IIT Guwahati inks MoU with Karkinos; establishes Centre for Advanced Research on Diagnostics in Cancer
On its 29th Foundation Day, the Institute signed an MoU with Karkinos Healthcare Private Limited to serve the Cancer patients
GUWAHATI, 2nd September 2022: The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati celebrated its 29th Foundation Day on 1st September 2022 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Karkinos Healthcare Private Limited (KHPL) for research collaboration on Cancer Diagnostics. The MoU was signed between Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati and R Venkataramanan, Chief Executive Officer, Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
Under the agreement, a Centre of Advanced Research on Diagnostics in Cancer (C-CARD), a first-of-its-kind in the nation with an IIT, will be set up at IIT Guwahati. The center will be equipped and operated by KHPL at the IIT Guwahati premises for its establishment. The primary aim of this center is to work on research related to advanced and affordable diagnostics solutions for non-communicable diseases, primarily cancer for patients from across the nation.
Speaking during the MoU signing event Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “IIT Guwahati aspires to strengthen its Research & Development arsenal and there is no better way to highlight the same in establishing C-CARD by KHPL, in the heart of our institute. In near future, we envision extending this Centre of Excellence with the activities of Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute – the upcoming multi-specialty hospital at IIT Guwahati to inculcate next-generation scientific and technological innovations in the area of healthcare.”
“I sincerely thank Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and the State Government for their trust in making IIT Guwahati as one of the major knowledge and technology partners in the immediate future,” added Prof. Sitharam during his address.
The MoU signing was a part of the 29th Foundation Day celebration of IIT Guwahati in which both the signing authorities will collaborate on initiatives including:
- A large-scale OncoDiagnostic services in conjunction with Assam Cancer Care Hospitals across the state to prepare a comprehensive cancer atlas for North-East;
- Establishment of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) facilities to identify the India-specific hereditary origin of this giant killer;
- Capability development on high end data analytics using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques;
- High quality informatics for research and development through comprehensive genomic landscape identification;
- Capacity development through academic collaboration on clinical excellence; and
- Partnerships with biotech and pharma majors.
As a part of this initiative, in the near future, IIT Guwahati and KHPL will also collaborate on research projects related to Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genomics, Proteomics, Diagnostics, Therapeutics, Bioinformatics, Data Science, Entrepreneurship Development and other multi-disciplinary and translational areas.
Speaking on the occasion, R. Venkataramanan, Chief Executive Officer, Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., said, “The State of Assam has made giant strides in Cancer care under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble CM Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. Karkinos is pleased to further these efforts and partner with IIT Guwahati in bringing the cutting-edge cancer diagnostics and advanced research to the people of North East. We see this as the first phase of a long and wide-ranging partnership that will redefine cancer care in the region and beyond.”
IIT Guwahati aims to work tirelessly for the development of North East region. In this direction, the Institute has collaborated with multiple academic and research bodies of the state to resolve diverse technological issues such as water, education, healthcare and energy problems, flood management, mitigate acid mine drainage in coal mines, to name a few. The Institute’s recent collaboration to establish C-CARD is another addition to fulfil this vision.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati established in 1994 has completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019. At present, the Institute has eleven departments, seven inter-disciplinary academic centres and five schools covering all the major engineering, science, healthcare, management and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc, and PhD programmes. The institute offers a residential campus to 435 faculty members and more than 7,000 students at present.
IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th position among the best engineering institutions of the country and 8th position in ‘Overall’ Category in the ‘India Rankings 2022’ declared by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.
IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings. IIT Guwahati gained rank 37 globally in the ‘Research Citations per Faculty’ category and overall 384 rank in the QS World University Rankings 2023 released recently.
Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics and Flexible Electronics, among numerous other areas.
About Karkinos Healthcare
Karkinos Healthcare is a technology driven oncology focused managed health care platform for early detection and diagnosis of common cancers. The company espouses the use of a distributed cancer care network working with multiple healthcare institutions and professionals in the ecosystem with a view to get cancer care closer to the persons’ home by decoupling the delivery from the knowledge systems of care.
