Antony- Xavier Interdisciplinary Scholastics (AXIS)

A joint research initiative between NCRM and GN Corporation, Japan

Exploring the intricacies of physio-chemical-biological interactions to understand and gain an in-depth knowledge to develop novel solutions and technologies in healthcare and allied domains is the main objective of this initiative. The foundation of this work had started in the 1980s in different places of Japan by scientists viz., Prof Noboru Fujii, an agrobiologist who undertook research on a poly-thermo tolerant Black-yeast Aureobasidium Pullulans secreted - exo-polysaccharide, beta glucan Prof. Yuichi Mori and Dr. Hiroshi Yoshioka on creating chemically reproducible environments for in vitro culture of animal and plant cells and Prof. Kazutoshi Haraguchi trying to understand immune reaction of mammalian body to develop non-biodegradable non-antigenic and non-immunogenic surface coatings for medical devices to make them bio-inert.

Later between the dusk of the last century in 1990s to the dawn of the 21st , the Indo-Japan team under Nichi-in Consortium apart from conceptualizing Metaniche brought to a translational possibility that human corneal donor limbal stem cells could be cultured without feeder layers or human amniotic membrane. heralded the birth of several application potentials of the chemical-biological hybrid coalition in regenerative medicine, that further extended to cell therapies in the field of orthopaedics to address cartilage damage and in urology to solve urethral stricture coordinated by MYTH The summit of these developments to connect to physical forces of microgravity in enhancing the function of immune cells lead to a quest of more such physical forces and one such was the cryopreservation of cells. These developments lead to a collaboration based on a synergy amongst NCRM in stem cell biology and Loyola-ICAM College of Engineering technology (LICET) with cryogenics as their strength, an institute founded by Fr Francis P. Xavier, pivoted to bring under ‘AXIS’ umbrella, all the physio-chemical biological interactions related research.

The collaboration with LICET was started in 2012 with an eminent physicist Fr. Francis P. Xavier and a community health care provider Fr. Antony Raj, both as members of Society of Jesus, had completed their doctorates in Boston College and Loyola University, Chicago, USA respectively with their contemporaries from Jesuits institutes world over including that from Sophia university, Tokyo Japan. Late Fr Antony Raj, was always concerned that novel healthcare solutions should be developed, keeping in mind the socio-economically under privileged people. He after returning from USA started the Ceyrac Medical Foundation – community hospital, while Fr. Francis P. Xavier,founded LICET, Loyola Institute of Frontier Energy LIFE connected the NCRM with faculty from Boston College, Georgetown University and the management of Jesuits Worldwide Learning

The Inter-Disciplinary Conclave of NCRM NICHE in 2017 had Fr. Francis P. Xavier, deliver the key note lecture on “Physics & Chemistry in unravelling the Mysteries of Biology” with Fr. Peter Balleis connecting the global audience who had gathered in Tokyo to their work of social contribution among marginalized, which followed the XI Anniversary of NCRM in 2016 being hosted in LICET in which, Molecular Imprinted Polymers for antimicrobial resistance was a major theme.

These exchange events lead to a collaboration among Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan and LICET in 2019 and and a team of exchange students from Loyola campus institutes from Chennai visited Japan for an international problem based learning (PBL) event

AXIS, as an international collaborative research initiative between NCRM and GNC will continue to explore opportunities to understand science, find novel value adding technologies to improvise existing solution or discover new solutions in healthcare and its allied domains

References:

1. Ikewaki N, Fujii N, Onaka T, Ikewaki S, Inoko H. Immunological actions of Sophy beta-glucan (beta-1,3-1,6 glucan), currently available commercially as a health food supplement. Microbiol Immunol. 2007;51(9):861-73.
2. Yoshioka et al. Thermoreversible gelation on cooling and on heating of an aqueous gelatin–poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) conjugate. Advanced polymer technologies
3. Varade D, Haraguchi K. Synthesis of highly active and thermally stable nanostructured Pt/clay materials by clay-mediated in situ reduction. Langmuir. 2013 Feb 12;29(6):1977-84.
4. Sudha B, Madhavan HN, Sitalakshmi G, Malathi J, Krishnakumar S, Mori Y, Yoshioka H, Abraham S. Cultivation of human corneal limbal stem cells in Mebiol gel--A thermo-reversible gelation polymer. Indian J Med Res. 2006 Dec;124(6):655-64.
5. Katoh S, Yoshioka H, Senthilkumar R, Preethy S, Abraham SJK. Enhanced expression of hyaluronic acid in osteoarthritis-affected knee-cartilage chondrocytes during three-dimensional in vitro culture in a hyaluronic-acid-retaining polymer scaffold. Knee. 2021 Mar;29:365-373.
6. Vaddi SP, Reddy VB, Abraham SJ. Buccal epithelium Expanded and Encapsulated in Scaffold-Hybrid Approach to Urethral Stricture (BEES-HAUS) procedure: A novel cell therapy-based pilot study. Int J Urol. 2019 Feb;26(2):253-257.
7. Manjunath S, Chatterjee S, Majumder S, Srinivasan V, Murugan P, Thamaraikannan P, Tholcopiyan L, Abraham S. Isolation and Culture of Human Microvascular endothelium for comparison of the morphological and molecular characteristics of Microvascular endothelial cells under normal gravity against simulated micro gravity. J Stem Cells Regen Med. 2010 Oct 30;6(3):173-4.
8. Dedeepiya V, John S, Abraham S. The Gravity of Regenerative Medicine; Physics, Chemistry & Biology behind it. J Stem Cells Regen Med. 2008 Nov 14;4(1):22-3.