iCeMS co-hosts a symposium with India’s Bangalore Life Science Cluster

Symposium participants: At far right on the first row is Kitagawa, center-left is Mayor, and between them is Sarin.

On January 23–24, iCeMS co-hosted a symposium with Bangalore Life Science Cluster (BLiSc) in India. A capacity audience, including BLiSc researchers and students, gathered at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).

At the opening of the symposium, NCBS/inStem Director Satyajit Mayor and iCeMS Director Susumu Kitagawa gave explanations on BLiSc and iCeMS, and the collaborative relationship between them.

Besides Kitagawa, seven researchers including Prof Jun Suzuki—who newly joined iCeMS this January—delivered presentations on their research. Also from BLiSc, that comprises of India’s National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), NCBS/inStem Director Mayor, inStem Dean Apurva Sarin and C-CAMP Director Taslimarif Saiyed joined the symposium. Sixteen researchers gave speeches at the symposium including researchers from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune), and every speech was followed by vibrant discussions.

During the networking break between sessions, Kitagawa gave a guidance on collaborative research, and the participants exchanged ideas on how they can increase their chances of collaborations. The researchers then freely discussed possible collaboration, and some iCeMS researchers actually decided to conduct projects together with researchers from Indian institutes.

“The symposium was highly meaningful because it raised hopes so much for more Japan-India research exchanges” commented Kitagawa.