Updates:

  • Change in venue: Summit now being held at Prof. B. Nag Auditorium, Ground floor, Victor Menezes Convention Centre, IIT Bombay

  • Registrations are now closed! We thank you all for the interest.

Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering, IIT Bombay is organizing a one-day, in-person summit on 'Low cost diagnostics for affordable healthcare' on 3rd June 2022 (Friday). Convener of the event is Prof Siddharth Tallur (Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering; Faculty-in-charge, Wadhwani Electronics Lab (WEL)).

The goal of the event is to brainstorm with different stakeholders involved in the development of low-cost diagnostic solutions. We aim to connect academics, industry personnel, start-ups, and non-profit organisations with the IIT Bombay's bioengineering ecosystem. The event will involve a few short talks, dedicated networking and brainstorming sessions, and a panel discussion.

Keynote talk will be delivered by Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty, Senior Scientist, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology

The event program can be accessed here.

Topic for Panel Discussion:

'Bottlenecks and potential solutions to translational innovation in low cost diagnostics'

Panel will be represented by not-for-profit foundations that work closely at the grassroot levels, venture capital firms that invest in deep tech, startups working on low cost diagnostics, industry, etc. Panel moderator is Dr Abdur Rub, CEO, WRCB.

Poster Presentation:

Posters related to the event theme are being presented by Students and PIs on the day of the event.

Submission are now closed.

Best poster award will be announced at the end of the event.

Important Dates:

17th May 2022

Deadline (extended): Abstract Submission for Poster Presentation

20th May 2022

Notification of acceptance of submitted abstract

30th May 2022

Submission of final posters for printing

31st May 2022

Deadline: Registration for the event

3rd June 2022

Event day

Location:

Lecture Hall 21, Second floor, Victor Menezes Convention Centre (VMCC), IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai

Contact:

Phone: +91 (22) 2576 5502

Email: office.wrcb@iitb.ac.in; devanshi@iitb.ac.in


Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering (WRCB) was set up to be a world-class translational research centre in bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB). WRCB supports faculty members across various departments of IITB in undertaking breakthrough interdisciplinary translational research. The projects carried out by the faculty members associated with WRCB have resulted in several patents and spin-off companies in diverse areas ranging from diagnostics to drug discovery.

Currently in its 7th year, the centre was established through a generous donation by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani - a successful serial entrepreneur and a signatory to the ‘giving pledge’. Dr. Wadhwani envisioned WRCB as a catalyst to enable India to be at the forefront of the bioengineering industry. WRCB’s focus areas include medical devices, diagnostics, drug discovery, drug delivery, biomaterials, biomanufacturing, synthetic biology, and other associated areas of bioengineering.

WRCB supports faculty members in IITB in multiple ways. The centre provides direct funding support for research projects with commercialization potential. It also helps faculty members identify external public and private funding opportunities, and assists them in preparing grant proposals. When these projects reach technological maturity, WRCB provides further catalyst funding for commercialization and assists in raising additional funds through angel investors and VCs. In addition, faculty members are actively matched with potential industry partners for research collaborations and consultations. Further commercialization support such as market assessment, IP-related, legal aspects, and other supporting services are provided through WRCB’s extended network of expert consultants.

Since its founding, WRCB has undertaken 666+ research projects creating an active pipeline of potential products and technologies. These projects have resulted in 63 publications, 12 patent applications, 3 recent entrepreneurial ventures, several IPs and industry collaborations. Recent spin-offs from WRCB include ImmunoACT- a CAR-T cell therapy company, Clarity Biosystems – a company specializing in a highly accurate new-born screening platform, and Algorithmic Biologics, whose technology greatly simplifies large scale pooled molecular testing which is useful in situations such as the covid pandemic and other applications that warrant large numbers of samples to be tested. In addition to these recent spin-offs, the centre has an active year-to-year commercialization pipeline.