BENGALURU: The State is collaborating with the Emory Vaccine Center of Atlanta University to establish an Immunology and vaccine research centre in Bengaluru, said Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayana who is also the minister for IT & BT. He was speaking at a webinar meeting held on Monday with Dr Rafi Ahammad, director, Emory Vaccine Center.
“Immunology is going to be the prospective area in the near future. Vaccines, infectious diseases, cancer research, etc all these boil down ultimately to immunology. The results of research done now in the field of immunology will be the solutions to the problems of the coming days. Hence, investments done in this area are going to fetch fruitful results,” he said.
At a time when the entire world is pondering about immunology and effective vaccines, the decision to set up such a centre is conducive, he said. The State government is also very keen on the novel ways of Covid diagnostic tests, he said. There are not less than 20 institutions of national eminence which are engaged in vaccine development activities.
All these will be integrated and the government is ready to support them through policy implementation. The rigid restrictions which were in place earlier with regard to clinical trials are now being relaxed, he said. Dr Rafi said, “The Emory Vaccine Center has developed a highly sensitive rapid test for Covid. This method has been adopted by hospitals in Atlanta, successfully.
Plasma therapy and human molecular antibodies development are the other areas in which the Emory Center has been engaged.” “There is scope for academic collaboration between Karnataka and Emory Center and in the current situation, this can be achieved through an online platform. This will particularly be helpful for students of doctoral studies,” Rafi said. He said the center would come out with a specific proposal of collaboration to submit before the Government of Karnataka.