Tata Trusts partners with University of California San Diego

To establish Tata Institute for Active Genetics and Society

The University of California San Diego announced its collaboration with India-based philanthropic organisation Tata Trusts, which includes the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust, to establish the Tata Institute for Active Genetics and Society (TIAGS), a partnership between the university and research operations in India. A complementary unit will support a collaborative research enterprise in India (TIAGS-India). The goal of the institute is to push the boundaries of bioscience in support of human needs and society, and to build scientific capacity in India. The institute will specifically advance global science and technology research to ultimately find solutions to address some of the world’s most pressing issues, ranging from health care to agriculture.

Pradeep K Khosla, Chancellor, UC San Diego, “This international collaboration to establish the Tata Institute for Active Genetics and Society will spark new scientific research and discoveries that will ultimately help us tackle some of the biggest challenges that face humankind in a socially conscious and ethical manner.”

UC San Diego, which is ranked among the top 15 universities in the world, will match the gift to create 10 endowed chairs, designed to attract and retain top scientists and faculty focused on research that aligns with the Institute’s goals.

“UC San Diego’s mission to advance society and drive economic impact aligns with our goals, as a country, to build a skilled scientific workforce and to grow the impact and scope of our research enterprise,” said Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts. “Together, we will promote bioscience research, discoveries and education that will benefit populations around the globe.”

The initiative’s inaugural basic research enterprise — a thrust in Active Genetics — will be focused on applications of ‘active genetics’ to improve human health and agriculture. Developed at UC San Diego, active genetics is a new field of genetics that incorporates a novel method, called ‘gene drive,’ for generating mutations in both copies of a gene in a single generation. Research efforts spearheaded by the Tata Institute for Active Genetics and Society will require and foster partnerships with scientific colleagues and government agencies in both India and the US.

“Recent discoveries in genetics have created a new understanding of genes—not only just what they are or how they work, but also how they change or can be altered,” said Ethan Bier, Professor of Biology at UC San Diego and Paul Allen Foundation Distinguished Investigator, who has pioneered the field of active genetics with UC San Diego postdoctoral fellow, Valentino Gantz.

One of the objectives of the Institute’s research efforts will be to develop strains of mosquitoes that are unable to propagate malarial parasites, Bier said. This effort, currently underway in collaboration with Anthony James, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California Irvine, could lead to the development of an effective way to combat vector-borne diseases, including malaria, a debilitating disease that afflicts hundreds of millions of people in tropical regions around the world. The researchers at UC San Diego and its partner institute in India also plan to apply active genetic technology to improve crops, enable new forms of cell therapy and develop ways to control microbial pathogens.

In addition to a thrust in Active Genetics, the Institute will also include a parallel thrust in Society and Ethics, which will leverage UC San Diego’s expertise in health, policy and economics, and ethics, and link Indian experts with larger research and education initiatives to effect societal progress. An important goal of this thrust will be to provide ethical guidance for the research activities in bioscience and the application of new technologies developed from the research in efforts to improve human health, agriculture and the environment. That will involve bringing researchers in India together with scholars from UC San Diego in the humanities and social sciences, such as Anita Raj, who directs the UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health; Karthik Muralidharan, a development economist whose research areas include education, health, social protection, programme evaluation and service delivery; and Craig Callender, whose work focuses on environmental ethics.

Leveraging cross-national, joint training opportunities to prepare future generations of scientific leaders in biotechnology and life sciences, the innovative binational structure of the Tata Institute for Active Genetics and Society will streamline the building of scientific capacity and transfer of knowledge and technology to India. It will also serve to advance the biotechnology sector in India and establish a model for other global scientific endeavours.

Suresh Subramani, Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego, will be the inaugural director.

The institute will also host annual opportunities to meet and discuss ground-breaking genetics technologies, as well as to address safety, efficiency and ethics conversations around emerging fields of genetics. Annual symposia are planned in India to consider discoveries, opportunities and challenges for the future.

EH News Bureau