Eight teams of scientists from India and US selected for pursuing research on COVID-19

Eight bi-national teams of researchers from India and US have been selected for pursuing cutting-edge research in pathogenesis and disease manment of COVID-19, according to an official statement on Tuesday.

teams will pursue research in areas such as antiviral coatings, immune modulation, tracking SARS CoV-2 in wastewater, disease detection mechanisms, reverse genetics strategies and drug repurposing.

research awards were anunced by Indo-US Science and Techlogy Forum (IUSSTF), an automous bilateral organisation jointly funded by governments of India and US, which promotes science, techlogy, engineering and invation through substantive interaction among government, academia and industry.

Department of Science and Techlogy (DST) under Ministry of Science and Techlogy, and US Department of States are respective dal departments.

mission of Indo-US Science and Techlogy Forum is to act as a catalyst to promote long-term scientific collaborations between India and United States through partnerships amongst individual scientists, scientific institutions, and scientific community at large, DST statement said.

" eight teams are among best few who had submitted proposals in response to an invitation of proposals to harness combined expertise of Indian and US Science & Techlogy communities, facilitate partnerships between teams of Indian and US scientists and engineers currently engd in COVID-related research, and lever existing infrastructure from both countries to furr advance research and accelerate progress," statement said.

Ashutosh Sharma, DST Secretary and IUSSTF India Co-Chair, said an overwhelming response in a short time to special call on COVID-19 demonstrates a wide spectrum of cooperation between India and US from basic studies on behaviour of SARS-Cov-2 virus to its transmission to diagstics and rapeutic approaches.

"Our existing strong cooperation in S&T on health, energy, artificial intelligence and so on also continues to bring value and attests to importance of Indo-US collaborations in providing compelling solutions," Sharma said.

Jonathan Margolis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, and Health, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, US Department of State, and IUSSTF US Co-Chair, said United States and India were able to quickly mobilise, through IUSSTF, to support jointly developed invations to fight COVID-19.

"Our people and ecomies both rely on science and techlogy to identify tools to address pressing challenges of current pandemic,” statement quoting Margolis said. 

Im credits: PTI