University of Hyderabad's start-up selected for COVID-19 research funding by BIRAC

OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd, a start-up incubated at ASPIRE-BioNest, University of Hyderabad (UoH), has been selected for financial support for developing an in vitro lung organoid model by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

According to an official statement of the University of Hyderabad, the BIRAC under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) announced funding support to 16 projects out of the 500 proposals received for the Covid-19 research consortium. OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd. is one of them.

The Founder CEO of OncoSeek Bio Pvt Ltd, Dr Suresh Poosala informed that "Current mal models available for research on COVID-19 are either difficult to get into India or create them in time, to address the pandemic. The company envisages creating novel in vitro platforms for COVID-19 research under the support."

"Under the COVID-19 grant received from BIRAC/DBT, they plan to expand the team and enhance the scope of current in vitro platforms to a different state-of-the-art research level. Under this grant proposal, the company plans to use their novel platform to screen drugs/peptides/molecules/agents/compounds targeted against the virus or the host cell. It plans to create this capability in the next 6 months," reads the university statement.

ASPIRE - Association for Scientific Pursuits in Innovative Research Enterprises is a not-for-profit orgzation that manages the innovation and entrepreneurial activities at the University of Hyderabad through incubation of startup compes in various disciplines of science and technology.

BioNEST at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a life sciences incubator with 20000 sft, set-up with the support of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Government of India Enterprise under Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology. It provides a plug-and-play life science ecosystem of incubation.

( With inputs from ANI )