It is our utmost pleasure to share that Prof. Kamendra P. Sharma, Prof. Shobhna Kapoor, and the team have won the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) grant. The research proposal selected for the BIG-21 grant ‘Highly Deformable and Elastic 3D Porous Scaffolds for Bone and Cartilage Repair/Regeneration under High Mechanical Loading’ also received a WRCB grant in 2022.   

BIG, a flagship program of BIRAC provides funding support to young startups and potential entrepreneurs. It is the largest funding program in India for early-stage biotechs and is awarded to the best innovative ideas to build and refine ideas to proof-of-concept. Successful awardees receive up to INR 50 lakh for translational research projects.  

Prof. Sharma and Prof. Kapoor are Associate Professors at the Dept of Chemistry, IIT Bombay. Prof. Sharma’s group works in the field of self-assembly of colloidal systems with a focus on the design and development of hybrid soft materials followed by investigating their structure-property-function relationship. Prof. Kapoor works in the field of Molecular Membrane Biophysics and Cell Chemical Biology, with a focus on infectious diseases and lately mechanobiology.  

Hearty congratulations, Prof. Sharma, Prof. Kapoor and team!