Bright future for Indo-Japan tie-up in regenerative medicine

27 October 2007, Chennai. Highly developed technological advancements in material sciences by Japanese institutes and efficient clinical and research skills of Indian scientists as they tie-up have a bright future in the field of regenerative medicine, said the consul general of Japan, Mr. Kazuo Minagawa during the second anniversary of Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM).

The newly evolving specialty needs not only clinical skills but also basic research and technically skilled manpower which is available in India. The effort of NCRM in bringing together the best of both the nations in this specialty is an excellent example of Indo-Japan partnership venture in healthcare - he added.

Mr. Morozumi Yoshio, Chairman of NCRM assured to focus on diseases prevalent in India especially among the rural population and to develop technologies to make treatments affordable to common man. He also said with such large number of young and English speaking population with skills, India has the potential to become the topper in Biotechnology field.

Earlier a quiz programme on stem cells for the Fujio Cup was inaugurated by Prof. SP Thyagarajan of Sri Ramachandra University and finals were won by Kilpauk Medical College. This quiz programme makes not only the students but also the team of NCRM learn and keep ourselves updated on the latest developments in this field Said Dr Abraham, Director, NCRM. A symposium on regenerative medicine followed the quiz in which basic research, translational studies and clinical results were presented by experts from across the country.

Dr.H.N. Madhavan, Sankara Nethralaya presented the work on corneal stem cells by late Dr.G. Sitalakshmi to whose memory the symposium was dedicated to and Dr K.M Cherian, Chairman Frontier Life Line thanked NCRM for having brought the Japanese technology of stem cell isolation and expansion to Chennai.