Ohio State faculty from the Colleges of Medicine and Engineering met with representatives from Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) to discuss potential collaborations between the state-of-the-art translational research and entrepreneurship center and the university. The meeting was facilitated by the India Gateway and Jitendra Kumar, an Ohio State Fisher College of Business alumnus who currently serves as the managing director of the BBC.

College of Medicine faculty Abhay Satoskar, Purnima Dubey, Balada Llasat and Namal Liyanage joined College of Engineering faculty Shaurya Prakash and Vish Subramaniam for the exchange of ideas between the institutions. The Office of International Affairs was represented by Padmini Roy-Dixon, executive director, Global Gateways and Partnerships, and Nikhil Tambe, director, India Gateway. Two senior BBC officials joined Kumar for the brainstorming meeting.

Jitendra Kumar is managing director of the Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC)

Notable collaborations identified include the possibility of mentoring start-ups with their ongoing research and also helping scale up and commercialize a technology. Participants agreed that an exchange program coupled with online training modules could benefit incubates. The potential of joint grant applications and an exchange of doctoral students was appreciated by Ohio State faculty.  

The government of India encourages overseas engagements and is prepared to provide funding to support such partnerships. The Ohio State faculty members were interested to learn about several collaboration opportunities like Joint Online Program, Joint PhD Program, Joint mentorship, joint grant application, Exchange Program for Start-ups and more. Further discussions are in progress to implement this first of its kind collaboration between a center in India and the university.

Catering to the needs of start-ups in life science, the BBC is a joint initiative of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka. The BBC also works closely with Karnataka Innovation & Technology Society (KITS), a nodal center for implementing plans.

Please contact Vishwajeet Phopale, business development specialist at the India Gateway, for further details.

Ohio State’s Global Gateways facilitate the university's global reach in China, India and Brazil. Learn more at oia.osu.edu/global-gateways.