MIT boost for Indian cancer research

Updated on: Thursday, May 13, 2010

Cancer is the leading cause of death in the world - a global challenge that calls for a global response. In India, about a million new cases are diagnosed every year, and that number is projected to triple in the next 20 years. Efforts are now under way in India to make cancer research a priority - an endeavour that is getting a boost from a new program at MIT’s David H Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

This new programme, a high-impact bilateral collaboration with India focusing on cancer research training as its cornerstone,funded by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, will bring Indian scientists to MIT to train for two years. Those researchers will then return to India tocontinue their research and share the benefit of their MIT training with their Indian host institution

“As an entrepreneur whose company is pursuing cancer research, I am acutely aware of the need to augment cancer research in the country at a basic scientific level,” said Mazumdar-Shaw. “If we are to develop new onco-therapies for Indian patients, we must create a strong research ethos amongst the medical and scientific communities engaged in the area of cancer.”

This fellowship programme offers opportunities for postdoctoral scientists, engineers, and physicians to undertake cancer research at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, working at the interfaces between biology/medicine and the diverse fields of mathematics, engineering, computer science, and the physical and chemical sciences.

The Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellows Program provides funding for:

A two year full-time postdoctoral research fellowship within the Koch Institute at MIT
Travel expenses to India for the researcher and a Koch Institute faculty advisor to share their research with colleagues at the Fellow’s Indian host institution as well as other peer institutions in India.

The fellowship is awarded with the firm expectation that the Fellows will continue their research in India for a third year for which funding will need to be secured from the host institution. Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology

Fellows will have extensive opportunities for substantive engagement with the KI research community, the larger Boston-area research community and other postdoctoral researchers at MIT.
: India’s successful biotech entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who recently made it to the 2010 Times 100 list, has funded a new fellowship on cancer research in India at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A Koch Institute Partnership for catalytic cancer research at MIT, this programme is to help raise a new generation of cancer researchers in India whose careers and professional networks will increase globally. The broader mission is to build India’s position as an intellectual hub for oncology research from which significant advances are expected to emerge.

MIT boost for Indian cancer research

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