New Delhi: The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) scientist has been awarded Stage 1 grant for her start-up initiative. Dr Garima Jain has been working as a scientist in the Centre for Generic Disorders, BHU. The award has been presented under Amrit Grand Challenge Program titled JAN CARE and is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Dr Jain, founder of “mirNOW”, with her expertise in cancer genomics, aims to improve patient care and outcomes through innovative diagnostic solutions, a BHU statement said adding that mirNOW is working to create tests for early, actionable, and personalized diagnoses for cancer and cardiovascular diseases, with the goal of making these solutions accessible to all.

This start-up, the university added, seeks to identify new biomarkers and provide innovative healthcare solutions. It is one of the 75 Start-Up Innovations selected in this competition in the field of Telemedicine, Digital Health, BIG Data, AI, and Block Chain. 

The Jan Care – Amrit Grand Innovation Challenge was launched by the Indian government jointly with NASSCOM in collaboration with several partners from industry, investors, hospitals and incubator network among others. The programme was aimed at identifying and supporting up to 75 Healthtech Innovations in various areas including Telemedicine and Digital health, from Startups and individuals for strengthening the Healthcare Delivery in India.

Dr Jain in a statement said that MirNOW is dedicated to the discovery, development, and delivery of early diagnostic solutions that can improve and save lives. We are excited to be able to showcase our work in JAN CARE and receive financial support and valuable feedback as we continue to refine and develop our products, she added.

The scientist informed that the grant will be used for developing a diagnostic tool for predicting the malignancy of prostatitis that makes use of miRNA biomarkers and a machine learning-based algorithm.

Professor Anil Kumar Tripathi, Director, Institute of Science, said: “For a country like India, we need many more scientists like Dr Garima who are enthusiastic about deploying advances in scientific knowledge for making healthcare affordable.”

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