 Life sciences has seen tremendous progress over the past decade due to advances in technology and greater understanding of biological processes. However, there is still a need for innovation in order to further improve our understanding of life sciences and provide solutions. To formulate new approaches and develop new biological materials, devices and diagnostic tools, there is an ongoing effort being made by biotechnology professionals. Today, we are going to meet one such person who is actively involved in promoting innovation in life sciences and healthcare by supporting translation of discoveries to application, entrepreneurship and technology development. The CEO and Director of C-Camp, Dr. Tasleem R.F. Syed. So, we have with us today Dr. Tasleem R.F. Syed, Director and CEO of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms. Welcome, Dr. Syed. Let's get to know a little more about you to begin with. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm delighted to join today. I'm a neuroscientist by training and I am intensely interested in terms of taking science and scientific impact to the next level. Excitement is to look at science's potential in terms of solving the problems in the society and how one can take it forward. See, what I can see here is it's more of an innovation ecosystem rather than just being an incubation center. So, I mean, what are the aims and objectives or an idea behind C-Camp? Correct. So, C-Camp was established in 2009-10 and the idea at that time was to set up as an enabler, as a catalyst organization, you know, a catalyst or enabling organization which can accelerate the scientific advancements as well as innovation advancement in the field of life sciences. It's clearly an enabler. It's clearly an ecosystem. It is more or less at the interface of academia and industry. So, it is very nicely positioned to take the scientific advancement to the next level as an innovation enabler. What are the ways in which C-Camp is fostering this, you know, change or change the mindset or I would say change in the ecosystem or the landscape of innovation and the startup culture? Correct. So, I think definitely in India with years of investment in science and technology, there has been significant capabilities and expertise in early stage of scientific knowledge generation. It comes from academia. And there also have been many industries which are doing very, very well. But, however, there hasn't been amazing segues and pathways that lead the scientific knowledge generation from academia seamlessly to industry or towards the innovation which can solve the real problems on the ground. So, what do you think was lacking or was not there? In a way, the right interface was lacking. An interface which allows people to come together which is not taken away by either academia or not by industry. An interface where both of them feel that it's of their own. Come together for the excitement of science and then take it forward. And that was much needed. And how did C-Camp achieve that? Absolutely. It began with positioning C-Camp as an interface between the two and C-Camp achieved it possibly by being very passionate about the objectives of C-Camp that is, you know, moving the scientific advancement to the next level, you know, taking the scientific knowledge to the next level, constantly talking to academia and helping them to understand how the science can go forward through entrepreneurship, innovation and so on. Constantly talking to industry and say what amazing science which is around here and how that can be taken forward. And in between the entire new narrative which has been built or the story which has been built about a deep science entrepreneurship that C-Camp has done, where we have allowed very risky ideas from entrepreneurs who wanted to come and test their ideas. We have done it over the last 10 years and now India has possibly top most ideas in life sciences have come from C-Camp. So that is really, really exciting for us to see that coming through. Yeah, that was my like, I was about to ask this. How have we been able to foster this innovation culture in academia and, you know, research focused areas? Because, you know, all this innovation usually happens with technology based or maybe even social based startups or entrepreneurs. But with academia and science, I mean bringing in the innovation jump start is like a new thing to us. And India, I think the bioscience or life science innovations is on the up. The trajectory is very, very exciting. One of the very important things has to be done in any scenario when you want to really have an extra, you know, exponential jump, you have to take away the fear of failure. And I think an organization which can work with innovators, inventors coming from academia or even outside and give them support and take away the fear of failure and take away the risk associated with such a risky effort. I think that is very, very important. So we had to be a partner with inventors in all those journeys. We had to ensure that the risks that are usually outside, they are unprotected. We had to provide them the protection. We had to build the journeys together and ensure that the movement happens in the right direction. And once they shape up and they find their anchoring solid, I think they roll after that. So it requires early stage and science per se in the scientific movement in life sciences, because of the time it takes to move, it's risky. And hence, there is an environment, nurturing environment required, which CCAM has been able to provide by understanding science, by understanding the market, by understanding the problems and working with government and non-government organizations. You have kind of a pole position in terms of research and development. So how do you wish to maintain that or remain ahead of the curve here? Well, that's a tricky one. And I think something that keeps us going as well. I think our first few years have been for normally, we can say we are blessed and lucky that we had some great outcomes. It largely is because of the amazing team that we have at CCAM. All colleagues have contributed to that. But one thing when we sit back, we always think that how it feels really phenomenally gratifying that some of the innovations that were built over the last 10 years, now they're saving lives. Now they're touching maternal child health and they're touching agriculture, they're touching environment and making a difference in these fields. And something that we feel very, very strongly about in terms of keeping at it, is to go towards how the globally the field is moving, where the newer frontiers of the science is opening and how we also are at it to fetch new ideas to us and then nurture them. How do we attract those ideas? How do we be lucky to have a pole position? How the pole position allow those inventors across India to come to us and say, hey, you are the best place where I can grow my science. You are the best place I can build those innovations. I think it is a collective thing, but we really are looking at new frontiers of science within life sciences, new domains, which will make a huge difference in next 10 to 20 years. We constantly assess those fields and then work on those directly to ensure that we are before or ahead of the curve or at least with them on the curve and not delayed too much. One of the factors you like mentioned for being ahead in the curve was the team. The team is definitely a very vital component. So how do you really manage to get the right combination for this wonderful institute of yours? I think we are phenomenally blessed, to be honest. We are very, very blessed to have many people who have been trained from world-class institutes for their educational degrees and so on. They share the similar passion of utilizing their training into building and enabling to build something a world-class innovation environment here. And they are individually driven in different fields. They come from technical field. They come from non-technical field. All those are coming together. It is about possibly what we can look back and say, it is about we always look at those individuals who have this strong kindness to make contribution after their training. They definitely could have done so much better if they were in corporates. But I think that drive actually matters because that drive keeps us going and that drive keeps CCAM be at the top of things that it is right now. So apart from that, what strategies do you think one should adopt to remain at the forefront in the area of life sciences? Well, what we attempt to do is that possibly we do want to be very deeply involved with the scientific dialogues that is happening both locally and internationally. You talk about in healthcare, if there is a lot of talk about cell therapies, we want to understand and what are the ways one do that. If you want to talk about synthetic biology and its application in agriculture and environment, we want to be at top of it. And we want to see how we can actually possibly foster and encourage the new innovations in that. Do we want to be proactive rather than responding or reactive to those movements? We want to be proactively pulling those innovations and show that we can drive the thought process. Starting a discourse. And then bring those guys in and then helping them forward, which is a very important component. And how do you think this biotech innovation has impacted socially as well as economically? Say the country in terms of economics and in terms of social impact. Correct. So I think life science or biosciences actually is one of the very few fields which has a remarkable impact both socially and economically and something what we are seeing it very closely now. Examples of innovations which are saving neonatal lives a few days after birth is a great example for any innovator to say that you know my innovation is save few lives. That's great social impact. At the same time when they go and raise $10 million and value the company at $100 million or something of that sort that's an economic impact that they are making out of the innovation they have done. Cherry on the top. Cherry on the top, right? The same thing in Agri somebody has developed capabilities to improve the crop production by 30-40 percent. This is helping farmers now not to use the chemicals but still improve the crop. Great social impact. At the same time now they have been raising money from locally and internationally have a revenue of $6 to $8 million valuating more than $100 million. That's an economic impact and that's the life science as a sector is blessed to have where you can actually see the change around you what you do and also economically the country can benefit out of. It's amazing from that perspective. I think one can learn a great deal about life sciences biosciences from you and your organization. What advice would you have for the young professionals who are looking up to you or looking up to this segment and want to make a career or want to go ahead in this? I think it's very important. One of the things that we do see is that this particular entire sector is amazingly gratifying sector to come in. You can make differences socially and economically as well but at the same time what is important is to understand the need. There is usually a global view of a need be it healthcare, agriculture, environment but if you're building innovation you should understand the need very deeply and clearly and that could be a contextual local need and then you build innovation for that and if you're understanding of the need and the technology that you have built if it aligns well the success will be yours. You have to be at it. Do not give it up. There are enough capabilities there are enough organizations who can support you but it is you who will be able to assess and articulate the need for yourself and then build the innovation for that. So the times are amazingly bright for those young kids who want to build innovations in healthcare agree your environment you just need to be very clear try avoiding incremental innovations because it will not take you far be bold, take risk there are enough places to support you if you take risk and I think the rewards can be enormous if you actually can build something like that. Usually the startups are like economically driven but as you just give examples also they can be socially driven also and life sciences in this case is happening also. So how do you suggest them to make the balance between the two? So I think as somebody said that even the most social effort you have to done it so that it is sustainable so even if you're doing it for social good you have to build an economic angle to it so it is sustainable and it doesn't really fall off after a few effort but if something successful it will have economic returns by the way I think if you can actually build something that is solving somebody's problem and if I have an angle of economics in it I think it can do both and you don't need to really say oh no but I do not want economic returns or the other way around. Okay now tell us something about your journey and what made you come into this dream and take up life sciences about it? No surely. So I come from a family with my sister who was a botanist by training and so I grew with my strong liking for biosciences per se and as I grew I took on neuroscience from my doctorate studies and postdoctoral studies at the same time I was at UCSF for my postdoctoral studies and I got exposure through an organization called QB3 for how scientific outcomes and discoveries can be taken to the next level and translated for applications in healthcare and otherwise and I think that exposure in San Francisco was actually game changing in my mindset that how much more can we done with science and I was looking for an opportunity to build such capabilities and I was lucky enough to gather about the opportunity at the time of setting up a CCAM and I got an opportunity to come and help set it up. I think that was phenomenally rewarding and my kudos to visionaries at that time both in DBT and locally here at Baglow LifeSense cluster who actually thought of an organization like this first of its kind in India and give a chance to a youngster like me and I think the journey has been very very much rewarding and I think with my team collectively we all are enjoying the ride where we can see the impact of our efforts on the ground very much both socially and economically. And what have been the challenges that you faced while being on this journey and how you tackled them? So I think challenges is a part of fun but they don't stay in memory I think the fun part is outcomes and they stay in memory but still nonetheless I think the India is actually a growing trajectory and a growing ecosystem in biotech innovation it is not a mature system that leads to a slow movement of science compared to very fast accelerated fast track movement of science that happens in other developed countries and those have been challenges where we want to still address how can we fast track the movement of early scientific ideas early innovation ideas into innovations and not really let them take a little bit more time than they should and build on that and that has been a bigger challenge it's a systemic level and we are hoping that we can achieve it with everyone's support. Where do you see CCAMP a few years down the line and also India's capabilities in biotech sector down the line are we going to be one of the supreme powers in the coming years or how much time will it take as for you? So I think India while we haven't been the clearly the top one or top two of the scientific the ecosystem per se but there have been pockets where we have done phenomenally well the pharmaceutical in terms of the generics we have been a driver of that and we provide the world with affordable generics affordable drugs that we do know of similarly vaccines we provide the largest chunk of vaccines to the world the cost effective vaccines and that has been possible so there have been pockets where we have excelled and our capabilities are supporting now supporting the world at large I see that there are many more opportunities for India within that where we can actually be a world leader in 5 to 10 years one would be diagnostics India has potential and if we do well has potential to now build molecular diagnostics for India and beyond in the same manner with new diagnostics capabilities that has emerged during COVID-19 times another very exciting opportunity is around the corner in digital health how we will be able to build digital health solutions which will be affordable which will be used to strengthen the public health system which will be important for India as well as globally so there are several exciting opportunities pockets which are there and collectively then we will make India one of the superpower in science because we will have to focus on units and then as a one unit overall and CCAM you know possibly see itself as one of the major enabler of that effort be it in diagnostics or based in digital health CCAM wants to be driving that change that India is on to for its own good as well as the global good so that's what CCAM's vision is that's wonderful to know and the spectrum that you presented looks pretty exciting so thank you so much for your time Dr. Thasleem and I'm sure youngsters will be inspired and they will be you know attracted and they will understand much better what this is after going through this conversation and the stories built around this thank you so much for joining us sir pleasure thank you so much for having me so that was Dr. Thasleem who's driving innovation and entrepreneurship in the segment of life sciences through his organization called centre for cellular and molecular platforms which has come up as an enabler of successful bioscience research and entrepreneurship we will be back with more such personalities who are working to make a difference keep watching this space, goodbye