Hyderabad: exRNA Therapeutics to collaborate with UoH for research

Hyderabad: exRNA Therapeutics Ltd, a start-up company incubating at ASPIRE BioNEST, has signed agreements on June 3 with two faculty members of School of Life Sciences at University of Hyderabad (UoH), for joint collaborative research.

exRNA Therapeutics is working on development of novel therapeutic agents to treat communicable and non-communicable diseases. Prof. Sharmishta Banerjee and Prof. Nooruddin Khan are the faculty participating in this scientific investigation. They would be screening and validating novel molecules developed by exRNA Therapeutics, either alone or in combination, to improve treatments for different viral and bacterial infections. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. BJ Rao, Vice-Chancellor of UoH, and chairman, Board of Directors of ASPIRE, a section 8 company that nurtures innovation and entrepreneurship on the campus, says, "The UoH and ASPIRE have become the role model and is being replicated in many educational institutions. Having a supportive and nurturing innovation ecosystem in an academic institution is highly advantageous, not only for the institute, but also for students and faculty. This favours the translation of academic research outcome into technologies and products. With its excellent inclusive ambience, ASPIRE at UoH has become a favoured destination for science-based deep-tech start-ups".

Prof. Rajagopal, director & coordinator of ASPIRE and ASPIRE BioNEST, and professor at School of Life sciences, said, "The Academia - Industry collaborations are favoured on the UoH campus as both, academic excellence and a well-recognised start-up ecosystem coexist. ASPIRE BioNEST encourages all its start-ups to collaborate with the faculty of the university as their experience in basic and applied sciences will help the start-ups to take their technologies faster to the market. ASPIRE BioNEST has a comprehensive research instrumentation that supports complete upstream and downstream process development for biotech products. Incubating start-ups also get access to the widest range of latest facilities available at the university".

Prof. GS Prasad, Director of R&D, UoH, and also a director of ASPIRE, says, "ASPIRE at UoH is the largest incubation ecosystem to support science-based start-ups in Hyderabad. ASPIRE supports start-ups arising from life sciences, pharma, chemistry, IT & electronics through its incubation centers, ASPIRE BioNEST, ASPIRE-TBI and ASPIRE TIDE, respectively. Currently ASPIRE activities spread over 53.000 SQ FT and is planning for further expansion. All the three incubation centers together supported nearly 80 start-ups, of which 30 have been successfully graduated and are currently functioning with full occupancy".

Vinay Tiwary, CMD of exRNA Therapeutics, expressed his happiness and said, "Being incubated at ASPIRE BioNEST is always advantageous for life sciences start-ups, not only as a great facility, but also as a great facilitator; involving renowned UoH faculty, connecting with industry leaders & mentors, conducting awareness and training programmes, providing access to widest range of facilities.

This is the place where initial stage start-ups can quickly develop their ideas into technologies". The agreements were signed by Prof. Prasad on behalf of the participating faculty and Vinay Tiwary and exchanged in the presence of Prof. Rao, Dr. Devesh Nigam, Registrar of UoH, accompanied by Prof. Rajagopal, and Dr. Anil Kondreddy, the COO of ASPIRE BioNEST.