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Owaisi Hospital, Nichi-In sign pact for stem cell research
Our Bureau
Hyderabad
,
Aug. 1
NICHI-IN Biosciences, a Chennai-based Indo-Japan joint venture company, has joined hands with the Hyderabad-based Owaisi Hospital to undertake a research project to find treatment for acute and chronic liver failure.
Mebiol Inc, a Japanese biotechnology company, will provide technical help to the initiative, which will be done at the Centre for Liver Research & Diagnostics, Owaisi Hospital, according to Dr Samuel J.K. Abraham, Director, of Nichi-In Biosciences.
Acute and chronic liver diseases affect a large number of people in India. In the absence of definitive treatment, liver transplantation, an expensive method (also organs are not available) is the only option.
Under the joint research, the project would look at the possibility of intervention through stem cells.
Dr C.M. Habibullah, and his team at the Owaisi Hospital, have been using cell therapy in treating the disease with encouraging results, in very short time periods of a few days to a couple of weeks. Shortage of cells has been a limiting factor.
The project will try novel methods to overcome this obstacle, by expanding the range of usable cells (in laboratory), prolong its life inside the human body, so that the treatment using stem cells gives the patient benefits over a long period, explained Dr Abraham.
Mebiol Inc has a non-biological, totally synthetic material, which facilitates growth of various cells, cell lines and tissues, including stem cells. This material, promises to open up exciting possibilities in increasing the effectiveness of stem cells in treatment.
Cell therapeutics, holds out promise in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, corneal damage and blood cancer to name a few, he told Business Line. Nichi-In Biosciences has three joint research projects in India. It is opening an exclusive Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Chennai to make cell therapeutics based treatment available in hospitals.
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