IBS Bioinformatics-Shanku group plans new venture

Intelligent Business Systems (IBS), a provider of enterprise solutions and artificial intelligence technologies along with Shanku's group, will be setting up a research centre for bioinformatics and a production plant either in Vadodara or Ahmedabad.

The research centre would be set up in June this year and the production plant would be setup towards the end of the year in association with the Government of Gujarat.

IBS and Shanku's group have begun scouting for 10-12 acres for the proposed research centre and plant for research outsourcing. Close to Rs 30 crore has been earmarked for the venture. Technologies to facilitate the synthesis of molecules and other processes would be sourced from a US company.

IBS has just acquired a small Mumbai-based trading and distribution company for the marketing and sales of the venture. IBS is in the process of moving this company to Gujarat.

"We will be recruiting 5-7 scientists initially in June and will ramp it up to 50-60 in the next two years for our research centre where we intend to explore pharmacology, metabolic stability and metabolic profiling molecules, " said Kaustubh Chokshi, CEO, IBS.

The Centre for Biometrics would specialise in research and data analysis, which would be used to understand genomic and proteomic data.

It will deal with computer-aided drug discovery, drug interaction and bio-analysis. It proposes to collaborate with academia to improve medication and healthcare delivery.

Intelligent Business Systems through IBS Bioinformatics will develop proprietary software to design new proteins with novel functions.

The research and development facility will have a high-throughput cell-based assays for measuring the effectiveness of small molecule and protein based drugs among other facilities.

Using artificial intelligence algorithm and the mathematical approach, the centre would research modern medicine applications and therapy development for individuals responding adversely to one or more drugs, predicting disease and treatment outcomes.

It will also be involved in improving economic and practical efficiencies in healthcare delivery, computationally completing genome sequence analysis and comparative genomics, protein interaction maps using gene fusion events and other research activities.