Kerala institute in capital city set for one-million dollar challenge

Polyskin Life Sciences has got the distinction of being the only participant from the country in the one-million dollar New Organ Liver Challenge.
Image for representational purpose only.
Image for representational purpose only.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Polyskin Life Sciences, which is into tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, that operates from the capital city, has got the distinction of being the only participant from the country in the one-million dollar New Organ Liver Challenge. 

The challenge is to create an artificial liver for a large animal and replace the natural liver.  The animal with the regenerative organ should be alive for 90 days.

Apart from Polyskin, 12 teams are participating in this challenge including Harvard Medical School, University of Pittsburgh, Yokohama City University, Stanford University and Yale University.

The Liver Challenge is organised by Methuselah Foundation in association with NASA and others. With millions of people needing replacement of organs and many die before finding a suitable donor, the aim of the challenge is to ensure no one dies from lack of a healthy organ.  The trials must be completed by December 31, 2018.  

Noting that only a few biotech companies were in the Challenge and majority of the others were research groups from Universities, Polyskin Life Sciences founder Dr Rajmohan said it was actually a great challenge. ''We're the only one from India who've been selected for the Organ Liver Challenge,'' said Rajmohan. 

Pointing out that they have just started the research, he said the research involved much finance and that they were looking for support from the government. "Usually the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology support such projects. We hope to get backing for the project,’’ he said. Hoping to achieve the challenge, Rajmohan said that it was more of participation than winning that mattered. 

"Whether we win or not, we’re hopeful of building a lot of capabilities. It’ll not only be helpful for us, but for the entire country. The ultimate aim of the challenge is that the technology reaches the people,’’ he said. On the research programme, Rajmohan said they had an idea about the technique and how to approach it. "But the major challenge is that the time to complete the task is limited. Moreover, we’re also engaged in other projects. But we hope we can be successful in the Challenge. Though we’ve an internal team, we’ve to set up another one for this project,’’ he said. 

Though all the research work will be done in the state, the animal trial will be held in Bangalore or Chennai as only these cities have approved animal houses.

The New Organ Liver Challenge aims to rally scientists worldwide to develop a regenerative solution based on tissue engineering to address the acute shortage of liver for transplantation. Founded in 2008, Polyskin’s primary interest is in translation of innovations from the Research lab through various stages of pre-clinical and clinical evaluations, with focus on clinical applications in regenerative medicine.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com