In this regard, a biomedical modelling school and workshop organised at the National Centre for Biological Sciences is being seen as a first step in breaking the barriers. In a new concept of having a school where participants listen to lectures on topics like modelling, parameters, math methods, etc, the organisers facilitated new learning followed by exposure to cutting edge areas.

"We have had people as varied as doctors, chemical engineers, mathematicians, etc. to talk to each other. I had attended a similar seminar in Austria and wanted to organise one in India. We advertised in a big way and got many applicants, of whom around 35 were selected," says Seema Nanda, from the Centre for Applicable Mathematics at TIFR. She is one of the organisers.

Basically such workshops allow the faculty to get new ideas and broaden perspectives, she says while noting how a coming together of many faculties was "pushing boundaries and helping to ask the right questions."

It has been shown in areas as wide as modelling cancer tumours and cardiovascular response to drug toxicity studies that mathematics and its methods can help. Finite element analysis can help aid mammography, especially in early stages. Math models and differential equations can identify safe doses of drugs on an individual level!

But as Prof Vaidya P G, NIAS, says, in India there is a serious shortage of people with competence in biology and mathematics. "There is a big demand and this is going to increase but our mathematicians remain unconnected. Our maths cannot even relate to physics properly. We are at a total loss when it comes to connecting to the real world."

He blames this on the lack of the culture of communication and emphasises on the need for eclectic people without bias towards any subject "which often ends up in a physicist looking at all problems using the tools of physics or the same with a mathematician."

Cross disciplinary collobarations are the norm of science today and India cannot afford to lag behind. The workshop was a definite beginning, according to some of the participants.