HCL Tech and IIT Delhi to work on new drugs

Chennai: Software services company HCL Technologies Ltd and the Supercomputing Facility for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly work on high end projects in the area of drug discovery and development including genomics and proteomics.

The life sciences practice at HCL Technologies provides solutions in areas like pharmacogenomics, medical devices and diagnostics, contract manufacturing and hospital information systems.

On the other hand IIT-Delhi's Supercomputing Facility for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology is developing novel scientific methods and new software for genome analysis, protein structure prediction and active site-directed drug design.

According to its project scientist and system administrator, Pankaj Sharma, "The MoU will bridge the gap between industry know-how and academia."

HCL Technologies has setup India's first network dedicated to Bioinformatics research centre - Biogrid. Currently 12 research institutes are using this network to collaborate on research projects. This network would help the scientists and students across the country to access supercomputing resources from any of these centres. Some of the centres that are linked to Biogrid are Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, University of Pune, IIT Delhi, University of Delhi South Campus, Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.