IIT-Bombay opens centre dedicated to cancer reasearch

Expanding its mandate in research, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has decided to take up research in biosciences and bioengineering and opened a dedicated centre for it yesterday. The funds for the research school came in 2008 from an alumnus of the graduating class of 1969.

The centre, which will exclusively focus on cancer-related research, is the outcome of one of its largest private purses received by the institute, $5 million, courtsey Romesh Wadhwani, founder of the Symphony Group.

The Wadhwani Research Centre in Biosciences and Bioengineering, aims to uncover the mysteries of the working of cells and proteins, and deciphering cell motility and the genesis of cancerous growth and its spread in the human body.

The centre would especially focus on gaining an understanding of how cancerous cells are able to move from one localised area to other parts of the body.

According to Narayan Punekar professor and head of the biosciences and bioengineering department, cells in the human body are normally static, but cancerous cells grow in one place have the ability to move and thus spread to different parts of the body.

He added, this phenomenon called 'metastatsis' was what the centre aimed to study in order to understand how the cells developed the ability to move when they became cancerous.

IIT-B director Devang Khakhar, said, with the initial thrust area, IIT-B intended to have top-class faculty conduct research using emerging technologies to improve lives.