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I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion on “Start Up and Entrepreneurship in Life Sciences : Challenges and Way Forward”. Our panel consisted of two academics : Dr. Suman Kapoor of BITS Pilani Hyd who has brought out a device to determine TB infection much faster, and Dr. Madhusudhan of CCMB who is currently spearheading CCMB as an incubator for Life Sciences industry. Dr. Balaji Bhyravbhatla of Hylasco, a serial entrepreneur, Dr. Swaroop Vakkalanka of Incozen with several licensing deals under his belt, and myself as a co-founder of Sapien Biosciences represented LS Industry.
Each panelist spoke from their experience and shared some of their advice such as getting sufficient experience in one’s field before embarking on entrepreneurship, assessing your market often to manage risk, knowing your investor as well as your competitors, maintaining a diary of ideas and vetting them with experienced people, not being too possessive of one’s ideas, being willing to back out if timing is not right, forming teams of 3-4 people where 1 member is not a scientist etc.
There were many questions from the audience which made for a lively interaction.
Key action items that emerged from the panel were to
a) Form a LS group and hold a monthly networking meeting rotating at different forums several of which were offered immediately – CCMB, BITS campus, NIPER, Madhapur. A WA group will be created soon.
b) Create a comprehensive directory of LS companies in Hyd area
I noted that I knew all the panelists! This used to be common in LS meetings at TiE-Boston but it was nice that it finally happened in Hyderabad, a city I moved to 5 years ago.
In picture from L to R: Mr S Reddy (Registrar NIPER), Dr. S Nanduri (Professor, NIPER), Dr. J Jain (CEO, Sapien), Dr. S Vakkalanka (CEO, Incozen), Dr S Kapoor (Professor BIT Pilani Hyd), Dr. B Bhyravbhatla (CEO, Hylasco), Dr. Madhusudhan (Professor, CCMB).
]]>We offer 2 to 12 month research internships for bright diligent motivated graduate students in Biology, Biotech, Pharmacy, Bioinformatics, Health data analytics etc. The internships can be hands-on lab experience (molecular biology, cell biology, diagnostics, FACS etc.), or in medical data analysis, sample and clinical data organization in EMR/EHR databases. Specific clinically-relevant projects focused on patient treatment paradigms e.g., breast cancer, stent procedures drugs and outcomes, cost-benefit analysis of targeted drugs are also available.
Lab-based training is available at Hyderabad, whilst data and project-based training is available at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and other metro locations where Apollo Hospitals are present.
Appropriate ethical approval for projects involving handling of patient material or data is always taken. Students are trained in confidentiality and safety norms.
In addition to a certificate of internship and thesis, students are encouraged to present their findings in conferences. Longer-term interns that make significant contribution to projects may also be acknowledged in presentations and publications from our group. Mentoring of students aspiring for MS/PhD abroad is done on a case-by-case basis.
]]>Jeffrey A. Larson, MD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and colleagues identified 975 patients with T1a N0M0 RCC treated with robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy.
The clinical tumor size was 2.84 cm in patients with high-grade pathology and 2.56 cm in patients with low-grade pathology, a size difference that was statistically significant, the researchers reported.
In multivariate analysis, larger tumor size was associated with a significant 62% increased odds of high-grade pathology.
The study also found that male patients had a significant 66% increased odds of high-grade pathology compared with female patients and papillary RCC was associated with a significant 73% increased odds of high-grade pathology compared with clear-cell RCC.
The authors noted that, with an increased focus on the use of renal mass biopsies and surveillance of small renal masses (SRMs), the confirmation of the size to grade correlation of pT1a RCC allows urologists to predict more accurately which SRMs are appropriate to treat and which might be safely surveyed.
Source: http://www.renalandurologynews.com/aua-2015-other-genitourinary-cancers/larger-rcc-tumors-predict-high-grade-pathology/article/415171/
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