“It is now possible to develop drugs without killing animals using the new paradigm of systems biology based on the predictive computational platform derived from ancient Siddha medication approach,” said Dr V A Shiva Ayyadurai, chairman and CEO of CytoSolve Inc, who also teaches at MIT in the US.
He was delivering a special lecture on ‘Siddha: The First Systems Biology’ at VIT university on Tuesday, under the aegis of the school of bio sciences and technology.
Describing biology as an experimental science, Shiva said since 2007, he had been focusing on bridging the gap between the western and eastern schools of medicine, by integrating systems biology with siddha concepts. Shiva, who claimed to have invented email in 1978, said he had pioneered the new course ‘systems visualization’ at MIT.
“While western medicine is based on organs, siddha focused on cells,” he said. Ancient siddha knowledge was based on a well- defined ‘systems approach’ practiced in the west, dealing with concepts of transport, conversion and storage. The ancient siddhars were the first ‘system scientists’, who explained the human body’s functions and disease management through ‘vata’, ‘pitta’ and ‘kapha,’ which are complex engineering systems in modern parlance but the language and approach was different.
“I am trying to show the west is that modern system biology is closely related to siddha. I have developed a new approach to understand this and to develop new drugs on a personalised level,” Shiva added.
Advising students to make use of opportunities bestowed on them by the university, he said,”As Tamil Nadu’s and India’s history is full of innovations, I appeal to you to be a part of this tradition.”