India, Australia to team up in path-breaking research

• Leading Australian and Indian researchers, funded by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, are teaming up to pursue ground-breaking ideas, from new non-invasive tools for detecting cancer to better techniques to monitor the health of our oceans.
• With 65 million Australian dollars from the Australian government, and a matching contribution from the government of India, the Fund is powering innovation in critical areas such as oncology, marine science, agriculture, water management and nanotechnology, according to a press release from the Australian High Commission.
• Among the areas of collaboration include cancer diagnosis. A combined team of Indian and Australian scientists are working on developing novel tools to detect cancer non-invasively. The Australian team leader, Associate Professor Wei Duan, explained: "This research will help to overcome the dose-limiting side effects (effects of the drug which prevent higher doses being provided) of current chemotherapy drugs and could provide the basis of an imaging tool for detecting very small tumours." The Indian partner for this venture is the Institute of Life Sciences.