omlog: a blog by Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India!

Service To Society

Mr. S. Alagiri, Special Executive, Fund Raising at Sankara Nethralaya coordinated "Service to Society," a special gathering at Sankara Nethralaya, on February 17.

Mrs. Vasantben C. Shah, wife of Mr. C.B. Shah graciously presented the institution a check for Rs. 5 lakhs to fund the corpus that will help support Sankara Nethralaya's community out-reach program.

Mrs. Shah recently underwent ophthalmic surgery under the care of Dr. G. Sitalakshmi, a senior consultant at Sankara Nethralaya. Mr. C.B. Shah, an industrialist and philanthropist is a friend and well wisher of Sankara Nethralaya. The members of the Shah family and their friends and associates were in full attendance.

Dr. S.S. Badrinath welcomed the guests and presented Mr. & Mrs. Shah with shawls and mementoes. The Shah family in turn presented a silver plaque to Dr. S.S. Badrinath and his dedicated team on this occasion. Mr. Chandrakant Sanghvi, a close associate of Mr. C.B. Shah cited the yeomen service that Sankara Nethralaya provides the citizens of India.

It was a grand get-together of the members of Sankara Nethralaya and the Shah family.

Major Shift

"When the bandage was removed from my eyes. I was seeing better than ever in my life. Looking at my wife I realized what a beautiful woman (both inside and outside) I had been married all these years. Thanks to Sankara Nethralaya and its most dedicated and competent team." -- Maj. Gen. H.N.Shingal

Tele-ophthalmology and Indian Railways

On February 19, 2004 Sankara Nethralaya and the Railway Hospital in Perambur, Tamil Nadu established a digital link to screen patients for eye problems.

"With the introduction of the facility, railway employees with eye defects, sitting at the Perambur hospital, can interact with ophthalmologists at Sankara Nethralaya."

A True Fellow

We are happy to tell you that Dr. Ashok Rangarajan, Consultant, General Ophthalmology has passed the FRCS (Glasgow) examination. Nearly one-third of 60 consultants at Sankara Nethralaya are now Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons.

World Class Research

A memorandum of understanding was signed by Prof. H. N. Madhavan, Director of Research, Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya and Prof. Yuichi Mori, Advanced Research Centre for Science & Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

Prof. Mori, a polymer scientist and CEO of Mebiol, Inc., Japan, has developed several products using polymer material for medical use. He has to his credit more than 245 research publications and over 95 patents. Among them is the newly developed Mebiol gel. This is an aqueous solution of thermo reversible gelation polymer (TGP), which turns into hydorgel upon heating and liquefies upon cooling.

The MOU was signed for a study on the influence of Mebiol Gel in the cultivation of animal and human cells and viral infections. At our L&T Microbiology Research Centre, Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, a study was carried out to determine the influence exerted by the gel on the growth of the standard continuous tissue and cell cultures maintained in the tissue culture laboratory. Six of them were selected for the variability of their origin in relation to species, organ tissue and the tissue type such as from normal and malignant tissues. It was found that Mebiol gel does have varying influences on the growth characteristics of these cell lines.

The experiments designed in this study could be used for studies at the molecular levels of cells migrating out of the gel, by collecting them at intervals of time of their growth. As the gel is found to have selective effect in allowing the growth of cells outside its own environment, the method can be used for selectively growing cells from organ tissues. The future use of the gel in such respects is enormous. Since the study at the L&T Microbiology Research Centre, has shown results of great value, the agreement between Vision Research Foundation, Chennai, India and Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan was reached for in vitro studies on the characteristics of growth of cells from eye tissues and animal cells using Mebiol Gel.

In this research project with Waseda Univeristy and Mebiol Inc., it is proposed that we:

1) determine the growth characteristics of cells from the continuous cell & tissue cultures using Mebiol Gel
2) determine the growth characteristics of cells from the tissues of the eye using Mebiol Gel
3) study the growth characteristics of viruses in specific cell types with in the environment of Mebiol Gel

Also present at the February 9, 2004 signing were the Consul General of Japan, Mr. Kikichi and Dr. Samuel J.K. Abraham, cardio vascular surgeon from Yamanashi Medical University, Japan.

Sound Advice from Kellogg's Best

Bala Balachandran, J.L. Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Information Systems and Decision Sciences Kellogg School of Management spoke to the senior Management Team of Sankara Nethralaya on “Activity based Management” on operational Excellence, Customer intimacy, strategic and Total Cost Management on February 6, 2004.

The Participants were humbled by his inspiring lecture on focusing business strategy, in particular strengthening Sankara Nethralaya's business plans in the coming years.

You, We, IT and US

Dr. Jyotirmoy Biswas, UVEA consultant and Head of the Department of Pathology at Sankara Nethralaya, has been elected as President of the UVEITIS Society of India at its meeting held at Chandigarh on February 5, 2004. The Sankara Nethralaya family heartily congratulates Dr. J. Biswas for this feat.

Free Eye Surgery For Children

The Hindu reported on February 5 that Sankara Nethralaya will perform eye surgeries on 1,000 needy children in 2004. Standard Chartered Bank has donated Rs. 12.5 lakh toward this project. If live in the US and you are interested in contributing, please contact Dev Acharya, Treasurer of Ophthalmic Mission Trust.