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Indian Students: Innovation and Quality of Life Are Still a Draw
India. Specific activities have included public education, antibiotics, and development of a low-cost
vaccine to treat trachoma, an infection spread by hand-to-eye contact; partnering with the Aravind
Eye Hospital Uveitis Clinic in Madurai, South India (founded in 1992 by Proctor researcher Robert
Nozik) to study the formation of cataracts and prevention with antioxidants; and research into
AIDS-related eye infections such as CMV retinitis and their reaction to antiretroviral drugs.
In 2006, UCSF launched a five-year research program with three Indian NGOs to study the correlation
between alcohol abuse and AIDS. The university is also collaborating with UC Davis,
the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, and the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences in a study of stigma and discrimination by gender in the treatment of AIDS. A further
study now underway involves 40 patients and physicians in Bangalore and examines factors
affecting whether patients adhere to antiretroviral AIDS treatment.
The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, also known as QB3, one of the four
California Institutes for Science and Innovation, is a research center housed on the UCSF
campus, that focuses on applications emanating from the fusion of information technology
and biotechnology. In 2007, through the signing a memorandum of understanding with the
Indian government’s Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, and
Science and Engineering Research Council, as well as the autonomous nonprofit Indo-U.S. Science
and Technology Forum, and various research and educational institutions, the University of California
launched the UC-India Initiative to encourage cross-border research collaborations.
QB3 associate executive director Dr. Douglas Crawford accompanied UC president Robert
Dynes on a visit to India in February 2007. His goal was to establish a program of cross-disciplinary
research for developing drugs to treat neglected diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria.
Specifically, he was offering Indian researchers use of QB3’s small molecule discovery center and
seeking partners to develop new compounds and then perform the necessary medicinal chemistry
and pre-clinical development work to begin taking them to market.
Crawford says the QB3 effort has been slow to materialize for several reasons: the university
graduate research infrastructure and linkages with national research laboratories in India are not
fully developed; intellectual property issues within UC and funding concerns on both sides have
delayed agreements; and, at least in the case of a planned collaboration on tuberculosis drug development,
industry partners have emerged as competitors—Indian researchers formed a partnership
with Merck, Serrano instead.
UC Berkeley and IIT-Kharagpur:
In Search of Synergy
While a deeper, comprehensive research partnership between the 10-
campus University of California network and India’s elite schools has
proven elusive in the short term, an important collaboration between
two schools may hold the key to a future model.
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