IISc and Ignite Life Science Foundation announce strategic collaboration with Indegene to advance scientific discoveries in India

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India's premier institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education, and Ignite Life Science Foundation (LSF), a Bengaluru based science philanthropy that aims to leverage scientific discoveries for social good, today announced that they have joined hands with Indegene, a digital-first, life sciences commercialization company, to advance scientific discoveries in India.

"We are excited to collaborate with Indegene and Ignite and appreciate their support. This is a great step forward in advancing scientific discoveries in India and paves the way for accelerating scientific innovation in the coming days", said Professor G. Mugesh, IISc, Bengaluru.

Professor Mugesh's work is focused on "Small Molecule GPX Mimetics for the Prevention of Cardiovascular and Neurodegenerative Diseases." Indegene and Ignite LSF have supported IISc with a new multimode plate reader with absorbance, fluorescence, and luminescence capabilities essential for laboratory experiments in this area.

"The multiplate reader will increase throughput and accelerate experiments. Rich biological data can drive the generation of new insights and open up fresh areas for investigation" said Dr. T. S. Balganesh, member of Ignite's Scientific Advisory Board & President and a Director on the board of GangaGen Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru.

"As an organization founded to enable future-ready healthcare, we are committed to being the catalysts for the change we need in the communities we work in. We are delighted to support IISc and Ignite to help advance scientific innovation," said Manish Gupta, Chairman and CEO, Indegene Limited.

Need for advancing scientific discoveries in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases space

Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide. As the world's population ages, the burden of these diseases is likely to become more prevalent. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), neurodegenerative diseases will become the second leading cause of death worldwide by 2040, necessitating the requirement of effective treatment and preventative strategies to alleviate the global burden.

Emerging studies have shown that ferroptosis, a newly identified form of cell death characterized by irondependent accumulation of lipid peroxides, plays a key role in the pathological cell death associated with diverse neurodegenerative diseases such as traumatic brain injury, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and various cardiovascular diseases. Thus, inhibition of ferroptosis offers a promising therapeutic opportunity to treat many neurological diseases.

In humans, the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) can directly detoxify toxic lipid hydroperoxides using glutathione as a cofactor, thereby preventing ferroptosis. The lab at IISc is focused on the development of novel small molecules and nanomaterial-based functional mimetics of GPX4, which can inhibit ferroptosis and thereby provide protective mechanisms against the above-mentioned diseases. As the lab is a drug discovery lab, there is a need to screen many molecules to identify the lead compounds, which involves multiple screening systems.

Shares of Indegene Limited was last trading in BSE at Rs. 582.60 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 561.65. The total number of shares traded during the day was 52192 in over 2780 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 588.55 and intraday low of 561.00. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 30029908.00.

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords

Indegene HealthcareResearch Analytics Technology INE065X01017 IgniteLifeScienceFoundation IISc