16 proposals out of 500 have been recommended for funding support
OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd., a startup incubated at ASPIRE-BioNest, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been selected for Financial support for developing an in vitro Lung Organoid model. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) announced funding support to 16 projects out of the 500 proposals received for the Covid-19 research consortium. OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd. is one of them. The Founder CEO of OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd., Dr. Suresh Poosala informed that “Current animal models available for research on COVID-19 are either difficult to get into India or create them in time, to address the pandemic. The company envisages creating novel in vitro platforms for COVID-19 research under the support.”
Oncoseekbio Pvt Ltd, a startup incubated at ASPIRE-BioNEST at UoH since 2019, has a vision to develop in vitro and in vivo platforms for specific diseases for therapeutics screening. Dr. Poosala returned to India after 25 years at NIH, Washington, Bristol-Myers Squibb, San Francisco, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and St. Jude’s Research, Memphis in the USA. A team consisting of Dr. Suresh Poosala, Dr. Bharadwaja Vadloori and Miss. Shanmuga Priya, has been conducting research on cell culture models for a few diseases including cancer. Under the COVID-19 grant received from BIRAC/DBT, they plan to expand the team and enhance the scope of current in vitro platforms to a different state-of-the-art research level. Under this grant proposal, the company plans to use their novel platform to screen drugs/peptides/molecules/agents/compounds targeted against the virus or the host cell. It plans to create this capability in the next 6 months. With the help of talented faculty at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, and ASPIRE- BioNEST, they can address the challenges and bring out the science to understand and solve the COVID-19 puzzle”.
ASPIRE – Association for Scientific Pursuits in Innovative Research Enterprises
ASPIRE is a section-8, not-for-profit organization that manages the innovation and entrepreneurial activities at the University of Hyderabad through incubation of startup companies in various disciplines of science and technology.
BioNEST at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a life sciences incubator with 20000 sft, set-up with the Support of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Government of India Enterprise under Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology. It provides a plug-and-play life science ecosystem of incubation.
Please see https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1616289