The Indian Institute of Technology Madras located in Chennai, India has developed Asia’s first ‘life-saving’ implant called SynkroScaff — A tissue engineered bovine pericardial patch — for critical cardiovascular patients. A Chennai-based firm, SynkroMax Biotech, has been appointed as the commercial partner. C.V. Seshadri, managing director of Synkromax Biotech said, “This sack is harvested and processed with biomaterial for ten days followed by quality control parameters to ensure it is microbial free.”
The pericardial patch (sack of buffalo’s heart) has inherent properties of regeneration and integration in the body, and its medical application is based on innovator Guhathakurta’s doctoral research in the institute in 2004, under the guidance of Venkatesh Balasubramanian, professor, Department of Engineering Design. Guhathakurta says, “Its applications are immense in cardiovascular and other surgical practices. So far, 800 patches have been manufactured and over 12 surgeons are using them across India. The feedback from doctors and patients has been encouraging, with a 100 percent success rate,” she said, adding that the product is manufactured in a facility complying with drug applications and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) guidelines, reports the New Indian Express.
Guhathakurta said, “After 30 years of being a practicing clinician and surgeon, I completely transitioned into a researcher after starting my PhD.” She is currently pursuing work on developing other tissue- engineered products and regenerative medicine using stem- cell technology.
