How Indian engineering colleges are revamping medical R&D with new-age tech

Using tools such as AI, ML, data science and 3D printing, they are making breakthroughs in fields such as oncology, neurology, liver disease and premature deliveries

Sometime in May 2021, IIT Madras announced the development, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of human brain tissues called ‘organoids’ with the help of a 3D-printed bioreactor. The aim of the project was to observe these tissues as they grow in vitro, and develop a technology to potentially accelerate therapeutic discoveries for diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Explaining the technology, Ikram Khan SI, IIT Madras Alumnus and CEO of ISMO Bio-Photonics, an IIT Madras-incubated startup, told Business Standard that the invention eliminates the need to physically transfer cells from the incubation