Submitted by Administrator on Mon, 18/02/2019 - 11:12
Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) grant awarded to CEB- Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee research collaboration.
CEB researchers from the Bioscience Engineering Group, lead PI Professor Nigel Slater and Dr Hirak K Patra (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual European Fellow) have been awarded the highly competitive Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) grant for fostering research collaborations between India and the best institutions from 28 selected nations to jointly solve problems of international relevance.
Professor Slater and Dr Patra will jointly supervise the proposed project “Combating Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriacae (CRE): Using combinatorial approach of conventional therapeutics and theranostic nanomedicine” as foreign PIs to develop a nanotechnology-based theranostic (combined diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities into a single unit) platform to combat drug resistance.
The Indian PIs involved in this joint venture are Professor Saugata Hazra (lead PI), Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology (ITT) Roorkee, Professor Pradip Maji (Co-PI), Department Polymer and Process Engineering, IIT Roorkee and Professor Arup Samanta (Co-PI) from the Department of Physics at IIT Roorkee.
There will be a series of collaborative research activities and researcher exchange between IIT Roorkee (PI Dr. Saugata Hazra) and CEB at the University of Cambridge during the project. Professor Slater commented; “This project in the area of bio-nano technology is highly innovative and offers a range of interesting applications of impact. In addition, collaborations and engagement with India are of interest to the University and both institutions will be working hard to ensure the success of this project, which would help build up long term collaboration between the Institutes in UK and India with much broader perspective.”
Dr Patra at CEB will develop a rational nano-toolbox comprising a series of MRI/PET/ultrasound visible theranostic strategy with immune-safe blood compatible nano-systems to track programmable drug release and non-invasively monitor the anti-microbial resistant effects. He added; “I believe the proposed nanotechnology based strategy at the global platform will create awareness as-well-as open up new therapeutic solutions to the problem of antibiotic resistance. The success of this project together with the Indian team lead by Dr Hazra, might lead to develop long term strategies with a core group of interdisciplinary scientists who can focus on how to overcome the recent threat of extreme drug resistance (XDR) such as resistance to Carbapenem (an antibiotic that considered as the last resort of defense against drug resistance microorganisms).”