Professor Nagi Kumar - OHSL

Nagi Kumar, senior member/professor in the Division of Population Sciences at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in the University of South Florida. Kumar emphasized the need for precompetitive collaboration, and affirmed the significance of evaluating in silico drug design in the development of botanicals and biologics for cancer treatment and prevention. Despite outstanding infrastructure and the large number of botanicals and biologics identified, there are not enough research scientists and clinicians who would translate the data into applications. There is also no established system of sharing this information among researchers and clinicians. A joint Indo-US effort should result in an infrastructure of trans-disciplinary core takeholders; a larger number of research scientists interested and committed to lower the cancer burden in India and the US; research partnerships between cancer research scientists and clinicians in India and the US; partnerships between Indian and US Cancer research organizations; identification of funding; and efficient translation of the discoveries into standards of clinical practice that will ultimately impact cancer morbidity and mortality. There is also an urgent need to find a more productive way to develop drugs through cooperation among industry, academia, government, and philanthropic organizations. There are many opportunities for collaboration between India and the US, including establishing a repository for botanicals and biologics, setting up team science consortia, and initiating collaborative research projects.