The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad has announced a partnership with Bengaluru based Eyestem Research targeted towards testing potential COVID-19 drugs in vitro and developing vaccine strategies.
As per the agreement, CCMB will use Eyestem’s human lung epithelial cell culture system, provided as part of its Anti-COVID screening (ACS) platform, to understand the molecular and pathological characteristics of the COVID-19 virus with a view to establishing a rational basis for testing potential drugs in vitro.
Dr Rakesh Mishra, director CCMB, said, “Culturing the virus outside the human host is a technological challenge that needs to be overcome. Eyestem’s cell culture system expresses the ACE2 receptor and other genes that are key determinants of viral entry and replication. We hope that employing this system will allow the CCMB team led by Dr Krishnan Harshan to grow the virus predictably and thereby open up the potential for drug screening and vaccine development strategies”
Dr Jogin Desai, CEO of Eyestem, a private firm, said, “The ACS platform is developed by Dr Rajarshi Pal and his team and is a testament to our depth and expertise in cell therapy and disease modelling. We are hopeful that CCMB will be able to leverage this platform and advance COVID research that will help humankind.”
CCMB is a premier autonomous laboratory under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. CCMB is the first academic laboratory outside ICMR to initiate COVID-19 testing and kit validation. CCMB has also initiated a variety of new research projects on SARS-CoV2, a press release said.
Eyestem Research Private Limited is a cell therapy start-up incubated at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, Bengaluru, with a vision is to democratise access to cell therapy as well as disease modeling platforms and bring their benefit to a large section of humanity.”
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