The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Course in stem cell technology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Course in stem cell technology

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Representatives of the University of Madras and International Centre for Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Diseases, a unit of Frontier Lifeline hospital, signed an agreement on Monday.

The memorandum of understanding is to facilitate a course in Stem Cell Technology, which will be offered by the Zoology department of the University and the Centre from the academic year commencing this June.

Course details

The postgraduate diploma course will be covered in one-and-a-half-years at the Guindy campus of the University. It will be followed by hands-on training at the International Centre for Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Diseases for six months.

Speaking to presspersons on the occasion, Dr. K.M. Cherian, founder, Frontier Lifeline Hospital, said there were three major revolutions in the field of medicine. The first, when it was found that Cholera spread through water, the second, when anaesthesia was introduced and the third, during the decoding of the human genome.

"Now, stem cell and tissue engineering are gaining a lot of importance in the everyday practice of medicine," he said. Among the first few hospitals to take up research in stem cell technology and tissue engineering, the hospital used the technology to treat 20 patients with cardiac diseases, he added.

Dr. Sara Bharathi, director, research, training and applications, Frontier Lifeline, said knowledge about stem cell technology was growing by leaps and bounds.

The course would equip students to start their research centres, she added.

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