India conducted clinical trials for 'haemophilia A' gene therapy: Science and Technology minister

India has conducted the first human clinical trial of gene therapy for 'haemophilia A' at Christian Medical College - Vellore, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

Singh said the trials involved deploying a novel technology of using a lentiviral vector to express a FVIII transgene in the patient's own haematopoietic stem cell that will then express FVIII from specific differentiated blood cells.

Addressing a National Science Day function in the national capital, the minister expressed hope that manufacturing of this vector will commence in India soon and proceed with further clinical trials.

Singh said India is ready to match the global standards in quantum technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning. ''We are not only on the same page but, in some ways, even ahead of others,'' he said and added that scientists are also using human interface at different levels to enhance the effectiveness of artificial intelligence.

Singh also unveiled a compendium of SATHI Clusters by felicitating the heads of IIT - Hyderabad, BITS - Pilani, ICT - Mumbai and released a white paper on ''Evolution: Catalysing Technology-led Ecosystem for Bharat e-Mobility''.

National Science Day is celebrated on February 28 every year to commemorate the discovery of the 'Raman Effect'. On this day, Sir CV Raman announced the discovery of the 'Raman Effect', for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.

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