Chennai, March 24 (IANS) Lifeline Hospitals and Cellworks Research India Ltd, the research and development wing of California-based Cellworks Group Inc, have announced a year’s collaboration for cancer research. The collaborative research will study the role of tumour stem cells in cancer pathology and the disease.

This collaboration will test the possibility of using biochemical markers to identify disease progress and a patient’s particular type of cell, so that specific solutions for personalised medicine can be created.

This research project will be based on Cellworks proprietary tumour cell platform, which is multi-drug resistance technology.

The technology enables inclusion of the drug-resistance factors in the drug discovery process.

It reduces issues of drug resistance that may show up at clinical trials stages. Also various cancer types are comprehensively included in this technology platform.

“Lifeline Hospitals is pioneering clinical trials using cell-based therapies. One significant need for us is to offer differentiated solutions in the area of cancer cure”, J.S. Rajkumar, chairman of the Lifeline group said here.

“We need to gain deep knowledge of the sequential cellular level events which take place during cancer,” he said.

“We are partnering with Cellworks Group to better understand the details of the cellular bio-chemical pathways and proteins involved in the process that differentiates cancer cells from normal cells,” Rajkumar added.

“I am very excited with the potential of this partnership”, said Taher Abbasi, CEO of Cellworks.

“Molecular bio-markers identification is fundamental for understanding the progress of cancer and for treatment solutions for maximum efficacy and minimum drug resistance”, he added.

• Rajkumar