research

1. Practicals M1U1

2. Elaborate the current status of Ayurveda medicine research
The teacher will discuss a minimum of one major research initiative
like ‘A Science Initiative in Ayurveda’, CSIR-NMITLI Ministry of Ayush
research initiatives in COVID-19, or any other current important
Ayurveda medicine research projects or research projects of other
systems of medicine.
Students can be divided into groups, and each group will be given a
specific assignment, such as the whole system approach or the Black
Box approach, and asked to summarise the impressions
(uniqueness,relevance, importance) about the given research project.
• Brainstorming and group discussions of prospective research topics
of the Ayurveda topics.

4. • A Science Initiative in Ayurveda (ASIIA)” and Ayurvedic Biology.
• “Towards Ayurvedic Biology: A Decadal Vision Document” in 2006
• The Vision Document had identified 5 examples including
concepts, procedures and microstructure from Ayurveda which
would be suitable for studies at the molecular level.
In the first round, the chosen projects included
• The genomic basis of dosha prakriti,
• Effects of Amalaki rasayana on biomarkers in drosophila and rat
brain
• Micro structure of rasa sindura.

5. The research was done in institutions such as
• Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
• Pune University
• Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)
• Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
• Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and
• Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad
• Arya Vaidya Sala Kottakkal (AVS), Kottakkal
• Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions
(FRLHT), Bangalore
• Sinhgad College of Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune
University, Pune.

6. • The study to correlate dosha prakriti with genomic
variations.
• This involved the CCMB; MAHE; Pune University, IISc and
FRLHT.
• The results published in Nature Reports in 2015
• The phenotypic classification of vāta, pitta and kapha has a
genetic basis and the traditional Prakṛiti-based classification
does resonate with personalized medicine.

7. • Genomic Variation Analysis of Human Dosha Prakriti based
on Principles of Ayurveda resulted in identification of 52
genetic markers out of one million SNPs(Single nucleotide
polymorphism) which were sufficient to differentiate the
three dosha prakriti – vata, pitta and kapha – despite their
variations in ethnic, linguistic and geographical backgrounds.
• Principal Component Analysis of the SNPs classified the 262
individuals into the respective vata, pitta and kapha groups
irrespective of their ancestry, which represents its power
in Prakriti classification based on Ayurveda.
• The genomic basis of prakriti is corroborated by another
study which employed DNA methylation as the marker for
differentiating the three prakriti phenotypes

8. • Studies on the biological effects of Amalaki Rasayana (AR)
• Kalluri Subba Rao of Hyderabad
• Neurons and astrocytes in AR – fed rats showed significantly
less DNA damage and AR promoted the maintenance of
genomic stability.
• In parallel studies in drosophila in Banaras, Lakhotia's group
showed that AR enhanced median lifespan, fecundity,
starvation tolerance and other biomarkers.
• They also showed that AR suppressed neuro degeneration in
fly models of Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease.

9. • Rasayana is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda with
promise for improving intellectual and physical capacity;
however, there was no demonstrable evidence in biological
terms to support the claims.
In a series of studies on administering Amalaki Rasayana
to Drosophila melanogaster, formulation-specific effects on
several parameters of the fly's life including
• the size of the salivary glands,
• hnRNP(heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein) levels in
larval tissues,
• thermo-tolerance of larvae/adult flies,
• median life span, starvation tolerance and fecundity in larvae
and adults are reported.

10. • In another study dietary supplement of Amalaki Rasayana
suppressed neuro-degeneration in fly models of
Huntington's and Alzheimer's disorders without side effects.
• Panchakarma treatment in obesity such as basti procedure
was found to be modulating immune responses by
regulating insulin resistance, pro-inflammatory cytokines
and immunoglobulins and functional properties of T-Cells.
• Several concepts like “Bhasma”, Whole system Asthma
treatment, Prakriti and microbiome, stem cells and
Rasayana.

11. CSIR-New Millennium Indian Technology
Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) Program
• The strategy adopted for NMITLI is to obtain an inverse risk-investment profile i.e. low
investment - high-risk technology areas (with global leadership potential) with
investments increasing as developments take place and the projects move up on the
innovation curve with reduction in risks.
• A proactive program - Instead of funding a project based on requests/applications, the
program identifies the areas for development based on national consultation and invites
best partners from institutions, academia and private sector to play a role in the
development;
• Types of Projects: Both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ type of projects are evolved under NMITLI, which
are appropriately named as (i) Nationally Evolved Projects (NEP) and (ii) Industry
Originated Projects (IOP);
• PPP mode - Almost all projects are built in a public-private partnership mode;
• Emphasis on identifying and building the projects - Greater emphasis is laid on
identifying the niche areas and building the projects with the help of best brains in the
country. A specially constituted project wise expert group builds the project by interacting
with a large number of researchers and stake holders with focus on technology
development;

12. • S&T inputs - High quality technical inputs are provided at both project development as
well as at implementation stage;
• Monitoring & review system - A two-tier tight monitoring system is introduced to
ensure realization of the objectives and deliverables. At the first level is an internal
Steering Committee comprising PIs (meets once in 3 months) and at the second level an
external independent Monitoring Committee comprising recognized peers (meets at
least once in six months). The later committee is entrusted with the responsibilities to
recommend: (i) foreclosure or modification of the project or sub component; (ii) inclusion
of additional institutional / industrial partners wherever necessary; and (iii) revising the
funding support to any / or all implementing partners;
• IP mapping - The program provides for continuous mapping of the IP scenario for each
project and in licensing of IP with a view to building of a portfolio and achieving the
leadership position;
• Foreclosure of projects - the program also provides for foreclosure of the non-
performing or non-achievable project components; and
• Financial support – An innovative feature of the program is that it provides financial
support to all players in the project. The support is in the form of grant-in-aid to the
institutional partners in public domain and as a soft loan (@3% interest) to the industrial
partners.