitals across the state to prepare a comprehensive cancer atlas for North-East;
• Establishment of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) facilities to identify the India-specific hereditary origin of this giant killer;
• 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.
Taking forward the initiative in 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.
