Union minister Jitendra Singh calls for promoting sustainable, viable startups in biotech sector

Union Minister Jitendra Singh has called for promoting sustainable and viable startups by roping in the industry in the fast-emerging field of biotechnology.

He also and underlined the need for inter as well as intra collaboration among the frontier Department of Biotechnology institutes for cutting-edge and translation research for the country's benefit.

After a two-day review of 14 autonomous institutions of the Department of Biotechnology, he asked the institutes to focus on one or two key areas of research and aspire to achieve the global standards, according to a statement by the Science and Technology Ministry.

He also hailed most of the institutes towards fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the research for the development of vaccines and other protocols.

Singh asked the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar in Haryana, which promotes translational research with a mission to 'discover rationale therapies and cures for brain disorders' to undertake a special intervention study on Alzheimer.

The minister asked the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Faridabad to undertake more translational studies in the post-Covid era for pursuing grand challenges in public health to produce affordable technologies through group excellence. According to the statement, Singh asked inStem to promote basic and translational work in stem cells and regenerative medicine while emphasizing that it should engage and connect with hospitals in other parts of India.

In the meeting of the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NAIB), Hyderabad, the Director informed that the institute has recently initiated "One Health Programme" focusing on 10 zoonotic diseases and the institute has also established a 'vaccine testing centre' with support from PMCares fund for the testing of COVID-19 and veterinary vaccines.

The Director of the National Center for Cell Science, Pune, informed the meeting that MANAV and Microbiome initiative are the two flagship programmes that are being implemented. It has supplied more than 55,000 cell cultures to 550 organizations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)